Texas Tech's Mark Adams suspended through Big 12 tournament, assistant Corey Williams named interim coach

Mark Adams, the head coach of Texas Tech's men's basketball team, has been placed on administrative leave until the Big 12 tournament. The Red Raiders' temporary head coach, assistant coach Corey Williams, will lead the team through the tournament, which gets off on Wednesday at the T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City. The No. 9 seed Texas Tech will play No. 8 West Virginia in the first round. During the team's regular-season finale on Sunday, athletic director Kirby Hocutt was informed that Adams had made a "inappropriate, disrespectful, and racially insensitive statement" to a player. As a result, Adams was banned from the programme. According to the sports department's statement, Adams "was urging the student-athlete to be more open to coaching and cited Bible texts regarding labourers, instructors, parents, and slaves obeying their masters." In a statement, the athletic department said. The statement claimed that the coach expressed regret; however, in a statement to Stadium, Adams said that while he had explained his motivations for giving the Biblical passages to another coach who had informed him that his comments were offensive, "I didn't apologise." Adams stated, "I was reciting the scripture. "I said that Jesus mentions how we all have bosses and are servants in the Bible during a private session about coaching, having a job, and being coachable. I made a reference to the Bible in it." Before to the 2021–2022 season, Adams, a Texas Tech alum, assumed leadership of his alma university. Since then, he has guided the club to a 43–25 (.632) record.The Red Raiders finished second in the Big 12 tournament in 2022 after Kansas defeated them 74–65 to win the title.

Mark Adams' contract with Texas Tech

Once Texas Tech's season finished in the Sweet 16, the product of Brownfield, Texas, obtained a contract extension in April of last year. He now has a five-year, $15.5 million deal that expires in 2026–2027. It was a 65% raise from the first contract he signed. Adams' overall remuneration for this season is $3 million, made up of $300,000 in base pay plus $500,000 in rights fees. Adams' income will rise by $50,000 each year through 2023–24, $3.1 million through 2024–25, $3.15 million through 2025–26, and $3.2 million through 2026–27. Each party will receive a buyout under the agreement. Tech would owe Adams 60% of the balance of the contract if he were fired without justification. Should he make money in the future somewhere else, it may be offset. In April 2021, Adams agreed to a five-year, $10 million contract with incentives after Chris Beard resigned. According to that deal, he was to get an annual salary of $1.9 million in the first year, $1.95 million in the next, $2 million in the third, $2.05 million in the fourth, and $2.1 million in the fifth.