What Shaka Smart & Texas Players Said After Season-Ending Loss
The Texas Basketball season is over after Texas lost to West Virginia in the Big 12 Conference tournament on Thursday.
Head coach Shaka Smart said after the loss that it came down to West Virginia being “the more aggressive team” for most of the night.
That’s difficult for Smart to admit. If nothing else goes right for his team on a given night, he wants to make sure the Longhorns are more aggressive than their opponent.
But, playing West Virginia requires a different level of basketball toughness. And, this year’s young Longhorns simply did not have what it takes to survive and advance.
Shaka Smart added in his post-game comments that he felt the Texas players let WVU dictate the flow of the game, which took the Longhorns out of their offensive scheme.
This resulted in Texas only shooting 35 percent from the field. But, even worse was Texas made less than half of their free throws when no one was guarding them.
"“I don’t think it was affecting our shooting percentage as much as it affected our flow of what we were trying to do, which in turn affected our shooting percentage. But, man, we got a lot of open looks that didn’t go in. It’s hard to be aggressive defending free throws, and we shot under 50 percent from the foul line.” – Shaka Smart on Texas’ inability to make shots (transcribed by ASAP Sports)"
Texas Players Admit They Could Not Get Into Flow
It’s telling that Texas sent two freshman – Jarrett Allen and Andrew Jones – to the podium after the game to discuss the loss.
This was a very young, immature team at times. And, they could not solve WVU’s defensive scheme despite playing them a third time this season.
“At certain points of the game, them being overly aggressive on us, and on the bigs, took us out of our offense a little bit,” Jones said.
“They sped us up,” Allen added. “We couldn’t actually get into our flow and just congratulations to West Virginia.” (Full Transcription at TexasSports.com)
Still, Texas had plenty of open looks when they actually did break the press. But, the players seem to be so bothered by WVU’s aggressive style that they rushed three-point attempts or easy layups in the paint.
“I think some of the possessions where he turned the ball over or forced up a bad spot, those are the ones where obviously we were really impacted by West Virginia and the way they defended,” Shaka Smart said.
Shaka Smart Identifies Cumulative Effect
Call it the “cumulative effect,” according to Coach Smart on how the Mountaineers wore down Texas. But, this went beyond one game in the conference tournament.
It was the cumulative effect of trying to break WVU’s press for 40 minutes, the frustration of missed shots throughout the game and the entire season, and players just needing to grow into their shoes at this level of college basketball.
The bottom line is West Virginia has a clear identity under Coach Bob Huggins. Texas never could find their identity over the course of the season.
Next: Why UT Basketball Will Be National Title Contender In 2 Years
But, there is hope for next year when incoming freshman Matt Coleman arrives at Texas to give the Longhorns a true PG, decision-maker, and go-to playmaker that was missing this year. Texas should finally find an identity under Shaka Smart in Year 3 at Texas.