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Let’s Speculate! Potential Texas Tech head basketball coach candidates

Welcome to Let’s Speculate! on Coaches Database, where we go through programs that are or may soon be looking for a new head coach and speculate who they may hire next.

Today’s program is Texas Tech, coached by Chris Beard for the last six seasons (left for Texas on April 1).

  • Grant McCasland – North Texas head coach
    • A rising star in college basketball, McCasland won an outright Conference USA title in his third season up I-35 at North Texas. A native of Irving, TX, McCasland played at Baylor and has spent most of his coaching career in the Lone Star State – prior gigs include include assisting James Dickey at Texas Tech and Scott Drew at Baylor, as well as being the head coach Midland College and D-II Midwestern State. It won’t be long before the 44-year-old to gets the call up to the highest level, and Texas Tech would be smart to keep him squarely at the top of the list.
  • Joe Golding – Abilene Christian head coach
    • Golding has done a tremendous job at his alma mater, taking over just before the transition to D-I and leading the Wildcats to two NCAA Tournaments in the last three years. Just last month, his ACU squad took down the Longhorns in an opening round upset that likely signaled the end of Shaka Smart’s tenure and indirectly put Tech in this situation. He is a proven winner, though he has yet to coach at a Power Five school (not even as an assistant) so that probably moves him down the pecking order a little bit.
  • Mark Adams – Texas Tech associate head coach
    • The architect of the Red Raiders’ staunch defense, Adams has been a key member of the staff since Beard arrived and was promoted to associate head coach just last year. Adams has been with Beard since 2015 and had an earlier stint at Tech as Tubby Smith‘s DBO from 2013-15. He’s got head coaching experience, albeit mostly at the lower levels, and it is possible he will follow Beard to Austin. But Adams makes a lot of sense as head coach and may be able to help maintain some consistency in a program that is currently suffering a mass exodus of talent.
  • Chris Ogden – Texas-Arlington head coach
    • Ogden was an assistant under Beard at Texas Tech for two years before he got his current gig. In his first year at Texas-Arlington, his Mavericks finished 2nd (12-6) in the Sun Belt and Ogden was named Sun Belt COY. He was a long-time assistant under Rick Barnes, whom he played for at Texas (he was part of the Longhorns’ 2003 Final Four squad). He worked at his alma mater for 12 years, working his way up from student assistant to full-time assistant coach, then spent one year with Barnes at Tennessee before coming back to his home state.
  • John Beilein – former Michigan head coach
    • After leaving his position with the Cavaliers, Beilein immediately became the subject of speculation that he would be looking to take another collegiate job. He has an undeniable resume and would be an absolute home run hire for any program, and Texas Tech presents a great opportunity to come in and win for a few years to cap off his career. The flip side, however, is that he is already 68 years old and likely won’t spend much more than 5-7 years at whatever school hires him.
  • Chris Jans – New Mexico State head coach
    • Jans has been at NM State since 2017 and during his tenure he has won three WAC regular season titles, been to the NCAA Tournament twice and has an impressive overall record of 95-25. A major program is going to hire him at some point soon and he definitely makes sense for Tech. He does come with some baggage, having been fired after one season at Bowling Green after being caught on video making inappropriate, drunken comments to a woman in an off-campus bar. He also has close ties to former Wichita State head coach (recently disgraced after reports of physical abuse of WSU players and coaches came to light) Gregg Marshall. But the former didn’t stop NMSU from hiring him and both of those things are unlikely to keep a high-major program from taking a shot at him, either. Winning has a tendency to cause ADs to overlook things like that.