Texas Tech head coach Mark Adams has resigned from his position, the school announced Wednesday night, days after he was suspended for using “inappropriate, unacceptable and racially insensitive remarks.”
Adams did not coach the Red Raiders in their Big 12 Tournament loss to West Virginia on Wednesday, with assistant coach Corey Williams handling interim head coach duties.
“My lifelong goal was to make a positive impact on my players and be a part of the Texas Tech men’s basketball team,” Adams said in a prepared statement. “However, the university and I believe this incident has become a distraction to the Texas Tech men’s basketball team and the university, which I care deeply about.”
According to the school, Adams was encouraging a player to be more receptive to coaching and referenced Bible verses about “workers, teachers, parents and slaves serving their masters.” The school said Adams apologized to the team shortly after the comments.
Athletic director Kirby Hocutt was made aware of the incident. They issued Adams a written reprimand but then decided to suspend the coach pending “a more thorough investigation of Adams’ interactions with his players and staff”.
Hocutt determined that Adams’ remarks were unintentional and an isolated incident following his questioning.
The conference tournament loss to Texas Tech dropped the Red Raiders to 16–16 on the season, 5–13 in conference play.
Sources told ESPN that Grant McCasland of North Texas and Paul Mills of Oral Roberts, two former assistants to Scott Drew, are expected to be top candidates to replace Adams.
Sources told ESPN that Adams was already under pressure from influential people around the program because of Texas Tech’s disappointing season. He signed a contract extension last spring that was set to last until the 2026-27 season and pay him $15.5 million over five years.
Adams, 66, graduated from Texas Tech in 1979 and has coached with the Red Raiders since 2016, first as an assistant under Chris Beard and as Beard’s replacement the past two seasons. He also spent two seasons as the program’s director of basketball operations from 2013 to 2015 under Tubby Smith.
Prior to joining the Texas Tech staff, Adams had been a longtime college coach at Texas, staying at five schools over 30 years.
