Little Rock’s coach is one of the breakout stars of March Madness
Little Rock’s shocking 12-over-5 upset of the Purdue Boilermakers stands as the most thrilling game of the tournament’s first day so far, a terrific come-from-behind double-overtime win full of dramatic moments and incredible clutch shooting from senior guard Josh Hagins. Yet it’s possible the biggest breakout star for Little Rock wasn’t Hagins, but first-year head coach Chris Beard.
As our Kyle Ringo explained on Wednesday, Beard has already shown a lot of personality in recent weeks. Beard, a longtime assistant of Bobby Knight at Texas Tech, shares his mentor’s intensity. In fact, he injured himself during the Sun Belt championship game:
Knight, who is famous for throwing a chair across the court during one of his epic tantrums at Indiana, once told Beard never to throw chairs. Beard remembered that advice last week at halftime during the Sun Belt Conference championship game against Louisiana-Monroe. He wasn’t pleased with his players and wanted to send a message. So instead of throwing a chair in the locker room, he decided to punch a dry erase board.
He broke his right hand.
His bandages were easy to spot during Thursday’s big win, particularly during this celebratory gesture:
Don’t worry, though — Beard had plenty more ways to celebrate Little Rock’s first NCAA tournament win since an upset of Notre Dame in 1986. He started by kissing the center-court logo:
And then he moshed with his team in the locker room:
There is evidence that Beard could become more than this year’s highly meme-able answer to Georgia State’s Ron Hunter. Little Rock entered the tournament at 29-4 following a 13-18 season last year as Beard brought 10 new players into the fold. He has lots of supporters on the national scene and could get job offers from major-conference schools as soon as this offseason.
For now, though, he and Little Rock are the darlings of March Madness. Expect more shenanigans Saturday when they face No. 4 seed Iowa State.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
