What will it take for Shaka to survive this year?

There is most definitely behind the scenes talk going on. Until Beard loses, and also Shaka, there will be "good, bad and ugly" style mexican standoff staring going on. Lets wait for someone to lose first. Then itll get interesting.
 
blonthang said:
that he'd have Texas Tech at Lubbock, Texas in the Final Four within 3 years of his hire?
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That ^^^is pretty salty, no doubt. And I thought that getting them to the elite 8 last year, his 2nd at ttu, was impressive.

Wonder what he'll do next year for an encore?
 
My post in this thread of January 28:

"If Shaka makes the Sweet 16 with this team maybe UCLA will steal him away from Austin."

maybe change it to:

"If Shaka wins the NIT with this team maybe UCLA will steal him away from Austin."
 
blonthang said:
My post in this thread of January 28:

"If Shaka makes the Sweet 16 with this team maybe UCLA will steal him away from Austin."

maybe change it to:

"If Shaka wins the NIT with this team maybe UCLA will steal him away from Austin."
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The question really is “what commitment has UCLA made in hiring minorities for their high profile coaching positions?”. I can’t help but state it has zero to do with “who can help us win?” Because this is college athletics with real student athletes who stay all four years in pursuit of academic excellence first and athletic excellence second....oh wait this is college basketball....
 
Dixon gets UCLA a mediocre non-diversity hire. At least Shaka would give them a mediocre diversity hire. Don't see how winning the NIT (#69th place) firms Shaka's place here.

Red is getting his check writing pen warmed up...
 
You guys need to ease up and find the silver lining. Seems to me that maybe Shaka coaches better in the eastern US than anywhere West of the Mississippi.

We need someone to offer their jet and pilots for a Saturday trip to Bleaksburg for Shaka's interview. Dion, you need to start a fund to buy the only billboard on the only road into Blacksburg extolling the virtues of Shaka as the Hokies new coach.
 
I still can't figure out how Smart could be on any serious coaching hire list with all the blue chip talent he's squandered to a barely .500 record missing the tourney twice in his four years. No NIT performance should turn heads at any major program.
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
I still can't figure out how Smart could be on any serious coaching hire list with all the blue chip talent he's squandered to a barely .500 record missing the tourney twice in his four years. No NIT performance should turn heads at any major program.
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I agree, but if he's hired away, that would probably save us a lot of cash in a payout we can put toward a signing bonus and or salary of a new hire. Just a thought.
 
Maybe the Horns win the NIT and Knicks owner Dolan is so impressed that he immediately hires Shaka as the head coach of the Knicks. Stranger things have happened, just saying.
 
We have committed to the 2020 Maui Invitational
Nov. 23-25, 2020 at the Lahaina Civic Center
Along with UNLV, Stanford, Providence, North Carolina, Indiana, Davidson, and Alabama
5th time for us, first since 2012
 
I'm coming in late to this thread, but I have scanned a number of the postings. I've been very patient with Smart, but have to admit my patience is being stretched to the breaking point. Still, when I analyze the situation, there are some mitigating factors.

1) Point guards are your basketball "QBs", and Smart has had some bad luck with guards (e.g. leukemia, suspension, injury).

2) Texas has had very tough schedules. 2019 in particular was probably in top 10 toughest schedule. We had 3 losses to final 4 teams. We beat top 20 teams UNC, Purdue, Kansas, Kansas State. While Texas was inconsistent, there wasn't a game we played this year, that I didn't think we could win going in. That to me gives a bit of hope for the future.

3) Luck (or volatility of results due to unforeseen events) It is pretty obvious the Roach suspension by itself cost Texas a trip to the NCAA's this year. Roach and the team had seemingly found a rhythm when he got suspended. Yes, I know ultimately the coach must be responsible for his record no matter the reasons. However, sometimes luck does play a roll as results can be very volatile based on just a few events (e.g. losing a top player). Luck can also occur in individual games like it did against Georgia. They shot 3 pointers at an unbelievable level (like they were all Steph Curry). Look up their 3 point percentages in their other games and it is several standard deviations different (off of the top of my head it was like 25%--bad normal, but against Texas like 65%).

4) Youth and time to instill culture and depth. We've had some very good inside talent, but consistent 3 point shooting has been a huge problem. I've asked why can't we have 1 or 2 knockdown 3 point shooters like everyone else? Once again there is some volatility with developing shooters who can take time to achieve the confidence to be consistent. And lets face it, there is some level of hit and miss to recruiting. I had the same problem with Barnes in that there was too much emphasis on athletic defense versus knockdown shooting. We recruit too many of the same kind of player. IMO it is easier to teach defense than to teach outstanding shooting. It is the difference between an outstanding cornerback and receiver.

5) Comparing to Barnes--Tennessee was lucky it didn't lose its second round game against a 10 seed Iowa taking it to OT. My experience with Barnes was unless he had a superguard (TJ Ford or DJ Augustine) who basically created offense on the fly his offenses were pretty pathetic. Barnes teams underperformed for at least the last 5 years of his coaching and his recruiting was falling off. In fact, Barnes only won 3 tournament games in his last 7 years. That means one year's decent run by Shaka could match or exceed the last 7 years of Barnes. Now, Barnes did have some good years, so I'm not trying to say we should settle for the low bar of his final years at Texas. I'm just saying we should not romanticize where we were at with Barnes.

------------------
Summarizing, Shaka has a lot of room for improvement in terms of balanced recruiting (SHOOTING, defense, inside game), and better offensive schemes. I believe he is a very hard worker, a good communicator, and a good recruiter. I don't believe we need to worry about cheating and can be proud of the character of the coach and program. I think this year showed some signs of promise with 3 point shooting and rhythm improving, and guards developing. While Jackson Hays was an incredible raw talent, he lacked the strength, experience and maturity to dominate inside and I think expectations got too high in that regard. As far as offensive schemes, when your outside shooting is terrible in college, it is easiest defense in the world just to collapse into the paint. Then there is no inside game, no driving, no pick and roll, etc. You must be able to spread the floor. When Texas is hitting some 3 pointers, the athleticism of our guys starts to shine through.

Anyway, my bottom line is while I have many reservations about the Shaka era, I still see signs that he could develop a high level team (I actually think we were pretty close this year despite the record). Winning an NIT championship may be a far cry from getting somewhere in the big dance, but it does beat 1st round exits from the NCAA like a number of Big 12 schools did.
 
Granted I am opposed to anything Billie Powers and/or Stevie Patterson did, including the near criminal grossly negligent contracts to all coaches, how long do we give Smart to put a team on the court that is disciplined and plays intelligently?

Not being greedy, if i have to endure (notice I did not say watch) another season of the politically correct experiment, I shall happily accept one of the two.
 
LonghornCatholic said:
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I'm sorry, taking blue chip players to the NIT and winning is not impressive. I'm very happy they did what they should do, but it's not some big achievement nor progress. On the positive side we could have lost in the first round or two. Let's see what happens next year. CDC is definitely reaching for excuses for having to keep him.
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
I'm sorry, taking blue chip players to the NIT and winning is not impressive. I'm very happy they did what they should do, but it's not some big achievement nor progress. On the positive side we could have lost in the first round or two. Let's see what happens next year. CDC is definitely reaching for excuses for having to keep him.
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Theres pressure to keep Smart, possibly only because hes Black. Sue me but UT is definitely on the Identity Politics train. I speculate of course, but the buyout number is also big too. I guess we will find out.
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
I doubt he's in it for the long haul at Tech.
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i wouldn't be so sure.

One never knows for certain of course, but it's already clear he can recruit and win at TT. Tech will certainly pay him handsomely and with the completion of their currently under construction 30 million dollar practice facility, they'll have state of the art facilities.

Very avid, traveling fan base and numerous personal reasons to stay as well (he's lived in Lubbock over 10 years now). If one of the bluest of the blue bloods came calling, perhaps, but IMO it would take a really special offer.
 
lecturer said:
i wouldn't be so sure.

One never knows for certain of course, but it's already clear he can recruit and win at TT. Tech will certainly pay him handsomely and with the completion of their currently under construction 30 million dollar practice facility, they'll have state of the art facilities.

Very avid, traveling fan base and numerous personal reasons to stay as well (he's lived in Lubbock over 10 years now). If one of the bluest of the blue bloods came calling, perhaps, but IMO it would take a really special offer.
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He trained under Knight who had long stays. Lubbock is not for most, but if one can get comfortable there and win, they will treat you well. (Kind of like Patterson and TCU.)
 
ViperHorn said:
He trained under Knight who had long stays.
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I'd suggest Tceh, and more to the point, Lubbock, Texas was a refuge for BK.

He was fired from IU in 2000 because of his history and apparent increasing violent outburst tendencies. This after winning national championships coaching Indiana in 1976, 1981, and 1987.

Lubbock provided a number of things that made for a very nice fit for BK.

It took him out of the bright klieg light glare of the big national media, with Chicago less than 250 miles away, but others closer like Indianapolis, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, etc. This as compared to Lubbock with the Avalanche-Journal and then nothing, I mean NOTHING up to about 350 miles over to DFW....in ANY direction.

Tceh had rather low expectations for their basketball program as compared to the rabidity of basketball fans in the IU area; though to be fair, most fans probably still adored him there in spite of his personality failings. Tceh fans probably just pumped their chests with pride that BK would even COACH there, whether he won or not was probably not that big of a deal, BK chose to come to LUBBOCK. Of course he did okay at Tceh, one Sweet 16, mostly a 20+ game winner, but nothing like he did at IU.

BK is an avid hunter; in fact Barnes gave him a deer hunting rifle for congratulations for, I think, his 900th coaching win, knowing that BK would very much appreciate this as a gift to him. In return BK gave Barnes his coaching notecard (he prepared and used for each game) for that 900th victory game as a momento. I guess there's hunting in Indiana, but West Texas probably gave BK more of an opportunity to partake of one his passions outside of basketball.

For Beard, he's been coaching as an assistant or HC at Texas (state and University of), Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Arkansas, so he apparently has mostly been around the south and southwest, and outside of the big east and west coast metro areas, so Lubbock isn't much different than previous stops. BUT, his first gig WAS in Austin.
 
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