The sport of college basketball will miss Rick Byrd, and probably in far more ways than it understands right now.
Belmont’s longtime coach retired Monday at age 65, ending a brilliant 38-year head coaching career that deserves to go down as one of the greatest in college basketball history. And that’s not hyperbole.
Byrd won 713 games at Belmont and 805 games total in his career, putting him among the top-30 winningest coaches all-time in the sport, regardless of level. More than that, he built the school into a power in NCAA Division I, first in the Atlantic Sun Conference and then in the Ohio Valley Conference, a school that regularly knocked off bigger name foes even as NCAA Tournament success proved elusive until this year.
Belmont’s rise was all the more incredible in that Byrd led Belmont on a daunting monster leap from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) all the way up to Division I. A powerhouse in the NAIA ranks, it didn’t take long for the Bruins to be reeling off wins at the sport’s top level, too.
Byrd’s teams won at a blistering rate. His last nine and 13 of his final 14 teams at Belmont won at least 20 games. Six years in that stretch included at least 25 wins. In that time he led Belmont to eight NCAA Tournament berths plus four trips to the NIT.
Go back to his NAIA days and two years to start off at NCAA Division III Maryville (Tenn.), and Byrd posted 26 20-win seasons, four 30-win seasons, and had just six losing seasons in 38 years as a head coach, four of those coming during or immediately after the school’s transition to Division I.
Of course, Belmont finally broke through for its first NCAA tourney win this year, toppling Temple in an opening round game before coming up two points short against Maryland in the round of 64. It was a fitting way for Byrd to go out, getting some big stage national respect for his work.
What deserves to be noted every bit as much as Byrd’s winning record, though, was how accomplished his teams were in the classroom. Per the school’s announcement of his retirement, the Bruins have posted a team GPA of 3.0 or higher for 18 straight years.
Belmont also leads the nation in CoSIDA Academic All-Americans since 2001 with 17, far and away the most in the country. The second-closest school (Butler) has ten. On top of that, in a sport where transferring and team-hopping is rampant and practically cheered by many, just two Belmont players have transferred out of the program in the last 15 years.
Major college basketball and college sports as a whole right now is polluted by an almost toxic cynicism, with media and opportunists taking seemingly every opportunity to reduce the importance of education and take shots at amateurism. Rick Byrd showed, though, that if a coach is committed enough to both, they can win games-and a lot of them-and also value education. For as much as some pooh-pooh the collegiate sports model (while many of them are making big money off of it themselves, ironically), Belmont was a beacon of light and proved that it absolutely can work.
Byrd even took leadership roles nationally. He was a two-year chair of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee, where he presided over big changes to the sport in 2015, including the move to the 30-second shot clock (against his preference, it should be noted) but more importantly the commitment to freedom of movement on offense.
Even as more learned about him late in his coaching career, most probably still didn’t cover the whole story of his excellence enough. Belmont was nothing less than one of the model programs in the sport, one that many would’ve done well to emulate off the court and on, too, where Byrd’s teams regularly ranked among the nation’s best offensively. On and off the court, Rick Byrd was a leader and committed to college sports at their best. We could only be so lucky to have more like him.
Side Dishes:
- The College Basketball Invitational best-of-three finals began Monday with South Florida edging DePaul 63-61. David Collins hit the game-winner with 1.6 seconds left for the Bulls, capping a sterling game-high 23-point performance that also included six assists. The series now shifts to Chicago, where it will resume Wednesday.
Tonight’s Menu:
- The 82nd annual National Invitation Tournament semifinals take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The first game has first-time semifinalist Lipscomb against Wichita State (7 p.m., ESPN). The Bisons are led by Rick Byrd protégé Casey Alexander and high-scoring guard Garrison Mathews. The Shockers have been very good late in the season and may well be the favorites in NYC. The second contest is TCU versus Texas (9:30 p.m., ESPN), where the Horned Frogs go for their third win over the Longhorns this season.
- The CollegeInsider.com Tournament semifinals also are on tap. Hampton is on the road at Marshall, while the other game features Texas Southern at Wisconsin-Green Bay. It’s no surprise that a SWAC team is a road warrior, and the Tigers will be looking for their fourth road win in this tourney.
Have a super Tuesday.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
