BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 19, 2022

Chris Beard

Texas Longhorns

Media Day Press Conference

COACH BEARD: I don't know if any coach is comfortable in October. The season's right around the corner. But I want to thank everybody for being here today. Big 12 Media Day, in a lot of ways, is the start of college basketball.

Appreciate what you guys do for our sport, for our league, with the best league in college basketball, in my opinion.

And also for our players. I know today's a lot about telling the individual stories of our players. So I want to thank you in advance for doing that.

14-man roster in Austin right now. Three of those 14 players will represent us today. I'm proud to be with those guys and looking forward to you guys having a chance to meet them and learn more about their individual stories and also our team's story.

But certainly Brock Cunningham is one of the all-time greats in the Big 12. He's a veteran. He's a graduate of the University of Texas. He's working on post grad and taking advantage of the extra years in college basketball. I think he might even have a year after this. So turn him into like a Rodney Dangerfield dude, like a decade in Texas.

Brock's a special guy. I look forward to you guys spending time with him. Tyrese Hunter, one of our new players, transfers this year, he's doing a great job in Austin. Look forward to competing with him on the court. He's an outstanding person. Did a great job at Iowa State in this league last year and coaches there did a great job with him. We look forward to Tyrese having a second year in our league.

Thirdly, we're joined by one of our freshmen, we have five freshmen, two redshirt freshmen. Dillon Mitchell is here, a guy I'm looking forward to coaching. He's doing a great job early in his journey, a guy who I think can impact winning at Texas early in his career.

Q. The guys that came back from last year that got the experience of winning in March, how do you see that manifest itself? What benefits from winning in March have you seen throughout the offseason and throughout the early part of practice?

COACH BEARD: I think from a coaching standpoint it's always nice to have returning players. This time last year we were busy working at building a culture, building a team. Year two, it's more about defending the culture and executing it daily. A lot of that comes down to returning players you have.

This year's team is kind of a 7-7 model for us. We've got seven veteran players, all of them have played in the NCAA Tournament. All have won in the NCAA Tournament. All of them have played in championship-type games in their years. And we have seven freshmen including four in this recruiting class.

I think with the returners, so many benefits from that. With our this year specifically it's not just about those guys returning and as guys that played and won in the NCAA Tournament last year. It's more about the exact guys that we wanted back. Each of them chose to come back to Texas for the right reasons.

I think each of them saw value in coming back. And we feel like we have a lot of unfinished business together. But those five guys that returned, three all-conference players. A healthy Dylan Disu, in my mind can be an all-conference player, and certainly Brock Cunningham, again one of the all-time Big 12 greats. Those five guys give us a chance to be more than relative as returners.

You add the two transfers, Jabari Rice and Tyrese Hunter, two guys that really were our top choices in recruiting. Talented guys but also winners, again guys that have played in the NCAA Tournament, won in the NCAA Tournament and played for great coaches.

So those seven veterans combined with our young guys, I think that's where this source of optimism is right now in our program that we can be more than relative year two.

Q. As you're kind of going into year two now at Texas and trying to build obviously the culture that you want to build, what's similar and what's different from year two of when you were at Texas Tech?

COACH BEARD: To think back to that, I try to live every day where my feet are so I don't spend a lot of time, especially this time of year, reflecting. But I want to be accurate in what I say.

I think the first-year team wherever you coach, for me Angelo State, Little Rock, a lot of places along the way, Texas Tech, the first year team you have a lot of great memories of. I was really proud of our first team in Austin for sure.

Did a lot of great things last year building the program in year one that didn't show up on the scoreboard. Increased attendance. Sold-out games in the student section. We did a lot of things building the program year one.

So reflecting back in Lubbock, I think year one was a huge success. Thinking back to some of those guys like Anthony Livingston some of the players that helped us get it started. Year two we played in the Elite Eight.

So to compare the two journeys is impossible, something I really don't have the time to do. But I know this, year two is really important in Austin because we have really good players, we have a great fan base. We're excited to compete in what I again believe is the best league in college basketball right now.

Q. May be hard to believe but just going back in the history of the conference, this is the first time that all four Texas schools, even going back to when A&M was in the conference, were ranked in the AP preseason Top 25. What does it say about the quality of those programs and the state of basketball in Texas?

COACH BEARD: Those are things that are always personal to me. I like those questions. Those are the things I think about. I grew up in Irving, Texas, my hometown. Obviously I went to the University of Texas, and I've had the pleasure and privilege of coaching a lot of schools in this state. I'm a Texan period.

And thinking back where basketball was when I was in high school played two Hall of Fame schools in Mike Kunstadt and Terry Priest in two cities in the Dallas area and Houston area. And basketball has grown so much. In fact when I was a high school player we really couldn't play AAU because of the rules.

I couldn't go to basketball camps after I played a varsity game. Now thinking today where the Texas players get to benefit playing in the spring, summer showcases, the access coaches have, the one-hour activity period. There's just a lot of growth.

Your question about the success of college basketball in Texas, I give a lot of that credit to the high school coaches and the grassroots coaches. Undeniably the best AAU basketball in our country is in Texas. That's not even disputable in a lot of ways.

I think it all starts with the coaching and the grassroots in high school basketball -- and to see college basketball to follow suit. But I would agree. Think about what Coach Sampson has going at Houston. Proud of what Coach Adams has going in Lubbock, and Coach Drew just won a championship.

I don't want to leave anybody out. Jamie has one of the best teams in college basketball coming back, and on and on again. All the way down to the mid-major level.

So college basketball is real in Texas. Me, personally, I reflect back to the high school coaches and AAU coaches and the jobs they're doing.

Q. It was reported a week or so ago that the NBA is possibly moving back toward the 18 draft age. With that, I have two a two-part question. Firstly, what are your general thoughts with that, and how do you think it will affect your recruiting approach?

COACH BEARD: I'm not great with the two-part questions. The ADD kicks in.

The first one, with the NBA draft age, I just really try to control what we can control. Those decisions aren't up to me.

I think personally, as a basketball fan, a basketball guy, it makes sense to me. I think the best players should be able to take the path that they want. I know a lot of that comes down to the NBA moves and things like that. We just adjust.

One thing, I know about college basketball, we adjust. They change the rules on us often in our sport. Always thrives. You hear from time to time is this going to kill the NCAA Tournament? I don't think anything will ever kill the NCAA Tournament. College basketball is always about players. There's always going to be players in college basketball.

Q. How do you think it will affect your recruiting?

COACH BEARD: It will definitely affect recruiting. Obviously the portal, the last couple of years, now name, image, likeness and things like this, there's always changing factors in recruiting. Certainly if the NBA rules changes back, most of us, myself included, recruited and coached in college basketball when there was the ability for high school players to go straight to the draft and change back. So a lot of it will be going back to our old philosophies before it changed.

But it will definitely change that because you've got to know what prospects you can go after.