Texas Tech names Corey Williams interim coach amid Mark Adams’ suspension

Texas Tech has named Corey Williams interim coach for the men’s Big 12 basketball tournament this week, the school announced Monday. Here’s what you need to know:

Head coach Mark Adams was suspended for making an “inappropriate, unacceptable, and racially insensitive comment” to a player last week, Texas Tech announced Sunday.
Williams is in his second season as an assistant coach with the Red Raiders.
Texas Tech opens the conference tournament Wednesday against West Virginia.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Background

Williams was previously the head coach of Stetson University (2013 to 2019) and most recently served as an assistant at Arkansas (2019 to 2021).

Adams’ suspension came after Texas Tech said that Adams, in his second year as the program’s head coach, “was encouraging the student-athlete to be more receptive to coaching and referenced Bible verses about workers, teachers, parents, and slaves serving their masters” and “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.”

What does this mean for Adams?

If it wasn’t plainly obvious in the initial release announcing his suspension — schools don’t usually spell out a coach’s racist comments to the whole wide world — this seals it. Adams is done as Texas Tech’s head coach. There is no coming back. The only thing left is the lawyering.

That’s why Williams has been installed as an interim. There is no world in which Adams could coach the Red Raiders in Kansas City, but there’s also a lot of negotiation and red tape to clear behind the scenes. It’s likely too much to get settled by Tuesday morning when the team was set to leave Lubbock. — Hamilton

Where does this leave Texas Tech?

Williams was the head coach at Stetson for six seasons with very middling results: a 58-133 record and never more than 12 wins in any year. But the 52-year-old isn’t in this position to work wonders. His primary job is lean on that experience running a Division I program and steady the ship. Any success after that is a bonus.

But … are the Red Raiders arguably a little more threatening now? This is a group ranked 53rd on KenPom.com as of Monday morning. It’s a solid basketball team. It’s the group that, at one point, resuscitated its season by winning five of seven games in the strongest league in the country.

If the head coach’s behavior created resentment and discord all season, what happens when the head coach is gone? Texas Tech has nothing to lose. Sometimes that frees a team to do anything. — Hamilton