Smart’s crusade is to earn trust within, for team
AUSTIN — Shaka Smart knows better than to demand faith.
He would love it if his fans had some. He’d love it even more if his players did. But he realizes that might be asking for too much.
“Faith is trust without evidence,” Smart said. “When you have a level of faith it’s going to work, you can fully engross yourself in the process. But that’s hard to come by sometimes.”
As much as people might want to believe in what kind of men’s basketball program Smart is building at Texas, he understands it will be a whole lot easier if he can give them some proof. And although he continues to preach the importance of valuing the process instead of the results, not even Smart denies he and his team need to show more of the latter.
Through 11 games of his second season at UT, the Longhorns are 6-5, with each of their losses coming against unranked teams. They have committed as many turnovers as they have assists, they are shooting only 30 percent from 3-point territory, and they have played with what their coach calls a mixture of “anxiety and tension.”
Still, as ominous as all of that looks, there are reasons for hope.
First of all, there is youth. After losing six of its top eight players in minutes per game from last year’s first-round NCAA Tournament team, UT had to start over with a new core. The most talented of that group, five-star freshman forward Jarrett Allen, has not dominated but is flashing the kind of polished post game that makes him a first-round NBA draft prospect. A sign of progress
Tevin Mack, the Longhorns’ leading scorer, is an audacious sophomore swingman with an accurate perimeter shooting stroke and an improving midrange game. Then there are four guards — two freshmen and two sophomores — with loads of potential that hasn’t been realized.
In a 96-60 romp over Alabama-Birmingham on Wednesday, the Longhorns provided a glimpse of what it might look like when things go right. Kerwin Roach, the sophomore who has been asked to fill UT’s void at point guard, dished out four assists without a turnover and made six steals.
That, Smart said, is what set the tone for the season’s best team performance, in which Mack scored 18 points and Allen and freshman guard Andrew Jones racked up 16 points apiece. And even though the Longhorns had spent much of the season’s first two months in misery, the blowout allowed them to head into a winter break with a sense of accomplishment.
“I feel like we’re making a lot of progress,” Jones said.
In the past, a comment like that might have given Smart some pause, because he usually guards against letting his players feel too self-satisfied. But considering the way his players beat themselves up after close losses to UTArlington, Michigan and Arkansas, a little taste of self-satisfaction might not be such a bad thing. Cast out negatives
Only two days before Wednesday’s breakthrough, Smart lamented the way some of his players had allowed a “woe is me” vibe to creep into their psyche. In one of his most blunt public assessments since arriving in Austin, Smart said the Longhorns needed to stop feeling sorry for themselves.
“It’s called growing up,” Smart said. “It’s called maturing. It’s called being a man.”
Jones and Allen said that message resonated with them. But after the Longhorns’ 36-point victory, Smart downplayed the significance of his news-conference critique.
“I was just being honest with you guys,” Smart said. “I’ve been saying ever since we started talking about this team that we needed to grow. I just added the word ‘up.’ What’s the difference? It’s semantics.”
Those last couple of sentences came with a bit of a sly grin, because Smart as much as anyone grasps the power of words.
That is why he is not asking for faith. When he earns trust, whether it is from his team or the people watching, he intends to provide plenty of evidence.