Fire Shaka Smart

[Brothahorn 10085]

11 hours ago, Fastbreak said:

Loyola-Chicago has won more tourney games this year than we have in the last 9 years combined...

Meh, we have more NBA players. That's what college basketball is all about.

[rickyspub 801]

Improvement is key and after that what CDC then sets as the floor when Shaka maxes out. I still think next year we will win at least a few more games due to the combination of the conference losing so much talent and our talent getting a year older. That will give him year 5. I think with Coleman as an upperclassmen, so long as Shaka doesn't run off the rest of the experience chasing one-and-done guys, we will peak that year (then I assume Coleman goes pro after his junior year). Will it be a Final Four like with TJ? Can he or does he need to maintain that sort of level to keep his job or will a series of mediocre season like Barnes had post 2008 get him a quicker hook without the early success Barnes built to shore up his tenure? I figure Shaka is here until at least 2022.  I can only hope he figures it out and ultimately 'out-Jay-Wright's Jay Wright, but if not his teams will probably do just enough to get him another 4+ years.

Edited March 27, 2018 by rickyspub

[DubyaC 0]

Can Osetkowski make more than 1/10 of his layups?

[Braff Zacklin 13418]

No.

[UDontKnow 10439]

44 minutes ago, DubyaC said:

Can Osetkowski make more than 1/10 of his layups?

Can we blame Goo Punch for it? 

[Guest Guest]

On 3/26/2018 at 12:09 AM, Leeroy Jenkins said:

A guest can post?

Markstanco here testing this theory out incognito mode....

[PantsTent 2002]

So if I have a question, do I PM Derka or Goo Punch?

[Machinator 32097]

Yes.

[Tommy Nobis 905]

4 minutes ago, PantsTent said:

So if I have a question, do I PM Derka or Goo Punch?

why not both?

[juan pantages 124]

let's hire two head coaches, that would be more better, right?

[Bingo 4]

I'm here for the Derka (Goo Punch) memes

[closetojumping 62237]

Irrespective of anyone's feelings about someone else, it is a fucking bitchass move to come over here and steal another dude's handle. If that is what The Flagship did to Derka, he should be fucking banned/negged/whatever the fuck. I hate that kind of spineless shit and it's entirely indicative of a whole subsegment of fuckheads inside the Shaggy/Surly culture. 

Edited March 27, 2018 by closetojumping

[BigOrange1 6422]

2 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Irrespective of anyone's feelings about someone else, it is a fucking bitchass move to come over here and steal another dude's handle. If that is what The Flagship did to Derka, he should be fucking banned/negged/whatever the fuck. I hate that kind of spineless shit and it's entirely indicative of a whole subsegment of fuckheads inside the Shaggy/Surly culture. 

i just don't even understand the mindset that leads one to do that.  like, it never once occurred to me to rush over here and register someone else's handle.  it just never entered my mind.  but apparently someone did it to me as well because when i tried to register "BigOrange" it told me the handle was already taken.  

[naija 2854]

That’s why it’s good to be Black. Nobody wants to be the Black guy. Handle stays safe

[Braff Zacklin 13418]

For a brief moment, I was tempted to register "KevinFuckinMorgan," but then I realized that I'd either be negged to Bolivia or at least 20 other people had already done the same, so I just went with ol' Braff.

[closetojumping 62237]

21 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

We’re not serious about competing in basketball if simply making the tournament guarantees that the HC keeps his job, particularly after such an underwhelming first three years.

I understand your pain regarding the Shaka moment within UT's basketball program.  I feel nothing but black rage when this kind of shit happens with UT football or the Astros, and it bothers me a great deal in UT hoops, baseball, and to a lesser extent the other sports at Texas as well, men's and women's. 

That all considered, you are wrong in your assessment of both CDC and the future focus from a segment of boosters on the basketball program. There was simply no way to make it all work and show Shaka the door this year. I don't expect improvement next year, and I do expect that he'll be gone. I don't think CDC is going to mess around with showing poor coaching performers the door. His legacy at UT will depend on that, because they need to be winning to create the interest in the capital projects that he'd like to be pulling off.

[ClubWhatever 12087]

19 hours ago, Cashcar said:

Giving up on Shaka after 3 years, with all the challenging bad luck he endured, is rather short-sighted. I will say his miscalculation on Zay going pro in Year 2 was his own doing. However, losing AJ1 to Leukemia for most of this season plus Eric Davis (FBI probe) and Mo Bamba (toe injury) during the stretch run is not something many teams recover from. AJ1 was shooting 46% from 3 point range, taking ball-handling pressure off Coleman, and playing excellent D when he was lost. With him healthy, this team probably wins 23 to 25 games prior to the NCAA Tournament. I was pleasantly surprised to see the energy Texas played with most of this season, when it would have been easy for the team to give up. That is a long term positive sign with Shaka.

Does Shaka need to improve the offense? Certainly. I'd like to see more movement and off ball screens. However, I don't expect him to deviate away from his ball screen offense. If guys hit shots and make the right reads, the ball screen offense can be effective. Snoop is evolving as a shooter and Elijah Long shot nearly 40% at Mount St. Mary's. Then you are left with plenty of wildcards next year: Will AJ1 make it back (if so, excellent shooter)? Will Eric Davis make it back (not likely unfortunately)? Will Jase Febres improve (has good form, so I am optimistic)? Can anyone from the Freshman standout as a shot-maker (Kemaka Hepa is my vote)?

These are just words.  The product on the court does not support optimism even taking into account the mitigating factors. More often than not his teams do not show the mental toughness necessary to gut out tight games.  In the Big 12 that will get you sub .500 records.  He seems like a class guy and a good mentor to a certain type of kid but that’s not enough in such a cutthroat game.  

[formermav43 4599]

1 hour ago, ClubWhatever said:

These are just words.  The product on the court does not support optimism even taking into account the mitigating factors. More often than not his teams do not show the mental toughness necessary to gut out tight games.  In the Big 12 that will get you sub .500 records.  He seems like a class guy and a good mentor to a certain type of kid but that’s not enough in such a cutthroat game.  

I strongly disagree with this. This team was nothing but mental toughness. Of all their many faults, that’s one of the actual strengths they possessed.

[dieucla98 2936]

I want him gone this year but Shaka will be our coach next year unless he takes some other job. CDC has been on campus less than one year,  the team lost their best player to cancer, a host of injuries/suspensions, and Shaka still got us to the tournament - given all that, the visual of firing him would deter a lot of potential candidates from the job.

However, a repeat of this year and he's deservedly toast. Even a minor improvement and he's toast.

[txhorns 2408]

16 hours ago, ClubWhatever said:

These are just words.  The product on the court does not support optimism even taking into account the mitigating factors. More often than not his teams do not show the mental toughness necessary to gut out tight games.  In the Big 12 that will get you sub .500 records.  He seems like a class guy and a good mentor to a certain type of kid but that’s not enough in such a cutthroat game.  

How do they lack mental toughness? Yes they lost a bunch of close games but they were also younger than everybody else.  Seniors win close games and we didn't have a single senior on the team.  Experience matters a hell of a lot more than some of you think.

[Underdog 28455]

On 3/26/2018 at 9:28 AM, Machinator said:

Everyone is Derka.

Fuck.  I don’t want to be Derka, got enough problems of my own. 

Edited March 28, 2018 by Underdog

[ClubWhatever 12087]

Surly Shaggy seems more pro Smart that Shaggy Shaggy.  Interesting.  Less groupthink here?  That would be good.

A team's attitude is a reflection of its coach's.  Guys like Eric Davis, Jacob Young, and DO sulk when they miss a couple of shots.  Can't hit freethrows in critical times.  Throw the ball away at critical times.  Some of it is experience.  Some of it existed with the older team the first year.  All the best coaches are intense as hell and will chew anyone and everyone's ass who is not up the necessary standard.  It has an effect.  Shaka's like "damn man, I wish we got that call" or "guys need to understand what goes into winning."  No, guys need to fucking make a play when the game is on the line because they are dogs.

[X-Wing @Aliciousness 103]

On ‎3‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 9:21 AM, Fastbreak said:

Loyola-Chicago has won more tourney games this year than we have in the last 9 years combined...

That team is honestly not half bad.  Usually when a small conference automatic qualifier gets an 11 seed, they're generally the best team nobody's been paying attention to.  They're now 32-5.  Pretty good ball club.

I can't believe that stat that Texas has won only 3 games in 9 years.  I mean I can, but geez.  Shaka's 0-2 mark, both games that Texas was favored in Vegas btw, is certainly not doing him very many favors.

[Doc Holliday 198]

I've stayed away from most of the opinions around shaka and my only question is why is he not running havoc?  the system that brought him here? 

If you say because we don't have the players for it, I think BS should be called.  it's a system that can be run with 90% of any D1 player.  

is it the fact that a good basketball program in a power 5 knows how to break a press?  if so, fire him. 

[Pig Bellmont 8691]

44 minutes ago, Doc Holliday said:

I've stayed away from most of the opinions around shaka and my only question is why is he not running havoc?  the system that brought him here? 

Seriously, he’s had time to recruit to his system. I’d love to see a game plan I thought he was famous for 

[Pig Bellmont 8691]

This sports writer seems to suggest Shaka is on the chopping block...

 

[Machinator 32097]

That writer isn't saying anything that hasn't already been said a hundred times on this board or the previous site.

[elguapo 4583]

1 hour ago, Doc Holliday said:

I've stayed away from most of the opinions around shaka and my only question is why is he not running havoc?  the system that brought him here? 

If you say because we don't have the players for it, I think BS should be called.  it's a system that can be run with 90% of any D1 player.  

is it the fact that a good basketball program in a power 5 knows how to break a press?  if so, fire him. 

Apparently elite talent doesn't want to run havoc, so Shaka doesn't run it to max out recruiting.  Problem is Shaka doesn't fully utilize elite talent once he acquires it because he doesn't know how to coach half court O, and doesn't think it's important to have anyone on staff to help him with this gaping hole in his skillset.

 

I'd prefer he run the system that got him the job at Texas in the first place.

Edited March 28, 2018 by elguapo

[BigBenBamboozle 1950]

11 minutes ago, elguapo said:

Apparently elite talent doesn't want to run havoc, so Shaka doesn't run it to max out recruiting.  Problem is Shaka doesn't fully utilize elite talent once he acquires it because he doesn't know how to coach half court O, and doesn't think it's important to have anyone on staff to help him with this gaping hole in his skillset.

 

I'd prefer he run the system that got him the job at Texas in the first place.

Watching other teams in the tourney run fluid half-court sets makes it so painfully obvious Shaka doesn't understand the subtleties of half-court offensive sets.  He'll always have a lower ceiling because of this, and "havoc" was just covering those deficiencies.

[Guest Pass]

3 minutes ago, BigBenBamboozle said:

Watching other teams in the tourney run fluid half-court sets makes it so painfully obvious Shaka doesn't understand the subtleties of half-court offensive sets.  He'll always have a lower ceiling because of this, and "havoc" was just covering those deficiencies.

The idea that Shaka doesn't understand half court basketball is stupid. You can criticize him for his players not executing it, but to act like the hole is in his knowledge or understanding is stupid. He's a smart guy who's been around basketball his whole life and is paid millions to coach it. He "understands" half court offense.

Plenty of teams struggle executing in the half court. You guys just need someone to blame and something to vent your impatience on. Shaka is the 50-ft banner hanging in the auditorium with a target painted on it. Give the man a chance to get an experienced team together instead of sitting around posting bullshit about what he "knows" about the aspects of basketball.

[Etexhorn13 3036]

6 minutes ago, Guest Pass said:

The idea that Shaka doesn't understand half court basketball is stupid. You can criticize him for his players not executing it, but to act like the hole is in his knowledge or understanding is stupid. He's a smart guy who's been around basketball his whole life and is paid millions to coach it. He "understands" half court offense.

Plenty of teams struggle executing in the half court. You guys just need someone to blame and something to vent your impatience on. Shaka is the 50-ft banner hanging in the auditorium with a target painted on it. Give the man a chance to get an experienced team together instead of sitting around posting bullshit about what he "knows" about the aspects of basketball.

Hey dumb fuck, his whole team is transferring out or declaring for the draft. It’ll take him 4 more years to have an experienced team at the rate he runs dudes off. 

[HornPhD 1364]

How many 7 footers or potential lottery picks are coming in next year?

[BERT 4351]

19 minutes ago, Guest Pass said:

The idea that Shaka doesn't understand half court basketball is stupid. You can criticize him for his players not executing it, but to act like the hole is in his knowledge or understanding is stupid. He's a smart guy who's been around basketball his whole life and is paid millions to coach it. He "understands" half court offense.

Plenty of teams struggle executing in the half court. You guys just need someone to blame and something to vent your impatience on. Shaka is the 50-ft banner hanging in the auditorium with a target painted on it. Give the man a chance to get an experienced team together instead of sitting around posting bullshit about what he "knows" about the aspects of basketball.

Camelback???

[D_Goose 478]

18 minutes ago, Guest Pass said:

Give the man a chance to get an experienced team together instead of sitting around posting bullshit about what he "knows" about the aspects of basketball.

Not sure if serious.

You mean the coach who just completed his third season hasn't had enough time to get experienced guys together? 

You trollin brah.

[BigBenBamboozle 1950]

24 minutes ago, Guest Pass said:

The idea that Shaka doesn't understand half court basketball is stupid. You can criticize him for his players not executing it, but to act like the hole is in his knowledge or understanding is stupid. He's a smart guy who's been around basketball his whole life and is paid millions to coach it. He "understands" half court offense.

Plenty of teams struggle executing in the half court. You guys just need someone to blame and something to vent your impatience on. Shaka is the 50-ft banner hanging in the auditorium with a target painted on it. Give the man a chance to get an experienced team together instead of sitting around posting bullshit about what he "knows" about the aspects of basketball.

How much of "a chance" do we need to wait to see a competent offensive philosophy? 4 seasons?  More?  And if the players Shaka recruited can't execute in the half court, where does the blame fall?

[Guest Pass]

20 minutes ago, Etexhorn13 said:

Hey dumb fuck, his whole team is transferring out or declaring for the draft. It’ll take him 4 more years to have an experienced team at the rate he runs dudes off. 

Hey dumb fuck, the guys transferring are the ones who won't be getting minutes next year because they aren't good enough to keep pace with his recruiting and his returning players. We are returning a quality starting PG, a promising post guy in Sims, and experienced big in DO, adding a junior PG who can shoot it in Long, and returning a shooter with good size in Febres. We'll have more experience than we did last year.

[Doc Holliday 198]

More experience not playing up to our "experience" 😂

[Guest Pass]

14 minutes ago, BigBenBamboozle said:

How much of "a chance" do we need to wait to see a competent offensive philosophy? 4 seasons?  More?  And if the players Shaka recruited can't execute in the half court, where does the blame fall?

You need to wait as long as it takes. Sorry that's not what you want to hear but that's reality. There's not much Shaka can do about his best and most experienced player battling cancer. That's a blow that wasn't expected. Otherwise the trajectory of the program is reasonable. I'm fine with critiquing it, but when we start jumping to conclusions like some other coach is gonna walk in here and work miracles because "Shaka just doesn't understand basketball" or some shit, I will step in and call you out on it.

[BigBenBamboozle 1950]

12 minutes ago, Guest Pass said:

You need to wait as long as it takes. Sorry that's not what you want to hear but that's reality. There's not much Shaka can do about his best and most experienced player battling cancer. That's a blow that wasn't expected. Otherwise the trajectory of the program is reasonable. I'm fine with critiquing it, but when we start jumping to conclusions like some other coach is gonna walk in here and work miracles because "Shaka just doesn't understand basketball" or some shit, I will step in and call you out on it.

No, UT won't wait "as long as it takes".  This post is terrible.  I said Shaka doesn't understand the nuances of half-court sets, and you reduce that to "Shaka just doesn't understand basketball".  Sorry: Andrew Jones isn't going to magically create an offensive philosophy.  I didn't jump to any conclusions about another coach at all.  If you didn't hack the fucking Matrix I would neg you for this atrocious apologist word vomit. 

Edited March 28, 2018 by BigBenBamboozle

[Guest Pass]

2 minutes ago, BigBenBamboozle said:

No, UT won't wait "as long as it takes".  This post is terrible.  I said Shaka doesn't understand the nuances of half-court sets, and you reduce that to "Shaka just doesn't understand basketball".  I didn't jump to any conclusions about another coach at all.  If you didn't hack the fucking Matrix I would neg you for this atrocious apologist word vomit. 

Ok, don't wait. Keep spinning your wheels by hiring and firing guys without giving them long enough to build any continuity into the program and see if UT somehow morphs from a decent basketball school to a great one doing that. Spoiler alert: it won't. If you say the guy doesn't understanding the nuances of the half-court sets you are essentially saying the guy doesn't understand basketball. Can a football coach understand football without understanding the nuances of a running game? It's doubtful there's a lack of understanding in Shaka's knowledge of the nuances of half-court sets, while on the other hand it's not only likely it's a FACT that we had a freshman PG last year and the youngest team in the big12. Which is the cause of offensive failure last year? You assume the former but it's likely the latter.

[52-80 19087]

On 3/27/2018 at 3:16 AM, mr. sunshine said:

Is Derka Derka or is Goo Punch Derka? I has the confused which is really nothing new 

give it a day to see which one blows up first.  

[Etexhorn13 3036]

9 minutes ago, Guest Pass said:

Ok, don't wait. Keep spinning your wheels by hiring and firing guys without giving them long enough to build any continuity into the program and see if UT somehow morphs from a decent basketball school to a great one doing that. Spoiler alert: it won't. If you say the guy doesn't understanding the nuances of the half-court sets you are essentially saying the guy doesn't understand basketball. Can a football coach understand football without understanding the nuances of a running game? It's doubtful there's a lack of understanding in Shaka's knowledge of the nuances of half-court sets, while on the other hand it's not only likely it's a FACT that we had a freshman PG last year and the youngest team in the big12. Which is the cause of offensive failure last year? You assume the former but it's likely the latter.

We have not been decent under Shaka 

[HtownHorn 14486]

1 hour ago, HornPhD said:

How many 7 footers or potential lottery picks are coming in next year?

One and none. He struck out on the only Top 15 kid he had chance at from the Woodlands.

[Guest Pass]

9 minutes ago, Etexhorn13 said:

We have not been decent under Shaka 

We sit at #36 in the country in Pomeroy right now in a season where we lost our best player Andrew Jones. We made the tournament and almost won our game. It's not the greatest but I think it qualifies as decent. We lost our best player and still pulled out good wins over TCU and WVU, swept OU, and damn near beat Tech twice, and that's a Tech team that almost made the final 4. How is that not decent?

[Machinator 32097]

We can and will talk about the successes and failures of Year 3 and debate the definition of "decent", but I expect better in Year 4 than what we've done so far. If the roster isn't set up to do better, then that's on Shaka for the most part. Roster construction and management are as much a part of a head coach's job as Xs and Os.

[Guest Pass]

10 minutes ago, Machinator said:

We can and will talk about the successes and failures of Year 3 and debate the definition of "decent", but I expect better in Year 4 than what we've done so far. If the roster isn't set up to do better, then that's on Shaka for the most part. Roster construction and management are as much a part of a head coach's job as Xs and Os.

I totally agree and that's where I expect the debate to center around in this offseason--whether or not Year 3 qualifies as decent. It certainly doesn't qualify as bad, and that's why it irks me that so many people wanna run with this notion of "Shaka sucks, obviously, look, our team doesn't play offense like the Houston Rockets!" I expect better in year 4 too, and obviously getting to the point where you do have an experienced team (or, in Calipari/Kryzewski style you are bringing in ridiculous freshman classes) is one of the hugest challenges for a cbb coach. If we never get to the point of having an experienced team then yeah that's on Shaka ultimately, but I at least have the patience to let him try to get there.

[BigOrange1 6422]

48 minutes ago, Etexhorn13 said:

We have not been decent under Shaka 

year 1 was slightly above decent.  year 2 was a complete abortion.  year 3 was pretty much the definition of decent.  

year 2 was so bad that it probably drags the overall rating down a bit, but 2 of shaka's 3 seasons have been "decent."

[Machinator 32097]

If I fell into a coma in mid-November, woke up a week ago, and looked at the results of the season with only the knowledge that we played roughly 70% of the season without our best perimeter player, I'd shrug my shoulders and move on with reasonable optimism for the future.

As someone who actually watched damn near every game this season, I'm a lot more concerned about the trajectory of this program, especially considering the roster issues that we're facing.

[HtownHorn 14486]

17 minutes ago, BigOrange1 said:

year 1 was slightly above decent.  year 2 was a complete abortion.  year 3 was pretty much the definition of decent.  

year 2 was so bad that it probably drags the overall rating down a bit, but 2 of shaka's 3 seasons have been "decent."

Year 1 and year 3 were not decent. No NCAA tournament wins is not a decent season, it's crappy. The baseline should be top half of the Big 12 matched with tournament wins. Anything less is a shit year.

[Guest Pass]

21 minutes ago, BigOrange1 said:

year 1 was slightly above decent.  year 2 was a complete abortion.  year 3 was pretty much the definition of decent.  

year 2 was so bad that it probably drags the overall rating down a bit, but 2 of shaka's 3 seasons have been "decent."

Year 2 wasn't an abortion. We finished 70th in Pomeroy as opposed to say Mizzou who finished 150th. We were a young team in a conference stacked with good teams. It's called rebuilding. It happens. We still got a top-5 recruiting class to come in the next year. That says a lot for our coach. Year 2 sucked, but it wasn't an abortion.