After another loss for Texas’ men’s basketball team, it will drop the No. 6 Longhorns record to 11-5 (5-4) after a 10-1 start to the season.
A squad that began the season looking like a Big 12 championship contender and potentially high-seeded NCAA Tournament team has recently looked like a middle seed (7-10) or even an NIT team at best.
With three postponed games and seven scheduled games remaining, there’s still plenty of season left to play before panic. However, as I mentioned previously, the tone for the rest of the season was set based on how yesterday’s game ended. It was a perfect metaphor for the season up to now; Strong start, middling out, and not being able to finish.
This is head coach Shaka Smart’s fifth season with the Longhorn program. Although there have been contributing factors to the end of last season and throughout this season, I can’t help but wonder if his chair isn’t starting to get warm.
While at VCU, Smart had a terrific career with a 163-56 record and had only one season with more than 10 losses. Even more impressive is that the one season he finished with more than 10 losses, his squad was able to reach the Final Four.
While at Texas, he and the Longhorns have reached the NCAA Tournament twice and lost in the first round. His best season with Texas was in 2018-19, resulting in the NIT Championship. However, those are not the kind of championship banners he was brought here to produce.
Last season, his team finished tied for 3rd in the Big 12, but the postseason was cancelled due the Coronavirus outbreak. Even though we didn’t get to see how that season finished, we did get a little perspective on how it might have looked. It was only the second time during his tenure in Austin that he’s had a Big 12 record that wasn’t below .500, finishing 9-9 in conference play.
To be fair, the team was able to climb back from a four-game conference losing streak and finish the season’s final six games on a 5-1 run, making their tournament chances look much better than how they had appeared mid-season.
The reality that Texas likely won’t fire Shaka Smart after this season. COVID-19 is still a factor in these games and he’s still got plenty of fan support. On top of that, he’s been able to recruit NBA prospect-level talent to Austin with players such as Mo Bamba, Jaxson Hayes, Isaiah Taylor, Jarrett Allen, Matt Coleman III, Andrew Jones, Courtney Ramey, Kai Jones and Royce Hamm.
But, let’s not forget that last season the coach was already being questioned about his future with program. If not for the virus and how it affected the end of last season, as well as the future of the current season, he may have already been gone.
The direction the team is going needs to change now, otherwise the 2020-21 season is strike two. Smart needs to end the regular season this year on a high note the way he did last year. Fortunately he still has time left to do that.
However, if this year proves to be more of the same, you can expect his chair to start to burn by next year.