KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Texas Tech basketball coach Mark Adams, who was suspended recently for racially insensitive comments made toward one of his players, resigned shortly after the Red Raiders were eliminated from the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday.
Second-year assistant Corey Williams led the Red Raiders in their 78-62 loss to West Virginia.
The incident involving Adams occurred in a meeting with a player, who wasn’t identified, Texas Tech said Sunday in announcing his suspension. The school said Adams “was encouraging the student-athlete to be more receptive to coaching and referenced Bible verses about workers, teachers, parents, and slaves serving their masters.”
Athletic director Kirby Hocutt learned of the incident last Friday and issued a written reprimand, and Adams coached the Red Raiders in a regular-season-ending loss to Oklahoma State. But after Hocutt investigated the situation further, he decided to suspend Adams three days before the start of the Big 12 Tournament.
Adams waited until his team was eliminated before announcing that he‘s stepping down.
“My lifelong goal was to help and be a positive influence on my players, and to be a part of the Texas Tech men’s basketball team,” Adams said in a statement. “However, both the university and I believe this incident has become a distraction for the Texas Tech men’s basketball team and the university, which I care about so deeply.”
This isn’t the first time high-profile coaches have been in trouble for insensitive comments.
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Three years ago, Pat Chambers resigned at Penn State after one of his former players revealed the coach said he wanted to “loosen the noose that’s around your neck” when talking to the player about helping him reduce stress. Chambers was hired at Florida Gulf Coast this season.
And during the 2020-21 season, Creighton coach Greg McDermott apologized for telling his team after a loss to “stay on the plantation” as a way of reminding them to stick together. He was suspended for one game.
The 66-year-old Adams graduated from Texas Tech in 1979 and had been on the staff there since 2016, beginning as director of basketball operations under Tubby Smith and then spending time on Chris Beard’s staff. He was elevated to head coach when Beard departed for Texas and signed a five-year, $15.5 million contract extension last spring.
The extension came after Adams led the Red Raiders to the Big 12 Tournament final, where they lost to eventual national champion Kansas, and to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in his first seaosn in charge.
Things soured quickly this season, though. Texas Tech lost its first eight conference games, and any hope of making a run to the Big 12 Tournament title and a return to the NCAA Tournament ended with a dismal effort against the Mountaineers.
“If I’m being honest, it’s a lot of weight on these kids right now. They’ve been through a lot in the last week or so,” Williams said afterward. “And in some ways, I just feel like it caught up with them.
“They gave their best. And once the ball stopped falling in, it got a little bit tougher. The hill became a lot steeper, and unfortunately we weren’t able to make up the difference.”
