I am under the impression that Beard's best work at Tech was a quick rebuild, so I felt like he was well-suited to build up some success from a largely empty roster. I think he had a better off-season than season, however. It feels like we're going from one rebuilding season to another and I hope we can get some greater consistency down the road. He can also only attract talent with the 'we want to play for a national championship' line for so long without actually playing for a national championship.
Good writeup! I always thought that Roy Williams had a good approach to roster building--he didn't seem like he was trying to maximize each year (e.g. with a lot of one and dones), but instead he would build up a team over a few years, and then compete for a national championship every 4-6 years with really good teams. That is, I think he sacrificed one or two years of relative competitiveness in order to increase the quality of his team every 4-6 years (whether this was intentional or not I don't really know).
I think with the way the world works now - and this contributed to Roy retiring - the old method of building entirely through HS recruiting is pretty much dead. Also even in Roy's lesser teams, they were still like a 4-seed in March (only twice in his UNC tenure did they make the tourney as lower than a 6) so they were still pretty great. A mixture of recruiting & portal work makes sense, I'd just like to see more continuity going forward because the list of coaches who can make massive overhauls every season and compete for titles is exceedingly small; those who do are usually overhauling with lottery talent, too. It's like, Calipari and Coach K, and that's about it.
I really like your write-ups. I wish I had your basketball acumen. One question: You have occasionally mentioned Beard "running players off". Could you elaborate on that?
Beard has only had two scholarship players 3+ years in his Tech/Texas tenure, and the last three top-50 freshmen he's recruited to Tech/Texas have all left before their first year was done. He churns the roster faster than most coaches; the reasons are myriad and since most of my knowledge on the inner workings are second or third-hand I don't want to speak definitively on the reason(s) why, suffice it to say that even before there was a one-time free transfer, players were still leaving at a higher rate than normal. He is a very intense coach, and he has a bit of the old-school style of coaching in his blood, but while he spent a decade under Bobby Knight I don't want to paint with that broad of a brush. Let's just say it's a known pattern with his rosters over the years and I would expect it to continue going forward unless he changes his style or recruits more players willing to deal with that level of intensity.
Watching KU v. UNC last night, I was struck by how much I love running basketball. Slow down ball of any variety increases the chances for a lesser team to stay within striking distance and is a fitting strategy for TT, or UALR. That is Beard's play.
To build a fast breaking unit where everyone is on board with every one else takes multi-year base rosters, although adding a Wilson and a Remy Martin or a Brady Manek to the mix spices it nicely. If Beard had a roster that COULD play like second half KU last night, would he let them?
Obviously a stupid question when no such roster is in sight, I understand.
Beard has yet to have a team which plays in the top-200 nationally in adjusted tempo, his team averages 291st in this stat so he's regularly in the bottom 20% of the country in pushing the ball up the court. You could give him this year's Kansas squad and they'd probably score 7 PPG fewer than they did under Self. I don't think Beard will ever really get out and run, though I would desperately love to be proven wrong in this regard.
Insightful and informative, as we’ve come to count on you to provide—thanks!
I am under the impression that Beard's best work at Tech was a quick rebuild, so I felt like he was well-suited to build up some success from a largely empty roster. I think he had a better off-season than season, however. It feels like we're going from one rebuilding season to another and I hope we can get some greater consistency down the road. He can also only attract talent with the 'we want to play for a national championship' line for so long without actually playing for a national championship.
Good writeup! I always thought that Roy Williams had a good approach to roster building--he didn't seem like he was trying to maximize each year (e.g. with a lot of one and dones), but instead he would build up a team over a few years, and then compete for a national championship every 4-6 years with really good teams. That is, I think he sacrificed one or two years of relative competitiveness in order to increase the quality of his team every 4-6 years (whether this was intentional or not I don't really know).
I think with the way the world works now - and this contributed to Roy retiring - the old method of building entirely through HS recruiting is pretty much dead. Also even in Roy's lesser teams, they were still like a 4-seed in March (only twice in his UNC tenure did they make the tourney as lower than a 6) so they were still pretty great. A mixture of recruiting & portal work makes sense, I'd just like to see more continuity going forward because the list of coaches who can make massive overhauls every season and compete for titles is exceedingly small; those who do are usually overhauling with lottery talent, too. It's like, Calipari and Coach K, and that's about it.
I really like your write-ups. I wish I had your basketball acumen. One question: You have occasionally mentioned Beard "running players off". Could you elaborate on that?
Beard has only had two scholarship players 3+ years in his Tech/Texas tenure, and the last three top-50 freshmen he's recruited to Tech/Texas have all left before their first year was done. He churns the roster faster than most coaches; the reasons are myriad and since most of my knowledge on the inner workings are second or third-hand I don't want to speak definitively on the reason(s) why, suffice it to say that even before there was a one-time free transfer, players were still leaving at a higher rate than normal. He is a very intense coach, and he has a bit of the old-school style of coaching in his blood, but while he spent a decade under Bobby Knight I don't want to paint with that broad of a brush. Let's just say it's a known pattern with his rosters over the years and I would expect it to continue going forward unless he changes his style or recruits more players willing to deal with that level of intensity.
Watching KU v. UNC last night, I was struck by how much I love running basketball. Slow down ball of any variety increases the chances for a lesser team to stay within striking distance and is a fitting strategy for TT, or UALR. That is Beard's play.
To build a fast breaking unit where everyone is on board with every one else takes multi-year base rosters, although adding a Wilson and a Remy Martin or a Brady Manek to the mix spices it nicely. If Beard had a roster that COULD play like second half KU last night, would he let them?
Obviously a stupid question when no such roster is in sight, I understand.
Beard has yet to have a team which plays in the top-200 nationally in adjusted tempo, his team averages 291st in this stat so he's regularly in the bottom 20% of the country in pushing the ball up the court. You could give him this year's Kansas squad and they'd probably score 7 PPG fewer than they did under Self. I don't think Beard will ever really get out and run, though I would desperately love to be proven wrong in this regard.