Texas Basketball: Could a Will Baker breakout save Shaka Smart’s job?

Something that was much needed for the Texas basketball program actually came through on Feb. 19. When Texas knocked off the TCU Horned Frogs to complete the season sweep on Wednesday night, they also kept at least all the pressure off the shoulders of their head coach Shaka Smart. After the embarrassing 81-52 loss at the hands of the 11-14 Iowa State Cyclones, Smart was catching all kinds of fire.

Now, the Texas Longhorns basketball program needs to keep winning games to at least move into the position as a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns now hold a record of 15-11 (5-8 Big 12). Texas is likely to need to win at least three of their five remaining regular season games along with winning at least one in the Big 12 Tournament to even have consideration on Selection Sunday.

This win over TCU is a good start for the Longhorns to at least get some backing to Smart’s job security on the Forty Acres. All Texas really needs to do to save Smart’s job is make the NCAA Tournament and at least win one or two games.

Easy?

Probably not.

Texas still has to take down the West Virginia Mountaineers, Texas Tech Red Raiders, and Oklahoma Sooners to get their quest to the NCAA Tournament going. The other two of five remaining games during the regular season comes against the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Kansas State Wildcats.

Another sign that could be promising for Smart is that his highest rated signee from the 2019 recruiting class just won Texas a game. Former five-star Austin native center Will Baker put together a nice performance in the double-digit win over TCU. Baker really helped Texas to take control in the second half in front of a rather empty Frank Erwin Center, to notch the win by the final score of 70-56.

In this game alone, Baker posted a season-high 20 points, three rebounds, and one assist. He shot 4-of-6 both from two-point and three-point range. Baker showed off the versatility and range that he showed throughout his recruitment. He finished up with the highest offensive rating in this game (140) of any player that scored more than five points.

Baker also showed out on the defensive end of the floor to a reliable degree. He posted a defensive rating of 100 and a stout 11.4 percent defensive rebounding rate. That’s pretty good given that Baker doesn’t tend to thrive as much on the defensive end of the floor.

Is this finally the turnaround that the Longhorns are expecting out of the former five-star recruit Baker?

it would come at the perfect time since junior standout center Jericho Sims is out indefinitely with a back injury. No one else has really risen to the occasion yet. Texas needs to get something more from either Baker or fellow true freshman big man Kai Jones to help take some of the heat off Smart’s seat.

So far this season, Baker is averaging 2.0 points per game, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.4 assists, while shooting 26.8 percent from the field and 16.1 percent from beyond the arc. Getting this performance together from Smart’s most talented 2019 signee along with a Big Dance appearance is about the only combination of factors that could save his job at this point in the eyes of most hoops fans.