Texas A&M basketball's coaching search marked by one repeated and controversial name

Texas A&M basketball's nascent coaching search already marked by repeated references to Chris Beard

As soon as it became clear that Buzz Williams was headed out the door for Texas A&M basketball, fans began to speculate about who may be coming in that door after him. There have been a lot of names thrown around, but there's one that fans seem to keep coming back to— for one reason or another.

That name is Chris Beard, current coach of Ole Miss, formerly of Texas Tech and Texas.

Now, this would be a controversial hire, for sure. You can tell just by the reaction of the Aggie faithful to the suggestion. There are a lot of fans who, at least at this point, do not seem too happy about the idea of Beard coaching at A&M.

There's definitely some excitement about the possibility, too, however.

It's hard to deny that Beard is a really, really solid coach. The man took Texas Tech to the national championship and created a team that Rodney Terry was able to guide to the Elite Eight.

But the controversy that would surround this hire is clear. Beard was fired from Texas following an arrest stemming from a felony domestic violence charge. The charges were dropped thanks to the alleged victim deciding not to prosecute and the DA deciding there was not sufficient evidence to prove the charges.

Of course, the standard of guilt in a court of law is not the same as the standard of hiring for a major collegiate athletic coaching position. That said, Beard has obviously already been hired by a major collegiate athletic program, as he is currently the coach at Ole Miss.

Fair or not, there will be aspersions cast on the Aggies if they hire Beard— not only by the college basketball public, but most intensely by two rivals in the Red Raiders and Longhorns. That's a deterrent here, as well.

It's up to the AD to do their due diligence, though. If the Aggies do end up moving in this direction, it will be interesting to see who keeps their tune and who switches up.