Beard engineered a 16 - win improvement in his first year and led the Trojans ( 29 - 4 ) to the tournament for the first time since 2011 .
Beard was an assistant to Knight for eight years .
Beard , who was an assistant to Knight for eight years , engineered a 16 - win improvement in his first year and led the Trojans ( 29 - 4 ) to the tournament for the first time since 2011 .