OT link: Shaka Smart agrees to Texas job
Not necessarily. A well-run offense with good ballmovement can get open looks. Those Pete Carrill Princeton teams didn't win with athleticism. What you do need is shooters, but those aren't that hard to find.
He won conference championships in two different conferences while at VCU. Including THIS SEASON.
Not conference tournament. I put more stock in a regular season championship.
He's been to the tournament 5 times in 6 years...that's more than Michigan can say.
He's also just had some REALLY bad luck when it comes to his tournament draw. How many times has he lost to a team worse than his own?
He ran into the player of the year and the hottest team in the country one year. This year he took his undermanned team to OT against OSU who was seeded 2-3 spots too low. Last year he played one of the best mid-major teams in the country and an obvious upset pick in Stephen F. Austin.
Losing to Michigan, SFA and OSU in the past 3 years isn't a knock, that's just bad luck. Those 3 teams were ALL very good when compared to VCU.
It's just like Wichita St. getting knocked out by Kentucky last year. That's just bad luck...that's not a knock on them or Gregg Marshall. They met freaking KENTUCKY in the 2nd round.
VCU is still VCU, it's not like we're talking about Kansas. There is a team that consistently losses early, even to good teams (like that same Michigan team), but they don't get the excuse like Wichita St. and VCU get. They have to win some of those "pick'em" games.
The fact that we can even compare VCU to Kansas is a monumental feat in itself.
How many people were picking VCU over Michigan in that game. Michigan was definitely not the hottest team in the country going into that game. Hell, Michigan didn't even look all that good in their first round game against South Dakota St. They got hot during and after the VCU game.
Look, I think he's very overrated. Hope he proves me wrong.
I think VCU bombed Akron(?) by like 50 in their opening round game and we looked not-so-great vs SoDak St in our opening round. Eeeevvveryone was picking VCU to beat us, and often by a significant amount. That game was the tipping point from where Michigan was petering out to end the season to where we were the hot tournament team. The fact that we crushed VCU was shocking to pretty much everyone outside of Ann Arbor
Also, we had just gone 6-6 to finish the regular season/conference tournament.
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No, I was +1'ing the comments re: the VCU game, not necessarily on Smart being overrated. We'll see if he's just a system guy. Everyone thought Beilein was a system guy but he's shown the ability to adapt, change staff when needed, indentify elite talent hiding, and develop his guys. Shaka I think has shown that he's got a great system and he finds guys to play it well.
Hard to say if he has the skills to adapt those skills to a bigger school and make them truly elite because that's what Texas wants - Not a VCU where they're a tournament threat. They'll want Smart to extrapolate results with a more talented roster and make them an elite program
to the 1990 Michigan-Loyola Marymount game when the talent resembled the 1990 UNLV-Loyola Marymount game. (UNLV 131 LMU 101)
...going into that game.
And you can think what you want to think...but to make up bullshit reasoning to support your opinion, makes your opinion bullshit. If you just flat out don't think the man can coach, that's one thing, but to talk about early exits from the tournament like he's Bill Self or JTIII or something is bogus. He's at VCU not Kansas nor Georgetown.
Why won't his system succeed at Texas? WVU changed to a very similar system this year and had far better success in the Big 12 than they should have based on talent alone.
And what's funny is both of those teams have pressed more than VCU has the past couple of years.
Smart and 40 minutes of pressing/HAVOC is the new Beilein and the 1-3-1.
Boom, best analogy I'll make all day.
You mean it'lll be something that announcers bring up constantly even though it's actually only a change-of-pace defense he throws out now and then?
I think Smart's teams are a bit more dependent on their press than Beilein's are on the 1-3-1.
Especially after the loss of Weber.
Did you actually watch them this year?
Every game is a bunch of hype about the HAVOC pressing team - and they never did...they just picked up at 3/4 court and played halfcourt defense. They never ran and trapped unless they were down late.
Just like for years announcers would talk about Beilein and his 1-3-1 and we never ran it. Hell, we'd go 2-3 sometimes and they'd STILL call it a 1-3-1 because they saw zone.
Don't underestimate the fact that everything he has accomplished, he's done it at VCU, where up until recently, it was just a school that every few years might show up in your March Madness bracket as a hopelessly overmatched 14 seed that's just happy to be there. You are looking down at VCU not getting out of the first weekend every year, when getting to play in the first weekend of the tourney every year used to be unheard for them. He's turned them into a team that is always in the postseason, and always a concern when you play them. That's right, you have to be on your A game when VC-friggin-U comes to town now. Yes, they are nothing more than a system, but one that works fairly and allows them to often compete with the big boys.
I don't necessarily think his current scheme will have much if any success playing Big12 teams day in and out, but I think with the players he'll be able to get at Texas, he's a good enough coach to come up with something that will work much better against his new competition. But, we shall see.
Don't underestimate the fact that everything he has accomplished, he's done it at VCU,Here's where I disagree. At this point you can make a case that VCU is an established mid-major program. This is the third straight coach they've sent to a Power 5 conference. The other two (Jeff Capel and Anthony Grant) didn't pan out at their new schools, which would make me a little wary of Smart.
Capel built a foundation, and Grant significantly improved upon it, you are absolutely correct there. They turned VCU into quite a force in the CAA, but one that was still largely irrelevant outside of the conference. Shaka Smart built upon that base and turned VCU into a household name nationally, and put out even better season/conference records than his predecessors, despite VCU's transition to a much more competitive A10 conference. He should rightfully get the credit for VCU being what it is now as I have no doubt that had Grant left the cupboard bare, Smart would've still found success VCU hadn't seen before.
While I'm very interested to see how Capel does the next time he decides to actually accept an offer to be a head coach again, I think Shaka is on a different level than his VCU predecessors. As long as he is able to modify his scheme to fit his new talent, I don't think he will involuntarily be out of a head coaching job anytime soon,
Well, they're a household name because of one magical run in the tournament four years ago. Otherwise he hasn't done much differently than his predecessors. I guess it comes down to how much stock you should put in that 2011 run.
I think you may putting too much stock in that run and ignoring the rest of his accomplishments. Capel and Grant combined for 3 NCAA tourney appearances at VCU. Shaka's been there 5 times in a row with them. Additionally, despite having a more difficult out of conference schedule (thanks to the name recongnition that final for run gave them and preseason tourneys) and a more difficult conference schedule (A10 > CAA), Shaka has something like a .750 winning percentage and is a mainstay in the top 25 rankings. You can certainly say he's overrated and his sucess his simply carryover from where Capel and Grant were headed, but the numbers seem to disagree.
Ultimately, these next few seasons at Texas will tell the truth.
| Year | KenPom Rank | NCAA Round Reached |
| 2010 | 51 | N/A |
| 2011 | 42 | Semis |
| 2012 | 38 | of 32 |
| 2013 | 20 | of 32 |
| 2014 | 17 | of 64 |
| 2015 | 29 | of 64 |
You think Grant goes back to VCU?
An established mid major is still a mid major, is it not? I don't see 5-star recruits knocking at the door begging to come play for VCU.
I also think it's silly to compare Jeff Capel and Anthony Grant to Smart. The level of success is just not comparable.
Grant won 75% of his games at VCU. Smart won 74%. Seems pretty comparable to me.
If that team is healthy this year they make the sweet 16 at the minimum and likely would have went futher.
VCU was a run of the mill CAA team. Now they are one of the best teams in the A10 and frequently a top 20 team.
People put too much weight on NCAA performance when judging a coach. Yes he has had a couple bad exits in recent years, but his teams have consistently performed at a high level during the regular season. The tournament wins will come.
Texas isn't a basketball school but they are always able to get some great athletes who will be able to run his system effectively. I think this is a great hire personally.
As I posted above...the tournament is about matchups.
Last year's Wichita St. team could've easily made it to the Final Four if they had a better draw. But those are the breaks, and sometimes you end up with Kentucky in the 2nd round.
The exact same thing happened to Gonzaga the year before...they were a 1-seed and they put a hot mid-major in Wichita St. in their region to matchup with them in the 2nd round.
VCU has had a national POY lead Michigan team, a red hot "sexy" mid-major in S.F. Austin and an OSU team led by a top 3 draft pick seeded 2-3 spots too low.
I bet if you go back and look at the other teams seeded where Michigan, SFA and OSU were seeded in that particular year...VCU would beat 2 if not all 3 of the other teams.
On the flip side some teams just get matchup heaven to get some wins. I'm very interested to see if MSU falls in this category on Saturday.
and UP 4, shooting two free throws, with 10 SECONDS LEFT.
VCU missed both free throws, and a VCU freshman subsequently fouled the SFA three point shooter with three seconds left to enable SFA to send the game into OT.
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/playbyplay?gameId=400546917&period=2
Michigan was a horrible matchup for VCU. The committee put a pressing team full of bricklayers against a team of future NBA players that thrived in the open court. What was Shaka to do?
This year, OSU was able to stay with Arizona for a half. With their best player injured, that result was about what was expected.
I live in Richmond and the city has a near funeral palor over it today. Ironically, for the 150th anniversary, they're doing this light show all weekend (starting yesterday) at night to recreate Richmond burning to the ground. . . which was about the most fitting metaphor for what being in the Richmond, VA network on social media was like around 10pm last night.
I still question his style and think he really needs to refine his halfcourt offense but he undoubtedly took VCU to a level it was never at including moving to a better conference and major facility upgrades. It was a lot of fun to watch those guy and the excitement in town the last few years and hopefully they don't go cheap and get them a coach who can keep them in the tourney annually which was unthinkable a decade ago.
Shaka was undoubtedly fabulous for VCU, taking that program to heights never seen. No matter how you take a program to newfound heights, you've still taken the program to newfound heights.
It's fair to question whether that will translate to Texas and the B12. My opinion is positive, but it's a fair question.
Good luck to your future rooting interests in VCU. Fellow CAA-to-A10-upgrader-in-the-wake-of-a-surprising-final-four-run George Mason didn't do so well this year at 9-22, although they have rising junior-eligible* Shevon Thompson and a new coach in Dave Paulsen (loser to Michigan at Crisler on November 17 http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400587035, Huge Calves went off for 18 )
*ESPN is wrong in listing Thompson with 2014-2015 junior eligibility
He runs a quirky system, but it's really not much different than the Arkansas "40 minutes of hell" approach. Which has been shown to work with the right coach/talent. Now can he change things up when needed or is he always goinbg to be looking for the "right guys" and able to produce incredible results when he has them and then trail off without.
If Texas can put up with those kind of streaky runs of great success with a few valleys(sound familiar?), he'll do very well there I think. If they want something more stable, I think they're out of luck. Unless you get the absolutely incredible coaches, emphasizing stability gets you Steve Alford. I like this move for Texas.
I really don't understand the people that are so down on Smart. Only Brad Stevens won more games in his first 6 years as a coach, he's won at least 26 games in each season, and he took a team with the word "commonwealth" in their name from the first four to the final four.
HAVOC isn't a gimmic or whatever, it's a style of play with many, many different looks. It's just a press with a cute name. But, Smart is a great leader, and he uses that name and identity and style of play to galvanize and motivate his players. If you've never listened to him speak you're truly missing out on hearing a inspirational leader.
I'm also assuming most of those down on him don't really watch or follow VCU - and I'm not pretending that I watch every game - but they lost their two best players in January and went through a bit of a slump before Smart got them back on track to win their conference tourny. They didn't lose to OSU because they were outcoached, they didn't have the talent to hang.
I will keep John Belien TY very much~
If Beilein retired next year, would you want Smart to coach Michigan? I sure wouldn't. There are better coaches on Michigan's bench.
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Would Shaka Smart be my #1 with a bullet if the Michigan job came open, no. Would I feel it was a home run hire, yes. Is he better than any of Beilein's assistants? Incontrovertedly.
If the choice is between Smart and another outsider, I'd probably take him. But I don't think I'd take him over LaVall Jordan, who knows Beilein's system inside and out and has proven a great developer of backcourt talent.
VCU is one of the few schools I really enjoy watching outside of Michigan. I think Smart is a great coach, and it will certainly be interesting to see how he does at Texas.
If Belein were to retire, it would be hard to look at anyone as a home run coach given that we probably aren't getting anyone like Calipari or Petino the Sr. Given that, I think Smart would be a home run hire. I would also be happy to see Jordan be promoted as the head coach.
Let's face it -- it's going to be really hard (or impossible) to say we're making a step up in coaching once Belein is gone. Honestly though, it may be possible to get a better recruiter that would be able to keep the team at least at the level that it is right now.
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there is a reason Barnes couldn't get UT "over the hump". He was a poor game coach. One more season wouldn't have helped that.
Until Texas plays Tennessee
If the Longhorns wanted someone to breathe a bit of energy into that program, Smart is probably as good a fit as any. Granted, "Havoc" probably doesn't impress in the Big XII quite like it does in the A10, but I still can see a scenario where he might ratchet Texas to another level just with his ability to connect to recruits and players. Maybe that alone helps to a certain extent.
But this is defensible from both sides. Texas had to ditch Barnes, and Smart is still one of the hotter poachable coaches around. Meanwhile, Smart is getting more than he would have at VCU, so if he gets fired, he still makes money on the deal.