by Texas men’s basketball coach Chris Beard has been issued a protective order and is facing felony assault charges after a woman said he strangled her early Monday morning, Austin police said.
Beard, 49, is accused of assaulting a family member at a house in the 1900 block of Vista Lane, according to police. He faces a third-degree felony charge of assaulting a family member/family member-impaired circulation of breath. He is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Officers responded at 12:15 p.m. Monday to a 911 call about a disturbance that was no longer ongoing at a home in West Austin’s Tarrytown neighborhood, police said. The caller said one of those involved had left the house, where officers located a woman who she said Beard attacked and strangled her, police said.
Beard was arrested in the Travis County Jail at 4:18 am, according to the sheriff’s office. He made his first court appearance on Monday and was released after posting $10,000 bond.
A judge has also issued protective orders in the case. Beard is not permitted to be within 200 meters of the woman he is accused of assaulting while the case is ongoing, and under an emergency order that expires on Feb. 10, he is not permitted to be within 200 meters from his home, possess a firearm, or communicate in a threatening manner with the woman.
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After leaving prison, Beard did not answer reporters’ questions. His attorney, Perry Minton, told Austin television station KEYE-TV on Monday morning that Beard is “100 percent innocent of these allegations.”
“He should never have been arrested,” Minton said in a prepared statement. “The complainant wants him released immediately and all charges dropped. It’s really inconceivable.”
A University of Texas spokesperson released a statement on Monday that it did not provide any information about Beard’s status with the team.
“The University is aware of the situation regarding Chris Beard. We are continuing to gather information and monitor the legal process.”
After five seasons at Texas Tech, Beard became the head coach of the Texas Longhorns, his alma mater, in 2021. He has a 29-13 record in two seasons and led the Longhorns to 7-1 with wins on three teams Rated: Gonzaga, Arkansas and Creighton. Texas ranked second in the country before dropping to seventh after the team fell to Illinois last week, its first loss of the season.
Texas will play Rice at 7 p.m. Monday at the Moody Center in Austin, followed by a trip to Dallas Sunday to face Stanford at the American Airlines Center.
Who is Chris Barba?
Beard began his coaching journey as a graduate assistant for the Longhorns in 1991. The road back to his alma mater has been nothing short of a long and winding one.
After leaving Texas in 1995, Beard spent time as an assistant at Abilene Christian and North Texas. He was the head coach in two different junior varsity programs. He also spent a year coaching the South Carolina Warriors, a semi-professional team. Head coaching stints at McMurry University in Abilene and Angelo State in San Angelo came later, before Beard began his Division I head coaching career at Arkansas-Little Rock.
By the time he joined Texas Tech in 2016, he had built a reputation as a defensive mastermind, with teams at every stop embodying his philosophy.
“They’re really good at reaching and hitting and digging things out there,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said of the Red Raiders in 2019. “So it’s real. That defense is real.”
As well as Beard’s coaching rise. He has described himself and his teams as underdogs, but that title lost some relevance after Beard led Tech to a national title game in 2019.
Despite losing to Virginia 85-77 in overtime, Beard had established himself as one of the most talked about coaches in the nation. When Texas and former head coach Shaka Smart parted ways in 2021, Beard was the clear target.
He was adored at Texas Tech, but that changed when Beard signed a seven-year, $35 million deal with Big 12 conference rival Texas.
“Chris has done so much for this community, for this program,” Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt said last year. “If he had gone to another university, he would have been celebrated.
“But there are just some things you can’t do, and one of them is you can’t leave Texas Tech for Texas.”
A hostile crowd and plenty of boos awaited Beard when he made his first trip to Lubbock with the Longhorns last season. The Red Raiders and new head coach Mark Adams won that game, and eventually made it to the Sweet 16, one step ahead of the Longhorns and Beard, who lost to Purdue in the second round.
But it was the Longhorns’ first NCAA Tournament win since 2014 under Rick Barnes, and Beard finished his first season at 22-12. After the Longhorns secured a top six recruiting class and multiple transfers, expectations were high for this season.
So far, Texas had lived up to it.
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