Mark Adams

Texas Tech has suspended Mark Adams for the Big 12 tournament for a "racially insensitive comment." Assistant Corey Williams was named interim coach.

To fire Adams without cause, Tech would owe him 60% of the remaining contract value. After he replaced Chris Beard in April 2021, Adams agreed to a five-year, $10-million dollar deal, plus incentives. Last April after Texas Tech ended its season in the Sweet 16, the Brownfield, Texas, native received a contract extension. Adams, a graduate of Texas Tech, took the reins of his alma mater ahead of the 2021-2022 season and has compiled a 43-25 (.632) record with the team. I was quoting the Bible about that.” “I was quoting the scripture,” Adams said.

Head coach Mark Adams of the Texas Tech Red Raiders looks on during the first half. Suspended Texas Tech basketball coach Mark Adams. John E. Moore III/Getty.

With his gentle persona and attention to detail, he gave off the vibe of a favorite high school biology teacher. The charges were ultimately dropped by the Travis County district attorney, but University of Texas officials had already dismissed Beard, believing they had enough evidence to sever their relationship with the coach. He reminded me so much of the career coaches that toil in high school gyms and junior colleges in every corner of Texas, the men and women who’ve coached thousands of games and love the sport and their players. [bolted from Lubbock](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/chris-beard-new-texas-basketball-coach/) to take over the Texas Longhorns, Adams endeared himself to Red Raiders fans by declining to join Beard at the rival school. Texas Tech hired Beard a year later, and Adams joined him in Lubbock. Hocutt chose him, in part, because the players and boosters were insistent that Adams’s time had come. Hocutt also learned of an incident earlier this season when Adams was alleged to have spit on the same player. [NCAA tournament run](https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/mark-adams-coach-k-sweet-sixteen/) to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to Duke. “I was quoting the scripture,” Adams said. Coaches in Division I basketball perform a delicate dance with players in an era when the transfer portal gives athletes an instant option to seek greener pastures. While it’s nearly impossible to imagine a coach keeping his job after using slavery metaphors to motivate a player, Hocutt wanted to hear from the athletes. Then again, it might not be possible for the Red Raiders’ imploding season to reach a more bizarre and disappointing low than its current position.

The head coach is also being investigated for allegedly spitting on a player during a game earlier in the season.

Texas Tech is [reconsidering its use of DEI evaluation rubrics](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/08/texas-tech-hiring-diversity/), in particular, after facing backlash from a conservative education advocacy group. Adams’ suspension comes as Texas universities are reviewing their diversity, equity and inclusion practices in response to a warning from Gov. If Texas Tech were to fire Adams without cause, the school would owe him 60% of the remaining contract, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported. In The Tech Tech basketball coach is also being investigated for allegedly spitting on a player during a game earlier in the season. The head coach is also being investigated for allegedly spitting on a player during a game earlier in the season.

The dust-up in Lubbock over Texas Tech men's basketball coach Mark Adams has all the markings of a culture war battleground. But no matter how loud the...

Teammates and coaches lose hold of the ability to give one another the benefit of the doubt. At 16-15 overall and just 5-13 in the Big 12, the Red Raiders aren’t likely to make the NCAA tournament this year. White men have been telling Black men to “know their place” for a long time in this country. Adams’ comments hinted at this passage when he told a Stadium reporter, “I said that in the Bible that Jesus talks about how we all have bosses, and we all are servants.” [Ephesians 5 and 6](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A21-6%3A9&version=NIV), the Apostle Paul seems to advocate for a social order in which workers, children and slaves obey those in authority, as the school’s press release described. When I call a play, I need you to run that play. The passage has been widely taught as a lesson in humility and faith. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. (So far, the race and identity of the athlete in question hasn’t been revealed, but at least 10 of the team’s 13 players appear to be Black, according to the school’s website.) Humility can become a bludgeon, and many Black Americans are well acquainted with its overemphasis by white authorities as a counterweight to Black progress: Don’t speak up. The other side will note how tone-deaf it was for a 66-year-old white man to tell a young black man to be humble, and use a Scripture about slavery to support his message. The school has launched an inquiry and it’s doubtful that Giovannetti can reveal specifics until that review is concluded anyway. He was suspended for what the school called “use of an inappropriate, unacceptable, and racially insensitive comment.”