Pirtle: Beard got what he wanted - a team with a strong foundation

Chris Beard’s Arkansas-Little Rock team finished with only five losses last season.

One of which came at the United Supermarkets Arena.

After that game in late December, Beard mentioned that Texas Tech had the type of team he was trying to build at Little Rock.

Less than three days after Tubby Smith left for Memphis, Beard returns to Lubbock for a job that is far from a rebuild.

Now, Beard has the program he was striving toward as the foundation to launch off of toward a great future of Texas Tech men’s basketball.

“I called it that day,” Beard said thinking back to when the Red Raiders handed the Trojans their first loss of the season. “I told our coaching staff after the game that this team…