Texas Basketball: 5 thoughts regarding Shaka Smart’s potential return

Some shocking news emerged when reports came about that Texas basketball was looking to bring head coach Shaka Smart back for another season.

It was a wild ending to the 2018-19 season for the Texas basketball program, after knocking off the Lipscomb Bisons to win the NIT Championship. This was the first postseason title for the Texas basketball program since 1978. It just wasn’t what the Texas basketball fans had to be hoping for with all the potential this team had ahead of the regular season.

However, this is where this team landed and it at least finished out the disappointing regular season with a certain level of momentum that is intriguing entering this pivotal off-season. Last summer, there wasn’t much pressure for head Texas basketball coach Shaka Smart in terms of his hot seat. He just needed to turn things around after the letdown of an end to the 2017-18 college hoops season, in an NCAA Tournament Round of 64 loss to the Nevada Wolfpack.

This time around, Texas basketball wasn’t even able to make it as far as the NCAA Tournament field. Texas was one of those teams left out of the field on Selection Sunday and wound up as a two-seed in the NIT. That NIT run started against the seven-seed South Dakota State Jackrabbits. Texas was able to work through a decently difficult field on the way to Madison Square Garden.

The NIT run featured wins over the TCU Horned Frogs, Colorado Buffaloes, Xavier Musketeers, Lipscomb, and South Dakota State. Texas basketball got a little taste of everything on its way to this consolation prize that was an NIT Championship.

We’ll see how everything pans out from here with reports emerging that athletic director Chris del Conte plans to have Shaka Smart back for the 2019-20 regular season for the Texas Longhorns basketball program. Here’s a few thoughts on the subject.