Texas has found its successor to Rick Barnes. VCU coach Shaka Smart has agreed to become the next head coach of the Longhorns, according to multiple reports. Smart succeeds Barnes (who landed at Tennessee) after 17 years on the job.
Texas hires Shaka Smart as head coach, per report
The Longhorns finally produced a job opening that enticed Smart to leave VCU.
Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports
Smart was VCU’s head coach for six seasons, and the Rams qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of those last five. Smart shot out of a cannon on to the short list of every major coaching search since 2011 when he took the Rams from the NCAA Tournament’s First Four all the way to the Final Four as a No. 11 seed in just his second season as a head coach. The Rams are 2-4 in the NCAA Tournament since the Final Four run and were eliminated in the round of 64 this year as a No. 7 seed in a 75-72 loss to Ohio State.
Smart has amassed a 163-56 record in six seasons at VCU, and he’s 7-5 in NCAA Tournament play. Prior to his time with the Rams, Smart was an assistant coach at Akron, Clemson and Florida.
The Rams became known under Smart for their full-court press defense -- Smart labeled it the havoc defense -- and Smart’s ability to pull in national-level recruits to a program previously not on that level.
Smart brings a fresh approach to a Texas program that stagnated under Barnes. True, the Longhorns made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances in 17 seasons under Barnes’ watch -- the one season was a CBI appearance in 2013 -- but the Longhorns hadn’t advanced past the first weekend of the tournament in eight of their last 10 trips. Barnes had one Final Four trip, when national player of the year T.J. Ford led Texas there.
But Texas consistently fell short of expectations given Barnes' recruiting ability. He coached future pros such as Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, P.J. Tucker, Tristan Thompson, D.J. Augustin and Cory Joseph at Texas without replicating the NCAA Tournament success he found with Ford.
Barnes has since been hired as head coach at Tennessee.
Smart, who is 37, joins second-year Texas football coach Charlie Strong as the only two black head coaches of a men’s varsity sports team in the school’s history. Smart is now one of three black head men’s basketball coaches in the Big 12, along with TCU’s Trent Johnson and Texas Tech’s Tubby Smith.
★★★
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