Meh - if he can’t do it at Texas how is it going to happen here? Bloom is off the rose i’m afraid.
I went with “Nice”. There is the concern that he peaked at VCU and I think at this point I’d reserve my “YES!” vote for Matta. If we use the last two hires to inform our predictions of who gets the gig, Shaka would be a huge hire.
For those of you who are not excited about Shaka, who would you rather have? I don’t think Tony Bennett or Mark Few are available.
Shaka would be a massive get for us. I’d take him in a heartbeat.
For those of you who are not excited about Shaka, who would you rather have? I don’t think Tony Bennett or Mark Few are available.
Shaka would be a massive get for us. I’d take him in a heartbeat.
Since i can't edit the above.
That said, Smart is my next choice. I think he would be highly motivated to show that the problem was Texas, not him.
Smart’s relative failure (KP ranks of 39, 70, 36, 27) is puzzling and concerning, given the level of talent he recruited to Texas. I suspect it’s the latter that may have been part of the problem. That said, while the overall performance has been disappointing it hasn’t been a dumpster fire, and his tenure at VCU is so good that it seems hard to believe he couldn’t get his mojo back, especially with a change of scenery.
At VCU, to me the reason he was such a hot name had little to do with the final four appearance. I generally discount postseason performance due to small sample size, single-elimination but even beyond that, the final four team was a senior laden team made up of guys Anthony Grant brought in, and was only ranked 53rd in KP. Smarts greater accomplishment was elevating the VCU program after those guys all left.
KP rankings
‘08 68
‘09 54
‘10 56 (Shaka first year)
‘11 53 (final four season)
‘12 46
‘13 18
‘14 25
‘15 30
His final team had only one senior, so even at the end it was sustainable success. But even when his teams lost key pieces you think might set them back, they continued to have strong teams. Of course, question is why none of that translated to Texas.
Smart’s relative failure (KP ranks of 39, 70, 36, 27) is puzzling and concerning, given the level of talent he recruited to Texas. I suspect it’s the latter that may have been part of the problem. That said, while the overall performance has been disappointing it hasn’t been a dumpster fire, and his tenure at VCU is so good that it seems hard to believe he couldn’t get his mojo back, especially with a change of scenery.
At VCU, to me the reason he was such a hot name had little to do with the final four appearance. I generally discount postseason performance due to small sample size, single-elimination but even beyond that, the final four team was a senior laden team made up of guys Anthony Grant brought in, and was only ranked 53rd in KP. Smarts greater accomplishment was elevating the VCU program after those guys all left.
KP rankings
‘08 68
‘09 54
‘10 56 (Shaka first year)
‘11 53 (final four season)
‘12 46
‘13 18
‘14 25
‘15 30
His final team had only one senior, so even at the end it was sustainable success. But even when his teams lost key pieces you think might set them back, they continued to have strong teams. Of course, question is why none of that translated to Texas.