In the days after Bobby Knight was hired as Texas Tech head coach, he and his son, assistant coach Pat Knight, hit the road in search of JUCO players. Bobby Knight stumbled across a future coaching star.
"Dad called me and said, ‘I found this kid, and I think he would be great for us. He’s got everything we need,' " Pat Knight recalled in 2016. “Chris came to Lubbock, and we hit it off. I hung out with him all weekend and told my dad, ‘This is the guy we need.' "
In 2001, Beard was the head coach at Seminole State College, a JUCO school in Seminole, Okla. In 2019, he's the hottest head coach in college basketball and rocketing up Knight's coaching tree.
Where does Chris Beard rank on Bobby Knight's coaching tree?
Note: Only former assistant coaches were included; former players weren't included.
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10. Murry Bartow
Indiana, 1985-87
An assistant on Indiana's 1987 championship team, Murray Bartow led UAB, his alma mater, to 103 wins over six seasons (1996-2002) and has four all-time tourney appearances, including three in his first seven seasons at East Tennessee State.
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9. Royce Waltman
Indiana, 1982-87
Like Bartow, Royce Waltman also left Indiana after the 1987 title season. Waltman, however, went to Division-II DePauw and made five D-II tourneys in 10 total seasons at DePauw and Indianapolis.
Later, he led Indiana State to 134 wins over 10 seasons, including an NCAA Tournament win in 2001, which remains the program's only tourney win since 1979.
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8. Bob Weltich
Indiana, 1971-76
Bob Weltich racked up 300 career wins at four different programs: Ole Miss, Texas, FIU and South Alabama. He reached the NCAA Tournament at three of those stops (Ole Miss, FIU and South Alabama) and led USA to the 1982 World Championship.
UPDATED: 2019 Coaching Change Tracker
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7. Bob Donewald
Indiana, 1974-78
An assistant on the 1976 championship team, Bob Donewald stayed two more years before taking the Illinois State job in 1978. He led the Redbirds to tourney wins in both 1984 and 1985, the program's first-ever tourney wins.
Donewald also led Western Michigan to a win in the 1998 tourney, the program's only tourney win since 1976.
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6. Jim Crews
Indiana, 1977-85
Crews played (1972-76) and coached under Knight until he took the Evansville job in 1985. In 17 years in Evansville, he won 294 games and reached four NCAA Tournaments.
He also coached Army and Saint Louis, leading the Billikens to 55 wins and two NCAA Tournament wins in the first two of his four years.
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5. Mike Davis
Indiana, 1997-2000
Knight's successor, Mike Davis won 67 games in his first three seasons as Hoosiers' head coach (2000-03), including five in the 2002 NCAA Tournament as they reached the title game.
He also had four 20-win seasons at UAB and two more at Texas Southern. Entering his second year at Detroit, Davis has 368 career wins.
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4. Don DeVoe
Army, 1965-70
An assistant on Knight's first Army team, DeVoe was 29 years old when he became Virginia Tech head coach in 1971. Thirty-three seasons and five head-coaching jobs later, he finished his career with 512 wins, eight regular-season conference titles and six conference coach of the year awards.
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3. Dave Bliss
Army, 1967-69, Indiana, 1971-75
Pre-Baylor Dave Bliss is No. 3 on this list, not Baylor Dave Bliss.
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2. Chris Beard
Texas Tech, 2001-08
Chris Beard could average 30 wins for the next decade and still have fewer career wins than some of the coaches below him. None of those coaches, however, reached an Elite Eight, let alone two Elite Eights…and one Final Four.
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1. Mike Krzyzewski
Indiana, 1974-75
Coach K spent only one season under Knight at Indiana but was also coached by Knight at Army in the 1960s.
Forty-four years later, a billion wins, a billion tourney runs and the best coaching résumé in college basketball history.
