Everything Chris Beard said after Texas' win over UTEP
Texas head coach Chris Beard certainly was excited to start the 2022-23 season, and his team did so with a 72-57 win over close friend Joe Golding and his UTEP Miners in the first game in the Moody Center.
[Get FOUR MONTHS of Inside Texas Plus for $1!]
Here’s what the Longhorns head coach had to say after the contest.
Chris Beard on if Sir’Jabari Rice and Tyrese Hunter will help him go deep in March: “We got one of those teams. That’s the deal at Texas. That’s why we took the job, to build a consistent program. Not one team, not one year, not one season. I thought last year was a great foundation. We’ve got a chance. Some years we’ll probably have a little bit smaller margin for error. Some years bigger. We like our team. I think we’ve got the balance between veterans and young guys. We’ve got a long ways to go. We like our team.”
Chris Beard on if there were combinations of players who stood out to him: “I’d have to go back and study the film on that one. My take on this one was there was only a couple of games like this around the country tonight. I know Auburn played a big boy game. UTEP is good. They won 20 games last year. Joe knows what he’s doing. They’ve got a veteran team, older guys. They were actually a little bit undermanned today, missing one of their best guards. We hope and pray the player that went down will be back for UTEP quickly. I thought it was a gutsy schedule by (Rodney Terry) and of course I signed off on it. That’s an NCAA tournament hopeful type team. That’s a team that can play into March that we beat tonight. A lot of pressure on us early with the building and all. We were trying hard early. Our hearts were in the right place. Our minds were in the right place. I thought we made some forced turnovers and were trying too hard early, but it’s understandable. It’s a lot like taking a team to the NCAA tournament for the first time. You just try to get them to calm down. We did. Ten turnovers in the first half, we’re not going to be able to beat good teams. We only had three turnovers or two turnovers in the second half to my naked eye. We had a couple late, but we played 18, 19 minutes with two turnovers in the second half.
I thought the crowd was great. I’m not just talking about first-game, come-get-the-poster-or-T-shirt great. I thought they impacted the game. There was a couple of possessions where UTEP had to call a timeout and our guys fed off of it. I thought The Corral was great. The student section, season ticket holders, I was really pleased with what we’re building. Now the challenge is to do it again Thursday.”
Chris Beard on Tyrese Hunter: “College basketball is about players. Players make plays. You’re gonna have an offense. You’re gonna have a defense. You’ve got to have a guy who can go get a bucket or go create a bucket. I thought Tyrese did a good job tonight, especially after he settled down. His speed is elite. I thought Marcus (Carr) had a good court game tonight. We had a lot of individual performances tonight. We get five guys to double figures, that’s always our balance. Three-point shot wasn’t great to us tonight but the three-point shot was. Obviously the glaring weakness is we’ve got to do a lot with our rebounding game. Give UTEP a lot of credit… They gave us all we could handle on the glass.”
Chris Beard on tempo: “Probably one of the things I was most pleased of. We get to 72 points tonight. I thought we could have got to 80 if we weren’t controlling the game late to try to win it. I thought it might have been an 80 point opening night against a team that I think is really good. We do it despite 10 turnovers in the first half. I thought the offense did a lot of good things tonight. When it got down to an 8-minute game, I thought we separated with our commitment to running. We had the two fast break baskets in the last 7 minutes of the game. That was great to see. That was by design. The players get all the credit, they’re the ones that executed it.”
Chris Beard on Sir’Jabari Rice: “Jabari is a good player. He’s played for good coaches. He’s played in a lot of big games. He knows who he is. He’s all about winning. I’ve never seen Jabari’s mood change based on his stat sheet. He’s all about winning. He’s fun to coach. I think the exciting thing is he can play better than he did tonight. Made a couple of defensive mistakes that we’ll have to help him with, but his heart is in the right place. He’s a good player. He’s a fantastic shooter. Primary, kind of secondary playmaker. He’s a good defensive player. He gives us a chance to do a lot of things this year with his talent and the diversity and variety of his game.”
Chris Beard on why his team is playing faster: One, it’s the way we’ve always played. Two, making sure I don’t get the Tom Penders phone call at 1 a.m. Three, you guys have been asking a lot about it too. I care about you guys. Y’all might not think that but I really do.”
Chris Beard on what Tyrese Hunter helps him do against ball pressure teams: “I don’t think it’s just Tyrese. The ability to play through Timmy (Allen). I thought Dylan Disu had a great second half. We all know what (Christian Bishop) can do in this game. Just a lot of positives. I agree. UTEP’s defensive identity is their ball pressure and their denial. We really played about 24 or 22 minutes, a little bit in the first half and most of the second half, where I didn’t think the pressure bothered us as much as I thought it might. I thought we had pretty great composure. Basically, a three turnover second half against that defense is a great place to start in the film room later tonight when we get back to work on this.”
Chris Beard on defensive rebounding: “I’ve never been a big ball bounce guy. You’ve got to make it happen. Give UTEP some credit. They out-rebounded us. We believe that offensive rebounding can be a part of our identity. We did really well against Houston and really well against Arkansas. Tonight, not so much. I thought we missed a lot of shots in the first half. We’re trying to get 40 percent of our misses. Big goal, but this is Texas. We’re trying to get to the third weekend and play on the final night. I didn’t think our rebounding was great tonight, but give UTEP credit. I thought they were a big reason that we didn’t have our best night on the boards. We’ve got good players. We’ve got good coaches. We’ve got guys that teach and execute rebounding a lot better than we did tonight. That’ll be where the focus starts tomorrow.”
Chris Beard on how critical Dylan Disu’s second half sequence was: “I think it was great to see Dylan get comfortable in the second half and give us some much needed baskets. He’s a presence. I thought him and CB did a great job defensively. Coach Golding tried to get it inside early on us and they were successful. They were almost in the bonus early in the half, then we went to a secondary defense to try not to foul as much and I thought Dylan Disu, CB, (Dillon Mitchell) did a great job with that. Shoutout to Dylan Disu with his second half. It was great to see him comfortable. Our freshmen, so proud of those guys. You never take your first Division I win for granted. I thought (Arterio Morris) did some good things for us. D-Mitch, good to see him out there. Then to get Alex (Anamekwe) in the game late was big for us.
I thought we beat a good team tonight. I didn’t think this was the normal kind of first game that we’re all used to. A lot of respect for UTEP. To me, the story of the night and your headline, I’m not trying to write it for you but I don’t think there was a better crowd in college basketball than there was here in Austin tonight. You’ve got to recognize what you just saw. Students were out there two hours early. We filled the Corral. Standing room only in the upper deck of the upper corral. They impacted the game. They were loud. They were having fun. I thought our season ticket holders did a great job of impacting the game. I know we’ve got these amazing suites, bars, and stuff all over this beautiful arena. From where I was sitting, they were back in their seats to start the second half for the most part. Everybody stayed late. We always enjoy the school song at the end of the game with the students. That’s got to be the headline tonight. I don’t think there was a better crowd in college basketball than there was in the Moody Center tonight. The next step and challenge is to be consistent. Let’s see if we can build something special Thursday, then obviously with that third game of the season we know what’s coming.”
