Shaka Smart: VCU: 2009-10 – 0-0 in Tournament; Won CBI. 2010-11 – 5-1 in Tournament; Final Four; As 11 seed First Four team beat 11 seed, 6 seed, 3 seed, 10 seed and 1 seed before losing to 8 seed. 2011-12 – 1-1 in Tournament; Round of 32; As 12 seed beat 5 seed before losing to a 4 seed. 2012-13 – 1-1 in Tournament; Round of 32; As a 5 seed, beat 12 seed Akron. Lost to a 4 seed. 2013-14 – 0-1 in Tournament; Round of 64; As a 5 seed lost to 12 seed Stephen F. Austin (also purple and from the Southland) 2014-15 – 0-1 in Tournament; Round of 64; As a 7 seed lost to 10 seed Ohio State. Texas: 2015-16 – 0-1 in Tournament; Round of 64; As a 6 seed lost to 11 seed Northern Iowa. 2016-17 – 0-0 in Tournament; Went 11-22 so no postseason. 2017-18 – 0-1 in Tournament; Round of 64; As a 10 seed lost to 7 seed Nevada. 2018-19 – 0-0 in Tournament; Won the NIT!!!! 2019-20 – 0-0 in Tournament; Pandemic. At 19-12 we were on the bubble. 2020-21 – 0-1 in Tournament; Round of 64; As a 3 seed lost to 14 seed Abilene Christian. Excluding the covid season, Shaka has not won an NCAA Tournament game in 7 seasons!!! During that streak, he is 0-5 with 4 losses coming has a higher single digit seed to a lower double digit seed! This streak includes losses to Stephen F. Austin, Northern Iowa, Nevada and Abilene Christian. Nevada was the favorite and at least made the Sweet 16. The underdogs Shaka lost to (Stephen F. Austin, Ohio State and Northern Iowa) all promptly lost their next game. We’ll see what Abilene Christian does. In 6 seasons at Texas, Shaka Smart is 109-86, and 52-56 in conference games with an 0-3 record in the tournament. In his last 6 seasons at Texas, Rick Barnes was 132-75, 57-47 in conference games with a 2-5 record in the tournament. In 6 seasons at Tennessee (a worse program than Texas), Rick Barnes is 123-73, 61-46 in conference games with a 3-3 record in the tournament. Barnes has also taken Tennessee to the Sweet 16. In fact, he has now taken football schools Clemson, Texas and Tennessee to the Sweet 16. My question is… why is Shaka Smart still our coach? The argument for firing Rick Barnes was that we had higher standards than just making the tournament and winning a game. Have we lowered our standards for Shaka Smart and if so, why? Shaka also has made more annually than Barnes ever did annually. The fact that our fan base demanded Barnes be fired but is content to let Shaka do worse shows what UT’s real priorities are… and such priorities do not include winning or being the best.
Just for fun in his last 6 seasons at Texas, Tom Penders was 113-71, 53-35 in conference games with a 5-4 record in the tournament, including a Sweet 16 appearance.
I believe there are only a couple fans on this board content with him staying. I'm pretty sure the overwhelming majority here would rather him go back to VCU or something.
The prior two coaches, Barnes and Penders, not only made it to the big dance, they won some games and advanced, but were eliminated later. Smart has had 3 shots and never advanced past round one, hence his title "Mr. One & Done". Sure he won the NIT once, but that tournament is made up of teams that are below the 64 cutoff for the Big Dance. CDC has a decision to make regarding Smart as in keep or dismiss. I can see that decision going either way at this point. He did win a Covid tainted conference championship, this year, Texas's first in the B12, but he also lost to and was out played by a team in round one from a lesser conference or program - Southland Conference (WAC in 2021). My personal point of view is to cut him loose and bring in a new coach, but get a guy with more experience and wins in the Tournament.
I don't give as much credit as I normally would to Shaka for winning the Big 12 tournament. He didn't have to face Baylor or Kansas.
Some of the original members of the snow flake movement ran him out of town. I don't care what anyone says, he is still my favorite UT basketball coach of all time.
Abe Lemons is at the top for me. Maybe not the best coach, but he won an NIT when it meant a little bit. His last year he was 14-0 until his best player suffered a season ending knee injury. Also, Abe had a great sense of humor, with an unending stash of country witticisms.
Barnes and Penders both make Shaka look like a jv coach. I am sure the players love the guy but he is a terrible coach and must go.
Loved Abe, thought he was a pretty good coach. Wonder what would have happened if Wacker had not suffered that devastating knee injury. Do you know Deloss fired him?
Here's the decision for CDC and the BMD. We'll have a brand new arena opening up in 2023. I'm pretty sure the decision has already been made to move on from Shaka. I'm not 100% sure, but I'd say I'm 90% sure. His only saving grace is the * conference tournament championship given the mediocrity of the past five years. The question is to send him off this year or let his contract expire after next year. Does UT want to open a fancy state of the art facility with a brand new coach? Or would they want to have the new coach in place next year to start the rebuilding process a year before the new facility opens? If I were CDC I would be rounding up the troops for the one year buyout but we just paid binder boy. I guess it all comes down to motivation and optics.
Yes, and with good reason. I loved Abe and his folksy ways. That 14-0 run before Wacker went down in Waco, was great. Abe was "retired" for things other than W-L. I have used that team as an example of chemistry in sports. Wacker was not the best player on that team as was posted, but Mike was the glue that held that starting five together and made it work. As I recall, the team went 2-12 the rest of the season. A couple of really good assistants may have extended Abe's tenure.
Yes, but Deloss was man enough to sit down and discuss the firing with me and explain to me why the change "had" to be made. I regret it was done because I thought the guy was good for the program and created an interest on more than a regional level for Texas basketball. Kinda like Mike leach did for Tech football.
I left out a key word, “why”. My fingers and eyes make it difficult to use these little phones. I knew it was not wind or losses. I believe Pendets was fired because of alcohol and releasing Luke Axtels academic records, and he should have been fired. I thought Axtel was abused by our fan base without cause and do not blame him for transferring to Kansas.
Tiny buttons on phones, old eyes, and auto-correct, it's a wonder you got as much right as you did. i-phone is not conducive to good communication.
We don't want to earn a reputation for running a coaching carousel. I was opposed to firing Strong (3 seasons) and Herman (4 seasons) because they weren't given a fair chance, and up to now I've been opposed to getting rid of Smart for the same reason. After this season (his 6th at Texas), I think Smart has been given enough time to succeed, and he didn't -- even by our lowish basketball standards. Thus, I'm on board with going in a different direction if the money can be made to work. Note that I'm not saying I think Strong's or Herman's records were good, or even acceptable. I just would've given them more time to get there, and I think we hurt ourselves in the long term by not giving them that time.
Oh that's why we lose in basketball, because we fire coaches too fast... or maybe it's because the state loves football first, and then spring football second...and then....
Not sure that's fair. Other than Penders, Axtell, and Oran, does anyone know with 100% certainty what happened there?
I think the quickest answer to the OP is that Barnes was given an ultimatum and Smart (at least to our knowledge) has not gone through that. Maybe the demand for 2021 was "at least get us to the tournament" and he fulfilled that. If the mass exodus is fulfilled, and we operate with 8 scholarship players, including maybe a transfer or 2, and finish our final season at the Erwin Center like 8-23, he'll be gone. It'll be an easy call to make at that point. But if we're still in "first round limbo" and the team makes similar strides to this season? Could be iffy.
If you lose to Kansas in football, you have to be fired. No ifs, buts or maybes, you have to be fired. Losing to ACU in basketball fits the same description.
If Smart is the best we can do, just drop the damn sport and turn the Moody Center into a homeless shelter. I cannot believe that CDC would put up with another year of Smart. That Pic in SI of ACU celebrating with 'Horns down and EVERY sports writer was laying the blame squarely on Smart should make every orange blooded Texas fan explode. ACU with a horns down. The object is not just play the game (one and done in the dance) but to actually win a couple. Smart is a really nice guy who has recruited some talent but I would argue he has also failed in that respect. The only true PG he has had was a Barnes recruit, I. Taylor.
Come on, GonTex, I would submit to you that Smart and the team were looking past ACU to meeting Gonzaga in the finals. Happens to teams sometime, particularly teams with NO coaching.
