Shaka Smart at UT

[SoonerTraveler]

Rick Barnes must really be enjoying this season. Texas fans have to be beating themselves up.

Yep. The former Texas coach got the big win over Kentucky and moves on to the SEC finals. Tennessee looking at a good seed in the Big Dance.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Texas left out of NCAA Tournament field, headed to play in NIT
https://247sports.com/college/texas...ournament-Shaka-Smart-hot-seat-NIT-130208995/

... Rather than playing in the NCAA Tournament, the Longhorns are forced to settle for a berth in the National Invitation Tournament for the first time since 1986. Texas (16-16) is a No. 2 seed in the NIT and will host Summit League regular-season champion South Dakota State (24-8) at the Erwin Center on Tuesday (8 p.m., ESPN).

Since Rick Barnes led Texas to the program's first Big 12 regular-season championship in 1999, Texas has only missed the NCAA Tournament three times in a span of 21 seasons with two of them coming in Smart's four seasons on the job. The last time the Longhorns had a run with this few appearances in the NCAA Tournament was a run of nine years in a row beginning with the 1979-90 season under Abe Lemmons and ending with the final season of the Bob Weltlich era (1987-88).

***

For Smart, missing the tournament for the second time in his four seasons on the job casts an even dimmer light on his tenure on the Forty Acres where the bloom came off of the rose well before the forgettable end to the season when the Longhorns could’ve played themselves into an at-large berth. Smart’s four-year record is 66-66, which includes a 31-41 mark in Big 12 play (only two wins in the conference tournament while failing to advance beyond the quarterfinals) and he will enter his fifth year on the job — assuming athletic director Chris Del Conte doesn’t make a coaching change — with no NCAA Tournament victories in four seasons.

247 Texas Message Board Discission
https://247sports.com/college/texas...ournament-Shaka-Smart-hot-seat-NIT-130208995/

 

[cvangild]

Rick Barnes must really be enjoying this season. Texas fans have to be beating themselves up.

Just proves that the grass isn't always greener on the other side!! Maybe some posters on this board need to learn from this!! They want to fire a coach who runs a perfectly clean program, took us to the final four 3 years ago...and has got us in the tournament 2 of the 3 years since that final four appearance and has signed a top 15 recruiting class...but they want him fired because he basically doesn't call enough time outs and coaches players to miss lay ups, critical free throws and lastly insisting that if they are ever in a position to make a last second 3 pointer for a win or OT...make sure your toe is on the line.

 

[steverocks35]

Just proves that the grass isn't always greener on the other side!! Maybe some posters on this board need to learn from this!! They want to fire a coach who runs a perfectly clean program, took us to the final four 3 years ago...and has got us in the tournament 2 of the 3 years since that final four appearance and has signed a top 15 recruiting class...but they want him fired because he basically doesn't call enough time outs and coaches players to miss lay ups, critical free throws and lastly insisting that if they are ever in a position to make a last second 3 pointer for a win or OT...make sure your toe is on the line.

Some of us want him fired, (I'm in the "give him one more year" camp) because the team doesn't hustle, the offensive sets are basically nonexistent, his substitution patterns make no sense, we can't defend at a high level, the team is not tough mentally or physically, the players haven't been developed much, if at all, in LK's time here, his recruiting has left a lot to be desired (Freeman, Polla, et al.), and just getting to the tournament is not good enough for a program like OU.

 

[MrAnderson]

Just proves that the grass isn't always greener on the other side!! Maybe some posters on this board need to learn from this!! They want to fire a coach who runs a perfectly clean program, took us to the final four 3 years ago...and has got us in the tournament 2 of the 3 years since that final four appearance and has signed a top 15 recruiting class...but they want him fired because he basically doesn't call enough time outs and coaches players to miss lay ups, critical free throws and lastly insisting that if they are ever in a position to make a last second 3 pointer for a win or OT...make sure your toe is on the line.

Also, he has the worst league record in the Big 12 the last 3 years. Dead last.

 

[WTSooner]

Also, he has the worst league record in the Big 12 the last 3 years. Dead last.

Shhh.....his fan club doesn't like to hear that.

 

[BCSooners]

His fan club also likes how he outperformed expectations this year, made the tournament 6 out of 7 years, 1 sweet 16, 1 final 4, and runs a clean program in a dirty game. Yes his conference record is disappointing but his overall body of work gets the job done.

 

[WichitaSooner]

His fan club also likes how he outperformed expectations this year, made the tournament 6 out of 7 years, 1 sweet 16, 1 final 4, and runs a clean program in a dirty game. Yes his conference record is disappointing but his overall body of work gets the job done.

Also anyone who thinks that this year's team doesn't play defense and that we don't run any offensive sets either doesn't understand basketball or just blindly hates Lon so much that they just can't be objective.

 

[skyvue]

His fan club also likes how he outperformed expectations this year, made the tournament 6 out of 7 years, 1 sweet 16, 1 final 4, and runs a clean program in a dirty game. Yes his conference record is disappointing but his overall body of work gets the job done.

Shh, the teeth-gnashing, garment-rending, glass-half-empty, torch-bearing mob -- in particular the one who disappeared from the board for two months when the team was on a non-conference tear, but also the ones who used to relentlessly trash Kelvin but who now daydream about somehow luring him back to Norman and who don't see the waist-deep irony in that -- don't want to hear that.

 

[WTSooner]

.....gets the job done.

That may be your opinion, but my expectations aren't to limp into the tournament with 9 and 10 seeds. And that is what he has done 3 of the 6 years he has made the tournament. He also had a 5 seed lose to a team from the Summit Conference, and then the two good years with Buddy.

Neither Kelvin nor Billy had anything resembling 9/10 seeds this far in to their tenures at OU.

 

[skyvue]

Neither Kelvin nor Billy had anything resembling 9/10 seeds this far in to their tenures at OU.

The 2004 season is on the phone for you. And 1993 and '94 are on hold and eager to speak to you as well.

 

[WichitaSooner]

The 2004 season is on the phone for you. And 1993 and '94 are on hold and eager to speak to you as well.

Yeah apparently I dreamed up OU missing the NCAA tournament three of Billy's last four years.

 

[BCSooners]

That may be your opinion, but my expectations aren't to limp into the tournament with 9 and 10 seeds. And that is what he has done 3 of the 6 years he has made the tournament. He also had a 5 seed lose to a team from the Summit Conference, and then the two good years with Buddy.

Neither Kelvin nor Billy had anything resembling 9/10 seeds this far in to their tenures at OU.

Sampson has a 6 seed lose to someone from the Horizon league. He also didn’t ‘take advantage’ of his really good team who went to the final 4 & elite 8. For someone who bashes Kruger & praises Sampson you oddly don’t see the similarities on their tenures at OU. Main difference is Lon won’t land OU on probation.

I loved watching Sampson’s teams but he didn’t set the world on fire.

 

[jmizzy4ou]

....Fire Switzer, his players are thugs, fire Stoops he can't win another title, fire Tubbs, his teams play arcade basketball, fire Sampson his teams play boring basketball, fire Lon, he has run his course at OU. Soon enough it will be fire Lincoln, he can't keep up with Alabama and Clemson, fire whoever the next hoops coach is, I'll have a reason by the time the chatter starts, lol....LIFE OF A SOONER FAN.

 

[WichitaSooner]

It's sad that this has turned into a Lon vs. Kelvin debate. I think Sampson is one of the great coaches in America. I also have no earthly idea how that has any bearing on the quality of Lon's coaching. It's like some posters think it's a zero sum game, and if Lon doesn't equal ot better Kelvin, he MUST be a bad coach deserving of a pink slip.

 

[Sooner Season]

His fan club also likes how he outperformed expectations this year,....

This reasoning always makes me laugh. I guess if you lower expectations for your program enough and then exceed them it should be called a success.

 

[BoulderSooner]

From another thread but deserved to be here also. Only 13 powers conf teams have made the dance 6 of the last 7 years.

OU is 1 of the 13

 

[thebigabd]

Shh, the teeth-gnashing, garment-rending, glass-half-empty, torch-bearing mob -- in particular the one who disappeared from the board for two months when the team was on a non-conference tear, but also the ones who used to relentlessly trash Kelvin but who now daydream about somehow luring him back to Norman and who don't see the waist-deep irony in that -- don't want to hear that.

So I am in a mob and you are in a cartel.

 

[soonertravis]

That may be your opinion, but my expectations aren't to limp into the tournament with 9 and 10 seeds. And that is what he has done 3 of the 6 years he has made the tournament. He also had a 5 seed lose to a team from the Summit Conference, and then the two good years with Buddy.

Neither Kelvin nor Billy had anything resembling 9/10 seeds this far in to their tenures at OU.

So after 8 years:

Kelvin had 8 tourney appearances, 5 1st round losses, 4 double digit seeds, 2 losses as a 4 seed, 1 sweet 16 and 1 Final Four. He took over a team that had been to the NIT 3 of the prior 4 years, but had Ryan Minor as a Junior. We made the Final Four in year 8.

Lon has 6 tourney appearances, 3 1st round losses, 2 double digit seeds, 1 loss as a 5 seed, 1 Sweet 16, and 1 Final Four(with this year pending). He took over a team that was on probation and coming off 2 losing seasons in a row. We were in the Final Four in year 5.

Clearly we were in worse shape when Lon took over. He built up the success much quicker. He has struggled to find sustained success off the Final Four.

Year 8 and 9 were the pinnacle for Kelvin. He too struggled to find sustained success after the Final Four. We went to the Elite 8 the next year and then missed the tournament. We lost in the 2nd round as 3 seed and we lost in the 1st round as a 6 seed in his last two years in Norman. He left with us headed to probation.

At the conclusion of his 12 year run, Kelvin had:
11 tourney appearances
6 1st round losses and a second round loss as a 3 seed
1 Sweet Sixteen
1 Elite 8
1 Final Four

There are a lot of similarities between Kelvin and Lon. Each had tremendous all-time great players come from being unheralded recruits to being National Player of the Year caliber who led us to the Final Four and elite success. Then the recruiting classes with really good players who played a role on those teams struggled when they became the leaders. Many transferred, etc.

With the small exception of the 8 year period in the 80s with Tubbs at the helm, this is OU basketball. It is a very good program. I would guess a Top 20-25 program nationally with no empirical data to back that up. But we are not UNC, Duke, or Kansas.


And to the poster using Freeman and Polla as evidence of bad recruiting, remember that all coaches have them. Kelvin had Oleg, Alex Spaulding, Michael Cotton, Blake Johnston, and many others. It happens.

We have the 15th ranked recruiting class with the #36 player and 3 Top 125 per Rivals. Let's see what the next 2-3 years holds and reassess.

 

[MercedeSooner]

So after 8 years:

Kelvin had 8 tourney appearances, 5 1st round losses, 4 double digit seeds, 2 losses as a 4 seed, 1 sweet 16 and 1 Final Four. He took over a team that had been to the NIT 3 of the prior 4 years, but had Ryan Minor as a Junior. We made the Final Four in year 8.

Tourney wise I think you showed pretty clearly that Lon and Calvin have had pretty similar resumes @ OU. I think a lot of the angst is stemming from Kruger's Conference record which even for guys that have had his back is pretty poor.