Takeaways: Chris Beard previews the 2016-17 season for Tech hoops

Local media members met with first year Texas Tech head basketball coach Chris Beard on Wednesday afternoon for the annual preseason media day, and the head coach spent time discussing his team, how the offseason went, and where he thinks things are headed as Red Raider hoops prepares to tip things off in less than three weeks...

-The team has now been practicing for three weeks, and they've gone through about 13 or 14 practices so far. Coach Beard's opening thoughts on where this group is right now:

"We all feel an urgency, myself included, because we want to be competitive in year one. We've got six seniors, and we want to put those guys in a situation where they can go out in a good way. I feel a a lot of responsibility to those guys."

-Beard noted that they've sold almost 4,500 season tickets so far, and they haven't had more than that since 2004-05 when they had over 5,000.

"To be over 4,000 right now, I'm just very, very thankful. I want to thank all of our existing season ticket holders. I want to thank all of our new season ticket holders, and I want to thank anyone who's considering being a season ticket holder at this point. In my opinion, only behind the student body, they're the the most important fan base we have. They're the bloodline of our program financially and with support."

-The first year head coach is hoping to get a huge student turn out as well, as he believes that's a real factor in them taking a step forward as a program:

"If we could get 6 to 7,000 coming consistently to basketball games, I think we can take our basketball program to the next level."

-Beard thinks his group is on the right path right now, noting that mental toughness has been the big emphasis for the team over the last few months:

"No coach is satisfied this time of year. There's always improvement to be done. But, I tihnk specifically where we started in the spring to where we challenged the guys in the summer and the preseason, I think we're headed in the right direction. Mental toughness is something that's very important to us. In my opinion, everyone has talented players at the Big 12 level and everyone has good coaching. What seperates good from great, what seperates contenders from guys that are cutting nets down is mental toughness. We pride ourselves a lot in doing that not only on the basketball floor, but in life, academically, embracing adversity."

-On how his team has continued to mesh and build chemistry, especially considering it's about a 50-50 split between returners and newcomers:

"I think well, and I give all the credit to our players, certainly our coaching staff thinks about this all the time, but at the end of the day, it's the players. I think our returning players, guys like Keenan (Evans), Norense (Odiase), and Zach (Smith), Matt Temple, Devon (Thomas), Andrew Sorrells, these guys have been really, really professional and open minded in really wanting to win.

-Beard's team for this 2016-17 season is almost entirely made up of juniors and seniors, and it's something that makes the group very different in college basketball. However, while he does see that as a good thing, the experience and maturity is the most important part of the equation:

"I think we've got a unique team, and I think it could end up being a part of our identity. It's one of the cool parts of our story. This year in our rotation, it's going to be all juniors and seniors, and three of these seniors are grad transfers. Many of these juniors have real game experience. I talk to the guys all the time about how there's no relationship between age and winning. If there was, we'd just go out and recruit the oldest guys in the country, right? But what I think there can be is a relationship between maturity and experience and winning, so we've been talking to our guys a lot about let's not hang our hat on the fact that we're older, but let's do talk about and embrace this identity of being mature, that we've been through some wars. There shouldn't be a lot of ups and downs with this team. We should be level headed and experience. Now, we're a new team playing together, but we do have a lot of individual experience."

-With three senior grad transfers that will only play basketball at Tech this season, Beard has different goals set for each player:

"With those grad transfers, (we need) leadership, but obviously on the floor minutes. We need Anthony Livingston to be one of the best impact players in the Big 12, to score in and out, to play consistently, to improve defensively, which he's really trying to embrace, and to attack the basket offensively like he has his whole career. We need Gio (McLean) to hit shots, handle the ball, play multiple guard positions, and be a great defender at his position. Then we need Thomas Brandsma to be a great team player, to be his best in practice every day and to be ready when called upon in games to help us."

-Beard believes this team is doing well as far as picking up things technically, too:

"So far so good," he said. "With this team, we're probably farther along fundamentally than any team I've ever coached."

-Coach Beard has also been thrilled with the way that the players on his team have embraced bringing in more talented players through recruiting:

"The first time I talked to Keenan Evans, he wanted to talk about how our recruiting was going, and that's another level of elite performer there. When you stop thinking about yourself, and you want to play with other great players, now you've got a chance to be special, and you see that all the time in the NBA with super teams being put together. Great players want to play with other great players, and I think that's been true of our returning players, embracing their new teammates as well as embracing recruiting, which they've done a great job with this fall as well."

-I asked Beard what he thought of Keenan Evans as his starting point guard. What are his expectations for the junior moving forward? His thoughts:

"My expectation for Keenan is to be one of the best players in the Big 12 at his position, and I know that's high standards, but I really believe it. That's based on watching every game he's played in his college career multiple times on film. That's based on spending the spring, summer, and preseason with him. That's based on continuing to build a relationship with him. That's based on Coach Smith's opinion of him as well as his high school coach. I think Keenan has a whole nother gear. His story could be one of the most special in Tech history I think. Comes in as a freshman and plays at this level as a freshman, and that's difficult, but stays the course. As a sophomore, leads his team to the NCAA tournament. Now we have two chapters left, and I look for him to be one of the best players that's ever played at this school at his position. He's intelligent, he's tough, he's got great size, he comes from a great family, which means he knows right from wrong. He's been raised right. I love the kid. I'm enjoying coaching him every day. I believe in Keenan."

-Coach Beard didn't shy away from noting that he wants his players to shoot for the stars when it comes to expectations, something that he does himself:

"I'm a dreamer, right? I didn't get into coaching to coach not the best players. I got into coaching to coach the best players. I got into coaching to win a national championship. I don't shy away from that. I'm a dreamer. I like coach players that are dreamers, and I embrace relationships with players where we talk openly about what your dream is," he said. "Let's talk about your dreams, and then let's go out everyday to make them successful. I know this: If we get to the point here at Texas Tech where we have four or five NBA players on a team, then we're gonna have a good team at Texas Tech."

-Specifically, Beard has spent a lot of time talking about the NBA with Zach Smith. The head coach believes the junior has bought into what he needs to do, and Beard is willing to help him get there anyway he can.

"With Zach, I openly say that Zach's a guy that should be thinking about playing in the NBA one day. He's got an unbelievable combination of speed and size, so now he's just trying to figure out if he wants to be a pro work ethic-wise. By all indications, I've been very pleased. He's embraced our culture, our process, and he's working as hard as I ever think he has in his life. He's starting to show discipline off the court in different areas with academics and decisions off the court, so I've been very pleased with Zach. I'm glad I'm coaching him, and I'm hoping he's a guy that can play at the highest level one day."

-Coach Beard noted that they have 12 guys that will likely play this fall, and he feels like all 12 of those players will have earned their minutes. He loves the depth of the team, and while there are a lot of different mouths hoping to get fed, he believes they've all handled the idea of more or less playing time very well:

"I'll say this about our players: There's a level of unselfishness on our team. You can feel it every day. I think these guys have come together to win. I've got a lot of guys in that locker room that have had individual success, but nobody has won an NCAA tournament game at the division one level except for Thomas Brandsma, who was a redshirt on the Little Rock team. So, it's all about winning. Things like playing time, that's our job as coaches to put that together, but I think that's a great situation to be in to have 12 players and to have to answer questions like this during this time of year."

-And make no mistake: While this team will certainly run and gun a bit with the motion offense, the identity of the program will start with defense. Beard believes that's been easy to instill with this group because they already played great defense under Tubby Smith:

"I think Texas Tech was the best defensive team that we played last year at Little Rock. So, we have a culture of defense. We also recruit in a very open and honest way. We told every player that you're gonna guard if you get here. We start practice every day on defense, and we spend the majority of our time on defense. We're a defensive program. We take pride in that."

-Beard was asked about what he believes this team's story will be come March and April. While he's not entirely sure, he knows how he wants it to end:

"I hope it's a story that ends on a Monday night."