Mark Adams, former Texas Tech coach, joins East Carolina as assistant coach

Former Texas Tech coach Mark Adams has joined East Carolina’s men’s basketball team as an assistant coach, head coach Michael Schwartz announced Friday. Here’s what you need to know:

• Adams’ hiring comes four months after he resigned from Texas Tech following his suspension for making a racially insensitive comment to a player.
• He joins a Pirates program that went 16-17 and finished ninth in the American Athletic Conference last season.
• Adams led the Red Raiders to a 43-25 record and one NCAA Tournament appearance before resigning during his second season with the program.

Backstory

Texas Tech suspended Adams on March 5 and said he “was encouraging the student-athlete to be more receptive to coaching and referenced Bible verses about workers, teachers, parents and slaves serving their masters.” Adams “immediately addressed this with the team and apologized.”

Athletic director Kirby Hocutt issued Adams a written reprimand and made the decision to suspend him “in order to conduct a more thorough inquiry of Adams’ interactions with his players and staff.”

Adams resigned from the Red Raiders three days later, and the program named assistant coach Corey Williams as interim head coach ahead of the Big 12 conference tournament. At the end of March, the school hired North Texas’ Grant McCasland to permanently fill the position.

Adams became head coach at Texas Tech when Chris Beard left to go to Texas in 2021. Beard tried to get his longtime assistant to join him in Austin, but Adams stayed behind to try to get the head-coaching job.

He was a success in his first season, finishing third in the Big 12 and guiding the Red Raiders to the Sweet 16. In his second season, however, things were rocky.

Texas Tech had to replace four starters, including two (Kevin McCullar and Terrence Shannon) who transferred to other schools. The Red Raiders, picked to finish fifth in the Big 12, lost their first eight conference games and finished 5-13 in league play, tied for last place with Oklahoma. West Virginia knocked Texas Tech out of the Big 12 tournament in the first round.

Required reading

(Photo: Chris Jones / USA Today)