Nelson Beard completed his first season as the assistant director of basketball operations in 2015-16 after serving two years as the Hornets’ team manager.
Beard was part of a staff that saw the 2014-15 squad post a 21-12 overall record and a 13-5 mark in the Big Sky Conference while securing the program’s first postseason appearance in the Div. I era (1991-pres.), and the team’s first postseason victory in 53 years.
The overall record marked the first time in the Div. I era that Sacramento State finished above the .500 mark, and first time since the 1988-89 season. In addition, the 21 wins were tied for second most in program history (1948-pres.), and the 13 conference victories were the most in school history (regardless of conference). All of this from a program that had entered the 2014-15 season with just three winning seasons in the previous 38 years.
After reaching the semifinal round of the Big Sky Tournament, the Hornets qualified for the CIT Postseason Tournament, marking the first time the program had qualified for a postseason event since the 1988 NCAA Div. II Tournament, and just the fifth postseason appearance in school history. Sacramento State’s 73-66 victory at Portland in the first round of the CIT marked the first time in 53 years the Hornets had won a postseason game.
Off the court, the Hornets have excelled in the classroom during Beard’s tenure. In fact, the Hornets have posted a team grade point average of better than 3.0 three times in the last five semesters. Prior to the start of that run in the spring of 2014, the men’s basketball program had never posted a 3.0 gpa during any semester in school history. The team currently has a cumulative grade point average of 3.008.
During Beard’s first season as team manager in 2013-14, the program showed signs of taking off when the Hornets not only posted a then school-record 10 conference wins, the team also clinched a Big Sky Tournament berth for the first time since 2006 and won 11 home games.
Beard, a native of Fairfield, Calif., played collegiate ball at Solano Community College for one year during the 2011-12 season. Prior to that, he played four years at Fairfield High School (including two varsity seasons) from 2003-07. One of his teammates at Fairfield HS was former Sacramento State star John Dickson.
Beard graduated from Sacramento State in the spring of 2015 with a business degree. He and his wife, Dalia, have a daughter, Malia, who was born in February of 2016.
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