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Fire Shaka Smart


smokebomb

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uh oh Smart might be losing Cronkite!

PREVENT OFFENSE

I’m sure there’s some statistical validity to bleeding clock when you’re up by 14 points with eight minutes and change left in the game, but at a certain point you have to start running your offense at a reasonable tempo. You aren’t Virginia who excels playing in the tempo of a lethargic snail, get into the offense already. You know what’s more effective than slicing 15 seconds off the clock in each possession? Getting open shots in a game where you’re shooting 50+%.

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8 minutes ago, A-Tex Devil said:

Craig way to Shaka: "If you have not been dealt this talent for coaching basketball, what would you be doing?"

Code for: “What are you doing next year?”

yeah or "what else can you do with your basketball coaching skills, specifically recruiting, by which I mean how do you feel about selling used sports cars to middle aged tech dweebs for a living?"

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15 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Perfect.

Goodbye. 

God, the fucking pathetic prevarication over there is hilarious. "Sure he hasn't won at Texas, but I want him!" "Who cares if he never won his conference at VCU, they were in the Top 30 three years in a row in a computer doohickey!" "Sure Texas is like .500 this year but they're 27th in KenPom!" "Who cares if they blew a 99% win @ Baylor, didn't you see how PASSIONATE he was on the sideline?"

If they're that much in love with everything besides wins, then they fucking deserve him. 

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Anyone stalling with 10 plus minutes left is a pussy, do you ever see coach k getting a big lead by getting quality shots and then deciding to go super slow stall? Shaka is terrible and that’s why he did that. I hate that shit in football too with an entire qtr left let’s run “ rb dive” 3 times and punt to milk 2 minutes off the clock. Fucking dumb and it almost always backfires.

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7 minutes ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

Anyone stalling with 10 plus minutes left is a pussy, do you ever see coach k getting a big lead by getting quality shots and then deciding to go super slow stall? Shaka is terrible and that’s why he did that. I hate that shit in football too with an entire qtr left let’s run “ rb dive” 3 times and punt to milk 2 minutes off the clock. Fucking dumb and it almost always backfires.

Yup. I can maybe understand limiting their possession but I’m also from the school of keep doing what you’re doing until they stop you. 

 

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55 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

...bae533f6ed819f97f6d632c10b705fda.jpg

Thought it was an unwritten rule that coaches do not talk to other team players.  I remember Abe Lemons went mushroom cloud on Eddie Sutton one time because Sutton said something to one of his players (Lance Blanks or Johnny Moore?).  They had to restrain Lemons from going after Sutton because he got so hot.

Edited by Horn80
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24 minutes ago, Queen Bitch said:

Saw the score with 12 min or whatever left to play and I knew. I KNEW.

Yep, every time I watch Texas Men’s basketball and they are ahead towards the end, in the back of my mind I think “how are they going to blow this?” Shaka needs to go.

Edited by Brandywine
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3 hours ago, Horn80 said:

Thought it was an unwritten rule that coaches do not talk to other team players.  I remember Abe Lemons went mushroom cloud on Eddie Sutton one time because Sutton said something to one of his players (Lance Blanks or Johnny Moore?).  They had to restrain Lemons from going after Sutton because he got so hot.

Abe was long gone by the time Lance Blanks and BMW ran game around here.

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6 hours ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

Anyone stalling with 10 plus minutes left is a pussy, do you ever see coach k getting a big lead by getting quality shots and then deciding to go super slow stall? Shaka is terrible and that’s why he did that. I hate that shit in football too with an entire qtr left let’s run “ rb dive” 3 times and punt to milk 2 minutes off the clock. Fucking dumb and it almost always backfires.

With about 9 mintues left in the second  up by probably 17-18 I watched a possession where we passed up three beautiful wide the fuck open shots only to pass the ball around the perimeter another 15 seconds and be rushed into a shitty, contested long two that bricked off the rim.

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1 minute ago, D_Goose said:

With about 9 mintues left in the second  up by probably 17-18 I watched a possession where we passed up three beautiful wide the fuck open shots only to pass the ball around the perimeter another 15 seconds and be rushed into a shitty, contested long two that bricked off the rim.

We're a poorly coached team.  I sighted 3 instances in OU game thread where Shaka was exposed for the fraud he is.  I support the Horns to the end, but ill be damned if this isnt Strong 2.0.

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13 hours ago, Horn80 said:

Thought it was an unwritten rule that coaches do not talk to other team players.  I remember Abe Lemons went mushroom cloud on Eddie Sutton one time because Sutton said something to one of his players (Lance Blanks or Johnny Moore?).  They had to restrain Lemons from going after Sutton because he got so hot.

Abe wanted to rip Eddie’s Sunday clothes, liquidate his ass or something to that effect. 

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1 hour ago, Underdog said:

Abe wanted to rip Eddie’s Sunday clothes, liquidate his ass or something to that effect. 

Those Texas-Arkansas games in those days were amazing.  Nothing comes close today but then Texas basketball sucks these days.

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43 minutes ago, Horn80 said:

Those Texas-Arkansas games in those days were amazing.  Nothing comes close today but then Texas basketball sucks these days.

Any Arkansas with more than two brain cells to rub together (so, about eight percent of their fan base) would agree. The move to the SEC hasn't been good for Arkansas. They would have won the 1994 national championship without changing conferences and they've only occasionally been relevant since the '95 team lost to UCLA in the championship game. 

Maybe they have sort of an A&M-Alabama "rivalry" with Kentucky. I wouldn't know since no one other than Arkansas fans thinks that's a thing.

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28 minutes ago, SwanderedTalent said:

Any Arkansas with more than two brain cells to rub together (so, about eight percent of their fan base) would agree. The move to the SEC hasn't been good for Arkansas. They would have won the 1994 national championship without changing conferences and they've only occasionally been relevant since the '95 team lost to UCLA in the championship game. 

Maybe they have sort of an A&M-Alabama "rivalry" with Kentucky. I wouldn't know since no one other than Arkansas fans thinks that's a thing.

You could make an argument that is true for most schools that left too.

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In all honesty, despite being the main focus of everyone's ire in Longhorn basketball fandom, there's really not a a whole lot wrong tactically with what we run on offense (despite not having the guard play to run it at a consistently elite level). His offense has consistently manufactured wide open shots over at least the past 2 years. If more of us watched college basketball beyond just the Horns you'd notice just how poor a quality of offensive ball is played on the college level overall. Even your Gonzagas of the world will have multiple possessions in a row of players just standing around watching and poor ball movement. That's simply the game on this level. For proof, take a look at our offensive ratings this year (#20 kenpom offensive efficiency rating). 

That being said, our shot discipline, situational decision making (especially in crunch time), and lack of outright toughness to get a needed rebound or loose ball are our critical flaws. In my opinion, our issues this year and throughout Shaka's tenure are more on the intangibles side of basketball as opposed to his tactics and strategy. 


1.) Our rebounding and play to play decision making issues aren't things that can be fleshed out and solved with a strategy session. There's something inherently flawed with the discipline of Shaka's teams. We consistently make the wrong decisions at the wrong times and don't display the play to play tenacity to end possessions when we need to. Our defensive rating metrics are somewhat higher than they should be due to the fact that even though we consistently stop teams on their initial possessions they often get more offensive boards than our size should allow. This artificially inflates our defensive efficiency ratings beyond what our defense is actually doing since we constantly increase our opponents possessions. Our poor rebounding is ultimately due to the lack of discipline to consistently do the small things. True, our bigs this year are young and lack girth, but our rebounding issues have been a problem from day 1 of his regime. 

2) In season development Shaka simply doesn't do a good job of developing his bench/roster throughout the season. Someone like Hepa should've played much more this year. More meaningful play earlier in the year would've been deposits that we'd be cashing in on right now. A guy like Liddell will no doubt transfer this offseason and become a big contributor for another team some time down the line. We saw this same thing happen with players like James Banks, Jacob Young, Jordan Barnett, and eventually we'll see it with Royce Hamm. Either his evaluations are abysmal or he doesn't have a good read on his talent. Gerald Liddell over a guy like Matthew Mayer looks to be a miss as was Jacob Young over Carsen Edwards. Regardless, consistently having guys transfer after one or 2 years in the program is a 4 alarm blaring signal that something is amiss. 

3) The discipline issues and knowing when to do the right things on the court are evident. And the often times these issues manifest themselves off the court as exemplified with Tevin Mack, Kerwin Roach (seriously 3 suspensions in your career, 2 of them as a senior year; are you fucking kidding me), & even Eric Davis. Reid Gettys mentioned it today. It's right to love your players and show them that often, but tough love is part of that love and it helps them grow to become the best they can be. 

In summation Shaka's failure here aren't necessarily of the X's and O's variety despite claims to the contrary, they're due to the other end of the spectrum when it comes to coaching acumen, intangibles/critical decision making.

Edited by Catdaddyhorn
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10 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

In all honesty, despite being the main focus of everyone's ire in Longhorn basketball fandom, there's really not a a whole lot wrong tactically with what we run on offense (despite not having the guard play to run it at a consistently elite level). His offense has consistently manufactured wide open shots over at least the past 2 years. If more of us watched college basketball beyond just the Horns you'd notice just how poor a quality of offensive ball is played on the college level overall. Even your Gonzagas of the world will have multiple possessions in a row of players just standing around watching and poor ball movement. That's simply the game on this level. For proof, take a look at our offensive ratings this year (#20 kenpom offensive efficiency rating). 

That being said, our shot discipline, situational decision making (especially in crunch time), and lack of outright toughness to get a needed rebound or loose ball are our critical flaws. In my opinion, our issues this year and throughout Shaka's tenure are more on the intangibles side of basketball as opposed to his tactics and strategy. 


1.) Our rebounding and play to play decision making issues aren't things that can be fleshed out and solved with a strategy session. There's something inherently flawed with the discipline of Shaka's teams. We consistently make the wrong decisions at the wrong times and don't display the play to play tenacity to end possessions when we need to. Our defensive rating metrics are somewhat higher than they should be due to the fact that even though we consistently stop teams on their initial possessions they often get more offensive boards than our size should allow. This artificially inflates our defensive efficiency ratings beyond what our defense is actually doing since we constantly increase our opponents possessions. Our poor rebounding is ultimately due to the lack of discipline to consistently do the small things. True, our bigs this year are young and lack girth, but our rebounding issues have been a problem from day 1 of his regime. 

2) In season development Shaka simply doesn't do a good job of developing his bench/roster throughout the season. Someone like Hepa should've played much more this year. More meaningful play earlier in the year would've been deposits that we'd be cashing in on right now. A guy like Liddell will no doubt transfer this offseason and become a big contributor for another team some time down the line. We saw this same thing happen with players like James Banks, Jacob Young, Jordan Barnett, and eventually we'll see it with Royce Hamm. Either his evaluations are abysmal or he doesn't have a good read on his talent. Gerald Liddell over a guy like Matthew Mayer looks to be a miss as was Jacob Young over Carsen Edwards. Regardless, consistently having guys transfer after one or 2 years in the program is a 4 alarm blaring signal that something is amiss. 

3) The discipline issues and knowing when to do the right things on the court are evident. And the often times these issues manifest themselves off the court as exemplified with Tevin Mack, Kerwin Roach (seriously 3 suspensions in your career, 2 of them as a senior year; are you fucking kidding me), & even Eric Davis. Reid Gettys mentioned it today. It's right to love your players and show them that often, but tough love is part of that love and it helps them grow to become the best they can be. 

In summation Shaka's failure here aren't necessarily of the X's and O's variety despite claims to the contrary, they're due to the other end of the spectrum when it comes to coaching acumen, intangibles/critical decision making.

while I appreciate your knowledge, this guy has all but one year in his career showing he is an average coach.  per CDC we are not looking for anything close to average.  I would submit that if you look at the metrics either A) His X's and O's on the offensive end are pretty poor or B) he has no idea how to recruit shooters or coach shooting.  

If we are looking for a top 30 type program with 1st or 2nd round bounce outs he is our guy. its clear that either his offense or offensive recruiting is poor, in addition to the other things you mention.

Guys don't need a friend they need a coach and that is why they are transferring/screwing up.

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A team reflects its coach. Maybe not on any given play or game, but after awhile that’s who the team becomes. And Shaka’s teams play as if they know there are going to be clutch meltdowns, both physical and mental. Through a void of leadership (perhaps somewhat related to difficulty identifying prospects with the right mental attributes), Shaka’s Texas teams have been trained to believe they’re losers. It’s now virtually self-fulfilling.

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2 hours ago, dcar00 said:

while I appreciate your knowledge, this guy has all but one year in his career showing he is an average coach.  per CDC we are not looking for anything close to average.  I would submit that if you look at the metrics either A) His X's and O's on the offensive end are pretty poor or B) he has no idea how to recruit shooters or coach shooting.  

If we are looking for a top 30 type program with 1st or 2nd round bounce outs he is our guy. its clear that either his offense or offensive recruiting is poor, in addition to the other things you mention.

Guys don't need a friend they need a coach and that is why they are transferring/screwing up.

I've said it before, Shaka's guard/wing evaluation is pretty poor given what he wants to do. A ball dominant PG like Coleman who isn't a consistent shooting threat is the EXACT wrong type of guard to fill up on in this system IMO. Combo guys like Ramey and Andrew Jones who are smart and can do a lot of things well are what you want. That being said, having a Coleman type guard isn't a totally bad thing in this offense provided that more times than not you pair him with wings who aren't just stand still jumper shooters. You need guys out there with him who are savvy (ie know when to dive into lanes and know where to move on the court), who can also do 3 or 4 things well (ie shoot, drive, pass, finish at the rim).  Running Coleman out there with just Febres and Roach as his wings often kills the flow and continuity of the offense. Guys tend to stand around and watch. Febres can't really handle the ball and Roach doesn't move well off the ball.

This is now 2 games in a row where the combination of Mitrou-Long and Ramey entering the game along with either Febres or Coleman changed the look and overall flow of our offense. Ramey and Mitrou-Long are combo guards who can play both with, and without the ball. Where they differ from Roach is that they're both just savvy guys (or hoopers as Derka likes to say) who intuitively know how to play the game and move without the ball. Mitrou-Long is limited in a lot of areas physically so there's a limit to how much he can help, but his intelligence along with Hepa when he's out there is infectiousness. Suddenly the other guards and players start to cut into open spaces. You look up and the same offense that we've been running all season suddenly looks different because smarter guys are on the court affecting change. Everybody who has ever played basketball at any level or at a local Rec or Y knows the difference when you play with a couple guys who are constantly passing, moving, and diving to the basket as opposed to playing with a bunch of guys who pound the air out of the ball. The former makes you move and pass while the latter makes you stand still and watch. It's similar to what happens to us as social beings when we see someone yawn or smile. Their actions affect you. 

A guy like Nick Weiler-Babb of Iowa St (he's from Arlington, TX) is an example of a guy who wasn't really highly rated (or even thought of as a PG), but because of how he plays (and how well he can shoot) ends up being better for Shaka's system than Coleman, Roach, or even Febres.  If you watch open floor, ball screen teams like Gonzaga or Michigan they have a lot of Nick Weiler-Babb type guards out there filling up their roster. Nothing that's obviously special or elite, but a bunch of guys who affect the mental approach to the game offensively. 

Edited by Catdaddyhorn
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