Texas loses at home by 11 to UT Arlington
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@RockChalkinTexas I bet you get a good laugh from it at least.
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Big 12 Standings - Texas at the bottom. Who would have thunk it? Clones lost last night in OT to Cincinnati
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They have another game tonight against Alabama. Could be another update coming
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@BeddieKU23 Broke that 43 home game win streak vs. non-con teams too!
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Having watched a lot of Shaka led VCU living in Richmond, it was apparent that Shaka’s “Havoc” style had the potential for pulling off very big upsets as well as looking really bad against teams that could handle the ball well. I have not watched any Texas this year so I can’t say much about the specifics but I’m very curious about them, is this a personnel problem? Is he still relying on Havoc? Is he trying to change his style? Is the half court offense and defense weak? Where is the breakdown? I probably should go back and watch some of the replays. Anyone with some insights on where they are failing specifically?
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I think the issue starts with the roster. They lost 4 starters and Isiah Taylor was a big loss for them at PG- which I think is the biggest individual position they are having trouble replacing. I don’t see a true point guard on the roster- just a bunch of guys trying. A lot of athletic 2 guards on the team but none of them were known for sharing the ball.
Young team, little chemistry and you get a rocky start. I have no idea if Smart’s havoc style worked at VCU right out of the gate but this is only year 2 and it could take a few more before he has a full roster full of guys that can play that style consistently.
The other big issue seems to be shooting. Mack is a quality perimeter scorer but what else do they got that can make a jump-shot consistently. Taylor was a play-maker, ultra quick and got wherever he wanted on the floor and right now they don’t have one of those guys.
We’ve talked about Shaka’s claim to fame on here a lot and how his style worked with under the radar kids with a chip on their shoulder. It’s a different ball game when you try and bring the same stuff to the big leagues and your recruiting different types of kids- going from 3 star players to 4 star- Top 100 types. It requires a different type of coaching, one I’m not sure Shaka is meant for.
For instance he got Jarrett Allen to stay in Austin and play for Texas and Allen will be in the NBA next year. Not the type of kid he was used to recruiting/developing and training for 4 years which he got at VCU. Allen is not the type of player Shaka would normally recruit to play in his system but because he was a local Top 20 kid he really didn’t have a choice, he had to lock down local talent. Now he’s projected to be OAD and leave a big void in the middle for Texas. He’s not Bill Self or other big-time coaches that can recruit/replace and not miss a beat. Simply, I don’t think he’s a coach that is meant for the upper echelon. Nothing I’ve seen yet to change that opinion.
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Really good point about the difference in recruiting. Shaka was used to 4 year players and also since it was VCU being able to recruit 3 star/NR that fit his system without issue because who at VCU is going to look at their recruiting classes and care?
Also he really was just never that good at VCU. He never should have made the tournament the year they shocked us. 11 losses going in, 4th in their rummy conference and didn’t win their conference tournament. Shaka’s best season at VCU was the year after with 7 losses and his last two years they flamed out in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Shaka was always a farce.
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The absence of a true top tier PG is really hurting Texas this year. At VCU, Smart almost always had an all conference level PG to run his offense. Because his defensive style is so demanding, the role of the PG is to make sure the offense runs smoothly when they are in the half court.
You see this issue with Louisville quite a bit. They are great when they are forcing turnovers and getting into transition, but when they don’t have a top notch PG, they struggle in the half court. Of course, Pitino has been doing this at a high level for 25 years, so he knows how to adapt. Smart is still putting that together, particularly since his roster at Texas is still in transition from Barnes to his style.
Smart is a very good coach. I have watched his work in the USA Basketball program. He knows what he is doing. He’s at least an able recruiter. That just hasn’t come together yet at Texas. I hope both for his sake and for the Big 12’s sake that Texas gives him a legitimate opportunity. KU needs to see different styles from good teams during the conference season. That’s why I enjoyed having Hoiberg around, and having Baylor’s zone look. Adding Smart and a modified Havoc to the slate gives the Big 12 another style that KU will see twice a year to help prepare for the tournament.
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Good detail about the lack of a top PG. You are right the PG spearheads what he wants to do on both sides of the ball- often times the extension of Smart on the floor.
Another point I didn’t really detail that is lacking with this team is 3 point shooting. I mentioned Mack is a quality shooter- kind of like a poor mans Andrew White. VCU always had a bunch of these types, Texas does not. This is year 2 of him not having the type of shooters he needs. Playing pressure defense and making 3’s was always a big part of VCU’s success.
Having said all that, I think Pressure defense & 3 point shooting can often be what we call “fools gold”. If you don’t have the roster, perfected, what does a coach like Shaka hang his head on from game to game. While he’s still transitioning I don’t see a coach that great when he doesn’t have everything in place for him. We know what Self teaches and preaches every year and most of the time he’s consistent getting guys to do exactly what he wants no matter the turnover, no matter the roster makeup. Maybe its unfair to mention Self & Shaka together for any comparison sake but Shaka gets press like he’s this unbelievable coach but yet we see plenty of evidence that suggest he’s a bit overrated. I still think the jury is out whether Texas was the right choice for him
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I think Shaka is a medium-level coach. And it is up to him to prove people like me wrong.
I think he lost some of his persona advantage he had earlier in his career. He always had his teams carrying a chip because they were huge underdogs once they left their conference to face the real world.
Another thing… he was young back then. The youth factor was part of his persona of being “outside mainstream”… just more chip material for him and his players.
Now Shaka is mainstream. He can’t play the underdog card any longer. He isn’t young anymore. He is in the middle of the pack. So he has a tougher road ahead of him. And he is coaching at a school where basketball isn’t considered anywhere near the universe of football.
If he can bring Texas to the top, he will earn respect from me and admiration as a great coach. I’m not holding my breath…
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@BShark said:
He never should have made the tournament the year they shocked us. 11 losses going in, 4th in their rummy conference and didn’t win their conference tournament.
Heck, I thought you were talking about KU’s 1988 championship team! Except we were 3rd in a much harder conference. Still, some thought we should not have gotten an invite and were there only because of Danny’s rep. Most losses by any champ up to then!
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@drgnslayr said:
I think Shaka is a medium-level coach. And it is up to him to prove people like me wrong.
This is exactly where I view him as well. 8-14 loss per season type coach. The bottom will likely never fall out, but don’t expect too many 32+ win seasons either. Lots of coaches in this range and there is nothing wrong with it but Texas may want more at some point.
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Article from the old guy sports writer here in Austin addresses @approxinfinity questions and mirrors somewhat @BeddieKU23 is saying:
Bohls: Shaka Smart’s Longhorns are enduring groaning pains
Posted December 1st, 2016
With the clock ticking down on Texas’ first home loss of the season Tuesday night, it became readily apparent to the small crowd on hand that the Longhorns were missing just one valuable piece of the puzzle.
Yeah, last year’s starting lineup.
A Texas team that said goodbye to all five starters looked a whole lot like just that when a solid, veteran Texas-Arlington team took the Longhorns apart 72-61 at the Erwin Center, revealing some glaring errors that are obvious for all to see:
The lack of a creative, confident point guard to get open shots for his teammates.
Atrocious perimeter shooting from behind the line.
Very little experience inside and an inability to feed the ball there.
Nothing of substance from the few older players outside of guards Kerwin Roach and Tevin Mack.
Otherwise, this looks like a Big 12 contender. Yeah, in 2018.
And the reaction from Tuesday’s loss?
“Everybody’s mad,” said Roach, a sophomore guard and one of the few Longhorns who played well. “A lot of things are not going our way. We’re a young team. We’re not going to be great in one day.”
Where have we heard that before? It’s a recurring theme around these parts. We’ll gladly settle for being great in a month, especially with four newcomers and a fifth on the way in the rehabbing Mareik Isom. Heck, we’ll settle for good. But the concerns are real for a team that’s not playing an overly taxing non-conference schedule, including Alabama here on Friday.
Those growing pains are looking more like groaning pains as Texas (3-3) continues to struggle with forming an identity it can build around. For now, this is not a very good basketball team.
But Tuesday’s game was in November. And Texas does have athletes. And a very good coach. And the Longhorns will get better.
However, is it remotely close to defining a reliable identity?
“No, no,” second-year head coach Shaka Smart said. “That’s something as a coach you can kind of hammer guys over the head with. Some guys on the team are playing with a level of tension or playing not to make a mistake.”
For now, a Texas club that has lost three straight in embarrassing fashion, two of them in New York City, appears to be facing an uphill climb to respectability. Smart continues to keep a stiff upper lip, the same one he may be biting to hold back for fear of being overly critical and paralyzing a roster chock full of impressionable freshmen.
“I’d say our identity should be defense, being aggressive, an offense playing through Jarrett (Allen) and Shaq (Cleare),” Roach said.
The defense has been lacking. Four of Texas’ guards are shooting .250 percent or worse from behind the line, including Roach (two of 12), Eric Davis Jr. (six of 36) and Jacob Young (four of 20). They had nine turnovers in the second half alone Tuesday. Other than a terrific Allen, the Texas bigs are offensively challenged. The foul-prone Cleare averages 4.8 points a game and James Banks just 2.4.
Was Smart stunned by the lethargic, inconsistent performance that produced the school’s first loss to UTA in school history after 11 consecutive victories in the series?
“I’m disappointed,” he said softly. “They’re a really good team. Obviously we struggled to shoot the ball throughout the game, and when your offense isn’t going the way you want it to go as a team or as individuals, and when your offense isn’t going the way you want it to go, there’s a residual affect on your defense. And that’s not acceptable.”
Texas is getting erratic play out of his older players. Kendal Yancy and Davis, two players who were on the floor a lot last season, were no-shows against UTA. The same goes for Cleare. Those three started but combined for two points and hit one of 11 shots with Davis going 0-for-6 from long range.
“I honestly don’t know why (Davis is struggling),” Roach said. “In practice he’s a killer, knocks down shots.”
In the final three-plus minutes of crunch time, Smart had as many as three freshmen on the floor. And he may ride with those newcomers more frequently — namely Allen, athletic Andrew Jones and Young, who has yet to show he’s the pure shooter that was expected.
There’s nothing to say Smart can’t be harder on his rookies.
Did you hear Tom Izzo’s tough-love message on Tuesday night? He’s got six freshmen and three sophomores on his roster.
“I know they’re freshmen, but they’ve played a lot of minutes,” the Michigan State coach said after his Spartans fell to a ranked team for the fourth time this season. “It’s time to stop making excuses.”
So is Shaka coddling his team? Maybe a little. But they shouldn’t be this fragile. If they are, they shouldn’t be here.
UTA coach Scott Cross, whose NCAA Tournament-caliber team returned six starters if you count future NBA forward Kevin Hervey coming off knee injury, suggests Longhorn fans won’t recognize this team in February.
“They’re going to be really good by the time they get into conference,” Cross said. “Coach Smart is one of the best at rallying his team together and getting everybody on the same page. Once they find their rhythm and identity, they’ll give teams a lot of problems.”
As for now, Texas is the one with a lot of problems.
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Texas beat Alabama after trailing by 12 at halftime. To be fair- Alabama would be the worst team in the Big-12 if they were in the conference.
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@BeddieKU23 Bama’s downfall was they kept chucking up 3’s and not even getting net late in the 2nd half while Texas tried to bail them out from the FT line.
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Yupp Alabama was terrible in that 2nd half, almost like they stopped playing hard after getting a lead. Bama is a bottom 5 SEC team.
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@RockChalkinTexas Jaw dropping times for TX athletics. I’m waiting for the day it becomes a Shaka-dropping time.
Remember that UT burnt orange Tshirt from 2015: “Smart and Strong”. Well, they are neither.
When a TX high school coach, no previous head coaching experience (David Beaty), who happens to have 51 Texas kids (3star players) on his KU roster, is able to beat the vaunted Univ. of Texas, think what that means for not only Beaty and his kids, but also for UT and its empire and burnt-orange legions.
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@approxinfinity I always thought the biggest proof that made me suspect of Shaka Smart, was that he couldnt even win his POS conference, could he? (sorry to mince words). Hey anybody can have a cinderella win over a big name team in March, does Bucknell or Bradley sound familiar…but what is the performance over time, thats how we say “proven”. The last 4 years prior to TX hiring Shaka, he didnt win his own conference. KU has 1 Shining Moment. Shaka has a fading 1 Cinderella run.
And a corollary to this is TX hiring Charlie Strong after only 2 superlative seasons…in a lesser non-pwr5 conference. We see that didnt translate either. Not enough proof. Something Shaka is learning right now.
I dont get these KU fans who say Shaka is a “good coach”–> where does that sentiment come from? Whats the proof?
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Shaka Smart and the University of TX: The “havoc” is within the Longhorns locker room…
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Texas Bama bball game would be like KU vs another 1-2 win P5 football team. Dog with fleas.
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@BeddieKU23 Whoa!
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This made me laugh pretty good just noticed it.
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Bump for blowing a game against Michigan. It was on the road but still.
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they sure did blow it in the last minute or so.
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Coach Self has replaced all 5 starters before and continued to win the conference; this the difference between a HOF coach and one that has never won a single conference title, even in mid0-major conferences. I believe the Peter’s principle has caught up with Shaka Smart.
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Yep. Up 2 with the ball and 1:30 left. Far from automatic but it comes down to coaching (and shot making) in critical situations like that.
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@BShark 4-4 now. Lost 4 of their last 5 games.
