Chris Beard: 'I think Coach Weber is a Hall of Famer'

Following Texas‘ heartbreaking loss to TCU 65-60 in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals, Longhorns head coach Chris Beard addressed his thoughts on Kansas State parting ways with Bruce Weber, a move that was inevitable, but sorrowful to see a coach of his stature get bounced from a program where he accomplished so much.

“Yeah, I absolutely can. Probably not in the best mindset to do that right now as accurate as I want, but I’ll try,” Beard said. “I think Coach Weber is a Hall of Famer: Southern Illinois; took a team to the Final Four at Illinois; and what he did at Kansas State has never been done before. He won the league twice, he made an Elite 8, did it the right way.

“He’s a Hall of Famer in my mind. I’m on the record with Bruce Weber. You guys can go back the very first game we played against him, he’s a coach’s coach. The game is better because Coach Weber was a part of it.”

Beard made these comments just hours following Weber’s firing from the Wildcats’ program. After Kansas State’s 73-67 loss to West Virginia in the conference tournament’s opening round, the writing was on the wall regarding Weber’s next move and within 12 hours, he was out as headman at KSU.

Under Weber, Kansas State won 184 games, made five NCAA Tournament appearances and won two Big 12 Championships. In 2018, he took his team to the Elite Eight before being taken down by Loyola-Chicago — his most notable contribution in his 10 seasons in in Manhattan, Kansas.

Weber has spent 24 seasons as a head coach in total, with previous stops and Southern Illinois and Illinois before coming to Kansas State in 2012. Over his career, he has 15 NCAA Tournament wins and coached in the championship game in 2005. Weber is also one of 10 Division I coaches to take three different schools to the Sweet 16.

“I think he’ll coach again. I hope he coaches again,” Beard said. “College basketball is better with Coach Weber in the game.”

Weber addressed his future in his final post-game press conference at the helm of the Kansas State program, saying he’s unsure if he’ll ever coach again, but he’s certainly not ruling it out. Meanwhile, the Wildcats will begin an immediate search into finding the right man to be the 25th Kansas State head coach in program history.