Adams resigns from Texas Tech following racial remarks

After being suspended for recent racially insensitive comments made towards a player, Texas Tech head coach Mark Adams has resigned.

Adams resigned not long after the Red Raiders men’s basketball team was eliminated from the Big 12 Tournament last week. Assistant coach Corey Williams has held the interim role in Adams’ absence.

texas techA recent story from Yahoo! Sports detailed the events that led up to Adams resigning from Texas Tech.

Below is an excerpt from the Yahoo! Sports story.

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.”

Red Raiders athletic director Kirby Hocutt learned of the incident last Friday and issued a written reprimand, and Adams coached them in a regular season-ending loss to Oklahoma State the next day. But after Hocutt investigated the situation further, he decided to suspend Adams just three days before the start of the Big 12 Tournament.

In its release Wednesday about Adams stepping down, the school said Hocutt determined after the inquiry that the racially insensitive comment was unintentional and an isolated incident.

Adams waited until his team was eliminated before announcing that he was 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.”

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 $15.5 million, five-year contract extension last spring.

The extension came after Adams led the Red Raiders to the finals of the Big 12 Tournament, where they lost to eventual national champion Kansas. They went to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in his first season in charge.

To read the full story from Yahoo! Sports, click here.