Texas, Smart fight to return to Tournament
AUSTIN — Texas coach Shaka Smart’s four seasons with the Longhorns have produced a national tournament championship and three one-and-done, firstround NBA draft picks. Sounds great.
But it includes just two NCAA Tournament appearances — both first-round losses — and a losing season with all that pro-level talent. And that trophy? That was for winning last season’s NIT , college basketball’s other tournament, which Smart is counting on to give the Longhorns a bounce into the 2019-2020 season.
Smart called the NIT title, which required a run of a five straight wins, a huge confidence boost for a program that really needed one.
“We spent a lot of time in the spring talking about that stretch of our season. That was the most player-driven segment of our season,” he said. “I think the biggest thing was they felt a sense of camaraderie and purpose to play for each other.”
Smart knows, however, there’s another step to take, even if he won’t quite say it: The Longhorns need to make it back to the NCAA Tournament, which they have missed two of the last three years.
There’s no sign from athletic director Chris Del Conte that this is a make-orbreak year for Smart, who is 71-66 at Texas and has never finished higher than fourth in the Big 12, but the school would love to win more — a lot more — for the $3.3 million annual salary it pays him.
Texas is also poised to break ground on a new basketball arena that is scheduled to open in 2021.
The top three scorers and rebounders from last season are gone, but Texas returns an experienced backcourt in point guard Matt Coleman and guards Jase Febres and Courtney Ramey. Shooting guard Andrew Jones is “full steam ahead” and practicing, Smart said, but it’s still unknown how much he can play or what he can do after missing most of the last two seasons while battling leukemia.