Texas Coach Chris Beard Arrested

Disturbing news out of Austin as head coach Chris Beard was booked on domestic violence charges at 4:18 AM Monday morning.

Details are still emerging, but Tony Phloteski of Austin TV station KVUE tweets that Beard “strangled a person” and that police responded to a 911 call at 2:07 AM.

According to Tyler Greenawalt over at Yahoo, “[a]n Austin Police spokesperson told Yahoo Sports that they received a Priority 1 “disturbance hot shot call” at 12:15 a.m. Officers were then dispatched to a home on the 1900 block of Vista Lane in Tarrytown, an upscale Austin neighborhood near the UT campus.”

Obviously this is a breaking story and we only know the most elementary facts and we hope everyone, but especially Duke fans, will refrain from vile online behavior. Beard faces serious allegations but nothing has been proven yet - we don’t even know precisely what allegedly happened or to whom - and his family should not pay the social media price for whatever did or didn’t happen. When you are ready to rip him, remember that you may hurt his family as well. They're surely having a very tough day. Please give them a break from instant judgment and maybe consider how you would feel if it happened to you.

That said, Texas has a major problem to work through. Beard is a superb coach who has sort of merged the lines between rising star and Top Five coach as fast as anyone did since Rick Pitino. There are already calls for his dismissal and his contract language says that “(12) Any conduct (a) that the University administration reasonably determines is clearly unbecoming to a Head Coach and reflects poorly on the University, the Program, or The University of Texas System; or (b) resulting in a criminal charge being brought against Head Coach involving a felony, or any crime involving theft, dishonesty, or moral turpitude...”

These are currently felony charges, so his career, at least at Texas, is at serious risk.

In the most recent update we’ve seen, Phloteski reports this: “BREAKING: Prominent Austin attorney Perry Minton, representing Beard says: ‘Coach Beard is 100 percent innocent of these charges. He should have never been arrested. The complainant wants him released immediately and all charges dismissed. It is truly inconceivable.’”

Stay tuned.

• Texas coach Chris Beard arrested on felony assault charge for alleged strangulation of family member
• Texas men’s basketball coach Chris Beard arrested and charged with assault
• Who is Chris Beard? What we know about the Texas men’s basketball coach and his arrest
• Texas basketball: Chris Beard arrested on alleged felony assault charges