Chris Beard, the talented Texas Longhorns, and one of college basketball’s best problems

AUSTIN, Texas — Chris Beard has something to get off his chest.

As the new Texas head coach walks into a mid-October practice, his players already seated in chairs in front of a large television screen, Beard addresses the questions about whether his team dominated by talented transfers will avoid chemistry issues this season.

“That’s the narrative,” Beard tells his team. “Are you guys tired of it? Because I’m tired of it.”

He then turns on a 90-second clip of Austin Rivers from last May, after the Denver Nuggets guard was asked about a potentially bigger role in the NBA playoffs because of injuries.

“No matter where they play me, when they play me, start, don’t start, here, there — every minute I’m in there, I’m just going to be playing hard as hell,” Rivers said. “You wanna be this, you wanna be that guy, I was that guy in high school. I wanted to be an All-Star. I still feel like I’m good enough to be that. But that’s not my role here.”

The lesson from Beard to his team was clear — everybody needs to get comfortable with playing a different role from last season — and it wasn’t the first time he’s given it.

In his first three months at Texas, Beard brought in arguably the best transfer class in the portal era, adding six of the 30 best transfers and a top-30 recruit to a roster that returned four players from a Big 12 tournament champion and 3-seed in the NCAA tournament.

But none of those players is likely to play the same role they did last season or produce the same numbers they did last season, and that’s led to questions about whether it can work.