AUSTIN, Texas — Multiple reports indicate Texas is hiring Texas Tech coach Chris Beard as its new men's head basketball coach.
Beard, 48, will replace Shaka Smart, who resigned to take the vacant Marquette job last week.
Stadium and CBSSports.com both have reported the hiring, which would be the first time Texas has hired a basketball coach from a Big 12 competitor since joining the conference.
Beard is a Texas graduate who had been the Red Raiders' head basketball coach since 2016. He led them to the national championship game in 2019, where they were beaten in overtime by Virginia.
After that historic trip to the Final Four -- the first in Tech history -- Beard signed a six-year contract extension worth more than $4.5 million. It made him the third highest paid coach in the nation.
Beard has a career record of 207-84. He previously was head coach at McMurry, Angelo State and Arkansas-Little Rock. He was a graduate assistant at Texas under Tom Penders from 1991-95.
