BIG 12 CONFERENCE BIG 12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 20, 2021

Chris Beard

Texas Longhorns

Media Day Press Conference

CHRIS BEARD: It's just great to see many of you. Obviously the last couple years with the COVID-infected seasons, we haven't done one of these in a long time. Lots of emotion coming back here, thinking all we've been through. Great to see many of you in person for the first time in a while.

Exciting time of the year for all of us involved in college basketball. I'm sure many of you feel the same way. We're looking forward to the first season at the University of Texas, really proud of the team we're going to put on the floor here in a few days.

I'm joined today by Marcus Carr and Timmy Allen, two of our players. Personally I wish we could bring more than just two guys because we have so many stories on this year's team, so many players I would like to connect with the national media sooner than later.

Marcus and Timmy and I will represent a lot of people here today with our program.

Our team is a work in progress. We have a lot of experience. I think that would be the identity of our team. But we're the first to tell you we're really inexperienced playing together, so it's kind of like experienced/inexperienced, if that makes sense.

The guys are trying really hard. We're about halfway through our practices. Finally get to play some outside competition here in the next few days with a closed-door scrimmage, then an exhibition game.

Really excited to coach this year's group in Austin. Players I have a lot of respect for, and I really enjoy coaching this team so far. It's been a lot of fun. Again, can't wait for you guys to meet Marcus and Timmy in person.

Q. You mentioned the other day about rat poison. What do you think about the No. 5 ranking in the AP poll? Do you think the guys see Gonzaga at No. 1, as the early 1 versus 5?

CHRIS BEARD: I can't speak for the guys, questions for them. The question to me with the ranking is, it's going to sound a little bit coaching cliché, but it's just true, I really spend zero time, zero, concentrating on anything like that.

A few years ago I didn't even have social media and all that. When I was coaching at Angelo State, I couldn't even tell you the pre-season rankings and all that. At Little Rock, the A.D. made me get Twitter. In the early years in Lubbock, my daughters were firing up the social media.

Now, to say we don't know those things wouldn't be truthful. It is truthful to tell you we spend zero time talking about pre-season rankings and things like that. I think what matters most is the post reason rankings. That's certainly what we're going to work towards hard this first year.

If you're ever going to win the fight, you got to be in the fight. I think the first year it's always a challenge to be in the fight. I'm confident that we will be.

I think we have a team that can play with anybody in the country. We have a long ways to go to get there. The roster we put together gives us a chance to be more than competitive year one.

Q. Obviously you've been in the Big 12, able to see some of the rivalries that go on. You're part of one of the most storied ones in all of college sports, between Texas and OU. How excited are you to coach in those games in the coming years?

CHRIS BEARD: This is my 16th year in the Big 12. I was 10 years an assistant for Coach Knight, Pat, five years in Lubbock, now I've been part of the Texas-OU games for a long time.

This year, a lot of respect for Porter. We grew up kind of coaching in the same times. Got a lot of fond memories of Porter. I was at Little Rock, followed Porter, with a coach between us. Somebody I have a lot of respect for.

I'm looking forward to the competition of those games. But there's a lot of personal in that game, too, because of my respect for Porter.

Q. With all the conference realignment, talk about getting your team ready for the hostility that's probably going to be more than normal for Texas. Texas brings hostility in opposing fans. How do you prepare your team for that?

CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, fair question.

When you play at Texas, you're going to be a big game on everyone's schedule. For some people maybe the biggest game, but for everyone it's a big game. Comes with a lot of responsibility. We tell our guys all the time everybody can't play or coach at Texas. But it's similar to a lot of schools in our league.

I think this year with the coaching change, with the move to the SEC at some point, is there going to be some extra stuff? Yes. I think what we do with our team is consistent with one of the key pillars of our culture, what we call truth telling. We're not going to talk about anything other than reality.

We've already begun talking to our players about how difficult it's going to be to do the things that we'd like to do. But it's really no different than anywhere else I've ever coached. If you're going to try to be in the fight, then you have to understand you're going to have to overcome a lot of adversity.

I think this year there will be some adversity on the road, no doubt.

Q. Can you talk about whether the buy-in to play the kind of defense you want, what that has been like, especially with so many high-profile guys coming in via transfer who can score the ball?

CHRIS BEARD: Pretty well. It starts for us in recruiting. You can ask Marcus and Timmy today. We were talking about our non-negotiables. The first conversation in recruiting, some of those things included we're going to defend.

To me it's never been about trying to talk great players into doing anything. Great players want to win, period. Great players want to be coached, period. Great players want to be told the truth, in my experience, period.

The reality of it in our sport, college basketball, you have to defend to win. You can win some games, you might win a tournament trophy here and there, but to play for the real deal you're going to have to have a defense.

I was telling the guys the other day, I really believe this, you get to March, you're trying to win six games in three weekends. To do that to me you have to have a defense. I don't think there's ever been a team that had six offensive nights in that tournament.

For us, our season, first year, inexperience playing together, all these new pieces. We're going to have to have a backbone of defense that can kind of get us started early, then certainly the season always ends with having a good defense. I told the players the other day this whole thing starts with defense and it will end in defense, if we can play in that last game, which we all strive to do.

Really, really easy to talk about, but extremely difficult to get there. To me if you're not willing to talk about something openly then it's not real. We do talk about trying to play six games in the last tournament of the year.

Q. You have a lot of really good players this year. How do you feel like your team is going to handle that some of the good players won't be in the rotation?

CHRIS BEARD: I think all our players will be in the rotation that are striving to get there. Just like every team, we have people that have to run their own race.

This year's first Texas team is a 4-8-3 model. Make sure I have my math right. Four returners, guys I would have recruited if they were in the portal, high school or anywhere else. A lot of respect for Shaka and the job he did in Austin. So we really benefit from these four players having played for Shaka and played at Texas.

The 8 are the eight transfers. A lot of those guys have a lot of experience. We're looking forward to those guys being a part of it.

Then we have three freshmen this year, including one walk-on.

In our program, just like any other program, especially in this league, we don't sit around and give out anything. You get what you earn.

So with our players, I think everybody understands what they have to do to get the role they're trying to get.