NCAA Latest: Auburn 7% to win title? Player doubts it
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Latest on the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament (all times local):
5:03 p.m.
Shortly before taking home the AP coach of the year trophy Wednesday, Texas Tech's Chris Beard recalled a very different trophy he spent decades thinking about before finally getting his hands on it.
The story goes like this: Beard saved up all his money as an eighth- or ninth-grader to attend Texas Tech's basketball camp, which was run by then-coach Gerald Myers. Beard wound up winning the "hot shot" competition and should have received a trophy, but the camp had run out of them.
"I was so pissed off," Beard said. "There was no internet, and long-distance phone calls were about 60 cents a minute. I wrote a bunch of letters to the Texas Tech office."
Beard kept quiet when he got a job as Bob Knight's assistant years later, but he couldn't hold back when Texas Tech hired him as head coach. He walked over to Myers and said, "I'm not pissed off. I'm kind of upset. Thirty-something years I still hadn't gotten my trophy."
All's well that ends well: Not long afterward, Myers dropped by his office with trophy in hand.
— Dave Skretta reporting from Minneapolis.
