After two leading candidates were considered, it appears that Texas men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart has made a decision on which assistant coach to add to his staff.
Associate head coach Luke Yaklich left the Longhorns basketball program in March to accept the head coaching position at Illinois-Chicago. On top of that, Smart is losing another member of his staff in Jai Lucas as he recently chose to pursue a role as the special assistant to Kentucky coach John Calipari.
According to Horns247, Smart is expected to hire SMU associate head coach K.T. Turner. The report confirms that Turner has been offered a position and is expected to accept.
Texas director of basketball operations Cody Hatt was the other leading candidate. Sources close to the situation stress that Smart values Turner’s experience and expertise enough to offer him again after Turner initially turned down the first offer.
Turner has spent seven seasons at SMU and played a role in the Mustangs winning the American Athletic Conference regular-season title twice (2014-2015, 2016-2017). The Mustangs also won the AAC Tournament twice (2015, 2017) and made the NCAA tournament two times (2015, 2017) under Turner’s guidance.
As Smart enters his sixth year at Texas, he’s having to replace two of the three full-time assistants on his staff. Neill Berry is the lone assistant that remains.