We will see.... He has one NCAA tournament game in the last 4 years which is nothing special. Most of his early success was with players he didn't recruit. He had an improbable Final 4 run 5 years ago but hasn't had any real tournament success since then. He will have an opportunity to get players that he could not get at VCU and resources now. The question is whether that carries over.... Because at VCU making the tournament is good enough, at UT that will get you fired in a few years.
You are correct. I guess my point is that Shaka will put together fundamentally sounds teams that play together and he will coach players up that he recruits to UT. Philosophically Shaka is a very different coach than Barnes. Barnes had a great run at UT and put UT basketball on the map and his accomplishments should not be diminished by his last three or four years.
You must not remember the Weltlich years (it's ok, nobody does). Penders was the one that put UT hoops on the map. His personal issues unfortunately got the better of him.
Canzano: Shaka Smart has no idea what he's getting into at Texas April 01, 2015 at 8:03 PM, updated April 02, 2015 at 9:57 AM Spoiler What say yall to this?
Some of the article rings true. Some doesn't. Implying the Trailblazers went in the tank because of Patterson is hollow. They were the Jailblazers. Success or not, everyone was ready to blow that up. Webster over Paul? Yeah it happens... Good picks happen too. I don't think Patterson is all that and a bag of chips. But I don't see how anyone can fault him for getting rid of Mack and Barnes (effectively what he was brought in to do) and I certainly don't see how he can be faulted for the replacements he's chosen. Doesn't mean it's going to work... But at least for now you'd think all parties would be pretty happy at the direction change.
Bomani JonesVerified account @bomani_jones so what am i supposed to do if i still don’t think patterson knows what he’s doing, but he’s kinda nailed football and basketball hires? ditto bomani jones
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Sources: Shaka Smart gets a 7-year contract from Texas.</p>— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/584016969554268160" data-datetime="2015-04-03T15:37:50+00:00">April 3, 2015</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I know nothing about whether he's slimy/etc behind the scenes, but I love both the coaching hires and especially the process he went through on the football site (cutting the boosters out of the process, etc). On the business side, I think he's pretty crappy. His latest gimmick is making it so that you aren't allowed to sell extra season tickets for football anymore. UT originally partnered with StubHub to make it easier to sell extra tickets - you can't always go to all 6 games, and so it helped fill the stadium and give other people an opportunity to go to games. Now, it's expressly prohibited with a threat of taking your seats away. Unless, of course, you pay an extra $150 per seat - then you are welcome to sell them all you want. All this is going to do is create empty seats. It doesn't help ticket holders. It doesn't help non-ticket holders that now have less inventory to buy from. It's just a money-grab by the athletic department, presumably caused by the fact that market value of all the tickets have consistently been below face-value the last several years, so they are trying to pare back supply to raise prices more.
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Agreed. Thought the biggest challenge for whoever was the next AD was cleaning house on both programs and finding the right guy for the job. Obviously we will have to wait and see if Strong/Smart pan out but love the hires so far. There are a few things that I think could have been handled better (changes to season ticket holders, Wickline lawsuit, Barnes' firing) but winning cures all IMO.
great recruiter, he couldnt convince some kids to go to vcu but with a school like texas( that CHANGES) he's gonna keep most of that texas talent in state... justise winslow, the harrison twins, kelly oubre... just outta the houston area alone would probably give texas a look if they were still in high school
John Canzano can be quite the sensationalist. He's great with words and is a fun read. He is also very polarizing. Some Portland fans love him, some despise him. I'd take that article with a grain of salt.
