Shaka did something he couldn't do while at Texas... Throttle Baylor. We better watch out or @Chop is going to tell us that we should still have Shaka. Even Tommy P liked the effort tonight.
I agree with Penders. Shaka never, ever had us playing VCU style ball. Why he feels the freedom to return to it now that he is coaching Marquette is a mystery. Makes me wonder if he had some admin type warning him not to do it. I sound conspiratorial, I know. But what else can explain the fact set?
Agree. I was thrilled when we hired Shaka, but Havoc-ball never materialized in Austin. I was / remain puzzeled?!?!?!?!
I'll be odd man out and share a likely unpopular sentiment that I think Shaka was a total whiff Patterson hire from day one. He peaked early at VCU and lived up to that at Texas. He's a great character guy and serviceable lifetime .600 coach and I wish him all the success. But I'm glad he's there and not still here.
I think he was under an immense amount of pressure to maintain the "one-and-done-ness" of Texas recruiting at the cost of losing pretty much everything that made VCU Rams basketball fun. Jaxson Hayes? Must-get! A 3-star PG who can distribute the ball to Hayes? Not so much. At some point, you need to create a culture and a scheme. He dabbled in the culture side of it but never had any semblance of X's and O's that made a commentator recognize Texas. We had no rhythm, mediocre shooting, etc. I think Beard has taken that step for scheme. We're still not a great shooting team, but we're improving in pretty much every other whiteboard measurement.
Early season Shaka. They shot almost 50% from three and almost 60% from the field. Texas had a few games like that (or at least a half) under Smart with similar results. Texas did that to bailor on the road for something like 30 minutes a few years back building a huge lead and then going cold and losing in overtime I think(could have been regulation). Earlier this season I watched a few minutes of Marquette and miss. State first half and it was the same old standing around while someone dribbled around until jacking up a three. The studio commentators at half praised state’s defense but noted how stagnate the Marquette offense was. I for one am very glad we have Beard.
