Smart’s mind games lift Longhorns
AUSTIN — It’s a trick. Everyone understands this going in. But somehow, Shaka Smart makes his players fall for it anyway.
Kerwin Roach, one of Texas’ rambunctious freshman guards, said he usually sees it coming. He knows when he’s made a mistake, or when he’s given less effort than he should, and he knows when Smart’s about to employ the stuff he learned from all of those psychology books in his office. This is howit works: “He comes to you in a sincere way, like you’re his little kid,” Roach said, turning up his nose. Flattery is not the goal. “He knows you don’t want to be babied,” Roach said. “But he makes it like he’s got to baby you because you’ve been messing up.”
Because teenagers have a well-known inclination for defiance, Smart knows what will happen next.
“You’re like, ‘ I’m not a baby,’ ” Roach said. “And he’s like, ‘Then show me.’ And you go out and show him.”
Is it really that simple? Roach smiles.
“It’s mind games,” he said.
But those are precisely the kind of games that brought UT’s often-fragile confidence and flawed roster to the NCAA Tournament, where the sixthseeded Longhorns (2012) will play 11th-seeded Northern Iowa (22-12) on Friday in the West Regional at Oklahoma City.
Ongoing process
For the past year, and especially over the past two months, Smart has engaged in so many of those little mental tweaks that his team has lost count.
Sometimes, like in the example Roach described, the object of Smart’s tinkering is aware of what’s happening. But more often than not, UT assistant coach Darrin Horn said, Smart pulls it off without the player being the wiser.
“I’ve never seen any coach do it better,” Horn said.
For the older Longhorns, it’s a much different approach than the one they experienced when they began their careers. Rick Barnes became the most successful coach in UT history by employing the tough-love method, verbally blistering his players for their slipups and harping on their shortcomings.
Since UT’s last Sweet 16 appearance in 2008, though, that style lost its effectiveness. Barnes’ teams routinely looked beaten down in March, and the results showed it.
Smart, by contrast, doesn’t rant or rave. But as senior guard Demarcus Holland explains, he doesn’t lack ability to deliver a message.
“He’s just really honest,” Holland said. “He doesn’t do a lot of yelling. He’ll just call you out in front of the team, (and) ask you, ‘Where are you supposed to be?’ When you tell him, he’s like, ‘Then why aren’t you there? Don’t be a hypocrite.’ ”
When Holland mentioned how the team played like “hypocrites” after UT lost to Baylor in the Big 12 tournament last week, outsiders raised their eyebrows. But it’s terminology he learned from Smart, who constantly reminds his players about the importance of living up to their words.
“I talk about hypocrisy a lot,” Smart said. “We all have some of it in us. … If youwant to be a good team, you have to battle that.” Gamble paid off
For Smart, battling hypocrisy is part of the mind game, just like finding the sweet spot between belief and overconfidence, and between inspiration and brutal honesty. When he had his players sit in a circle and tell each other what they need to be better, he acknowledged he risked getting feelings hurt, but he thought the reward was worth it.
So far, the Longhorns are buying in.
“He has a blueprint,” point guard Isaiah Taylor said of the coach who led VCU to the 2011 Final Four. “He knows how to get past the Round of 32, past the Sweet 16, past the Elite Eight. He’s going to lay it out for us.”
Even if it takes a few tricks.