Adam Kilgore recently asked the question everyone had wondered since 2011: Why is Shaka Smart still at VCU?
Smart took VCU to the Final Four that season, and after several attempts to woo Smart away from Richmond, it appeared the coach could be a VCU lifer.
Rams fans and players found out last night that Smart, who led VCU to five NCAA tournament in the past six seasons, would indeed hop on the coaching carousel this offseason. Smart is now the head coach at Texas, replacing Rick Barnes (who is now at Tennessee).
So what to expect from Smart in the Big 12? For starters, this was the perfect move for a coach who was losing two players that defined his strategy (Briante Weber and Treveon Graham). Smart was the boss (cue Rick Ross’s vocal inflection) in Richmond, but he will be the Man in Austin.
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As for expectations, Texas will play Havoc, Smart’s trapping, pressing and generally agitating defensive game plan, but will have much better athletes to execute it. In short, Texas will be similar to Louisville, and Rick Pitino seems to have done pretty well at that ACC school.
Smart will always have an eye for the under-recruited prospect, but he will now be able to access the cream of the Texas recruiting crop, which includes some of the best athletes in the college game at the moment (Justise Winslow, Kelly Oubre, Aaron and Andrew Harrison, etc.).
Using those type of players will make Havoc even more potent, and Smart will import that defensive pressure to a conference where only three teams forced opponents to commit a turnover on at least 20 percent of their possessions including Division I-leading West Virginia.
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Smart’s offense evolved this past season, becoming more pick-and-roll dependent with Melvin Johnson and Graham, and judging by the Longhorns players who are eligible to return next season, he could retain a similar strategy. According to DraftExpress, Myles Turner is the team’s sole official entrant of the NBA draft, and there is a chance Isaiah Taylor, Cameron Ridley, DeMarcus Holland and the several other young Longhorns return to Austin to make the Longhorns a favorite in a very deep Big 12 field.
Smart will likely be under a microscope, but he has shown the ability to continually defy skeptics and with the returning pieces and the style of play he’ll import, he should succeed again.
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