Texas Basketball: 3 goals Shaka Smart should have for 2020

With a Texas basketball program that really struggled at times last decade, where does head coach Shaka Smart need to go heading into the 2020’s?

The start to the Big 12 slate didn’t go as planned for the Texas basketball program on Jan. 4. Texas fell short to the uber-talented and No. 6 ranked Baylor Bears by the final score of 59-44 on the road at the Ferrell Center. That Big 12 opener loss to Baylor moved Texas to a record of 10-3 (0-1 Big 12) on the season.

Texas was not the only Big 12 program with hopes of making an NCAA Tournament run this year and with a bevy of talent on their roster to get off to a horrid start in conference play. The 9-4 (0-1 Big 12) Oklahoma State Cowboys were catapulted out of Lubbock by the red hot Texas Tech Red Raiders by a 35-point margin on Jan. 4. And the Iowa State Cyclones slipped up with their sixth loss of the season already in a Big 12 opener loss to the TCU Horned Frogs.

One double-digit loss to a tough opponent like Baylor on the road after a long break since Texas last faced a good team is nothing to get down on for too long. Texas needs to reflect on what went wrong in the losses to Baylor and Providence within the last month and move on to the next task at hand before it’s too late.

Smart’s squad next faces the rival Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Shootout on the hardwood on Jan. 8 at home at the Frank Erwin Center. Oklahoma got the best of the Kansas State Wildcats in their Big 12 opener and will also sport a 10-3 record coming into that showdown.

Here’s a look into three actually attainable goals that head coach Shaka Smart should have for his Texas Longhorns basketball program during the 2020 calendar year.