What will it take for Shaka to survive this year?

The question is “what will it take to get rid of him this year?”

By all accounts, due to the apathy around basketball and being well-liked by Fenves, he is not even on the hotseat. The fans were up-in-arms to get rid of Barnes, but apathetic slience surrounds Smart. While that should be a sign he needs to go to the administration, it will probably help him get another year.
 
horn by commitee said:
I was so pumped when he was hired!! Great recruiter ... just isn't the right fit!! IMO
Click to expand...
Smart isn’t the right fit because he is a poor coach who never out coaches the other side. Smart’s game plan seems to be let’s play with intensity, but with no real plan to channel that intensity to positive results on the offensive end. He may be a good recruiter on paper but I have seen virtually no improvement from the players he recruited. Moreover, it is apparent that he has no idea about recruiting a complementary roster as this is the third year without any consistent shooters, and if some of his recruits were supposed to be shooters or potential shooters then the coaching has failed miserably. The Smart era defines mediocrity. He won’t get fired given the extension he just received and the economics of the situation so we can expect the same results for the next couple of years, finishing in the lower half of the conference and maybe z bubble team.
 
I've watched very little horns basketball the last few years and even I know this isn't where the program should be in his 4th year. Something needs to change one hell of a lot sooner than later.
 
what's sad is the Lbk tv stations have coverage at the airport when the team arrived, just like they won the NC or something similar...guess we could consider it an honor to be so "important"---haha!
 
Last edited:
Walking Boss said:
Smart isn’t the right fit because he is a poor coach who never out coaches the other side. Smart’s game plan seems to be let’s play with intensity, but with no real plan to channel that intensity to positive results on the offensive end. He may be a good recruiter on paper but I have seen virtually no improvement from the players he recruited. Moreover, it is apparent that he has no idea about recruiting a complementary roster as this is the third year without any consistent shooters, and if some of his recruits were supposed to be shooters or potential shooters then the coaching has failed miserably. The Smart era defines mediocrity. He won’t get fired given the extension he just received and the economics of the situation so we can expect the same results for the next couple of years, finishing in the lower half of the conference and maybe z bubble team.
Click to expand...
 
He received an extension and pay raise after his first Igor second season and the entire contract is fully guaranteed through 2022-23, something like 16 million. No way they pay that and then hire another coach at the same or greater pay. Meanwhile the apathy just grows and grows
 
2014-15 Texas loses a key player, goes 20-14, wins a Big 12 tournament game and loses to a higher-seeded team (6 seed Butler) in the NCAA Tournament. Rick Barnes, making $2.55 million a year, was fired for this.

2015-16 Texas, with an overall more veteran team, loses a key player, goes 20-13, does not win a Big 12 tournament game and loses to a lower-seeded team (11 seed Northern Iowa) in the NCAA Tournament. Shaka Smart, making $2.8 million a year with $100,000 raises every year on a guaranteed 7 year contract was given a $100,000 raise on every year left on his contract and a one year extension to 8 guaranteed years.

When the extension happened, I said “this makes no sense. He did the same, if not worse given the higher seed, as what got his predecessor fired. Why would they fire one coach and give the other an extension and raise?”

I was ignored.
 
Last edited:
Augie's team was slumping, time to retire, in comes Pierce, takes a prior losing season team to the regionals 1st year, a game away from the super regionals, second year -- College World Series.

Strong, 3 years, 3 losing seasons, one bowl game -- a loss, in comes Herman, winning season and bowl win, next a 10-win season and a Sugar Bowl victory.

Barnes was slumping -- or stagnant -- maybe time for a change (I didn't think so, but who am I?, and no, Rick's success at DayGlo doesn't mean he'd be doing that in Austin right now, but good for him!), so in comes the bright shiny penny of Smart, and into 4th year now and kind of looks like what Barnes was fired for. After 3 years of Smart. Maybe time for a change.

To survive this year for the next? I'm guessing he's still here for next year pretty much whatever, unless the wheels just totally fall off (losing season, no NCAA, no NIT).

I'd guess if he doesn't make the big dance this year CDC has a coffee with him and offers that if no big dance next year, no Smart at Texas.
 
Last edited:
The economics suggest that regardless of what happens he gets one more year and maybe even two. He may recruit as well as Barnes (open question) but he coaches like Penders and it shows in how his teams perform.
 
No, he should be fired before he can coach another game. He is terrible, just like Strong. Strong took Texas football down, and Smart is taking Texas basketball down.
Barnes should never have been fired. Shiny top should never have been hired.

Barnes at Tennessee:
2015 Overall 15-19 Conf record 6-12
2016 16-16 8-10
2017 26-9 13-5
2018 so far 14-1 3-0
TTL 71-45 30-27

Incompetent Boob at Texas:
2015 20-13 11-7
2016 11-22 4-14
2017 19-15 8-10
2018 so far 10-6 2-2
TTL 60-56 25-33

You are what your record says you are. When you make a mistake, correct it.

Would anyone be suprised if Shiny Top has a losing record this year?

Fire him now.
 
The one thing that gets any coach fired is empty seats and a complete lack of interest. There was not even a game thread for the Texas Tech game. Hard to imagine that interest could get much lower that it is now.
 
Ivan,

Are you suggesting:

1) Billie Powers made a mistake (probably his first one ever)

2) Billie Powers made two mistakes

3) Billie Powers was incompetent like the other Berzerkley rejects we've had as president

4) All the above

5) All the above and more
 
After year one I was all onboard with Smart. Kids were playing hard and we got a few good wins (OU and UNC come to mind). Then Felix graduates and we haven’t had a consistent shooter since. OU gets Trae Young. KU had that Mykulic kid. Even Tech has some knock down shooters. Bringing in Osetkowski has been everything but a total failure. Big unathletic kid who can’t shoot. Kids like Jacob Young and Courtney Ramey are stuck to the bench when they both provide shooting and playmaking. To be fair Febres has shown some outside touch but that’s it. Need to go get some white kids who are dead eye shooters. Offense needs to change. It’s the same crap game after game. Pick and roll over and over. Adjust.
 
Sabre,
You are correct, sir.

I thought Powers was the worst, then we got Fenves.

Back to Powers. It will be interesting to compare Mack’s first three year record at NC to Strong’s first three year record at Texas.
 
It took losing to Kansas to get a new football coach.

UT basketball is now like the Charlie Strong era of “how many bad losses or what kind of bad loss does it take to get a new coach?”

Shaka has had an 11-22 season and lost to A&M, Northwestern, Colorado, UT-Arlington, Kent State, Georgia, TCU multiple times, Radford, Virginia Commonwealth and Providence.... so I do not know what it takes to get a new coach in basketball, but this is not a fun game to play at all.
 
Htown77 said:
so I do not know what it takes to get a new coach in basketball
Click to expand...

Can you research his background to see if he had ancestors in the Confederate Army? Fenves would fire him immediately, albeit in the middle of the night, but at the very least Smart would be in charge of storage units on campus.

:soapbox:
 
SabreHorn said:
Ivan,
Are you suggesting:
1) Billie Powers made a mistake (probably his first one ever)
2) Billie Powers made two mistakes
3) Billie Powers was incompetent like the other Berzerkley rejects we've had as presidnt
4) All the above
5) All the above and more
Click to expand...

I dont think he or Steve would ever admit to that. They were on a mission and accomplished that mission.
 
Dionysus said:
Why are “white kids” needed as shooters?
Click to expand...

I dont know what this is about but we have needed to recruit better outside shooters going back to Barnes. No matter what they looked like. I dont think anyone would even care if we fielded a team comprising wholly of pygmy, cannibalistic lesbians from New Guinea if they could beat Kansas more than once a decade and perhaps avoid losing to non-P5 teams no one has ever heard of.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Recent Threads

Back
Top