Texas Tech basketball coach Mark Adams suspended for ‘racially insensitive’ comment

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Texas Tech University has suspended men’s basketball coach Mark Adams for a comment the school calls “inappropriate, inappropriate, and racially insensitive.”

In a training session with a student-athlete last week, Adams referenced Bible verses about workers, teachers, parents, and enslaved people serving their masters, school officials said.

Athletics director Kirby Hocutt issued a written reprimand and then made the decision to suspend Adams “in order to conduct a more thorough investigation into Adams’ interactions with his players and staff.” According to school officials, Adams spoke with the team about the comment.

Adams defended his interactions with the student-athlete in an interview with the Stadium sports news network, saying that it was not racist and that he was quoting a Bible verse.

“I said that in the Bible, Jesus says that we all have bosses and we are all servants,” Adams said at the stadium.

The Tech Tech basketball coach is also under investigation for allegedly spitting at a player during a game earlier in the season.

Adams is in his second season as Texas Tech head coach after Chris Beard left for the University of Texas at Austin in 2021. Byrd was fired from UT earlier this year after he was charged with a third-degree felony for domestic violence. .

After last season’s success, he signed a five-year, $15.5 million contract that runs through the 2026/27 season. According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, if Texas Tech fires Adams for no reason, the school will owe him 60% of the remaining contract amount.

Adams’ suspension comes as Texas universities are reviewing their diversity, equity and inclusion practices in response to a warning from Gov. Greg Abbott. In a memo to public university leaders, Abbott said considering diversity in hiring violates federal and state employment laws, and that hiring should be based on merit alone. Texas Institute of Technology is revisiting its use of DEI score rubrics, in part after it faced backlash from a conservative education advocacy group.

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