Texas Basketball: Shaka Smart went back to his old ways

Nothing proved more that head coach Shaka Smart was reverting back to his old ways for the Texas basketball program than the finale loss to Oklahoma State.

The situation pertaining to head coach Shaka Smart and the Texas basketball program this season is more complicated than just saying that he “went back to his old ways”, but that is a good way to sum up everything. Smart looked to have Texas on the right track to make it back to the NCAA Tournament, but that just wasn’t able to be locked in this year.

With his team on the outside looking in for much of Big 12 play, Smart took this Texas Longhorns basketball program to new heights compared to where it was at for the rest of the season, through the final six games. The Longhorns had a difficult road to finish out the regular season in the final six games. And they did manage to win five of those six

The recurring problem for Smart during his Longhorns tenure is the inability to get to the goal that matters most. The fact that he does run a clean program and they do have a fair amount of recruiting success is good. But the expectation for a program like Texas men’s basketball to just make it to the NCAA Tournament two out of every three years is not a bold one.

There are more than enough resources within the Texas athletic department to make this program run smoothly year in and year out. But they haven’t been consistently relevant even by the Big 12 standards since we were in the thick of the Rick Barnes-head coaching era on the Forty Acres.

Even when Smart did take the Longhorns to the NCAA Tournament, he wasn’t able to get them to any point of relevance beyond the Round of 64. Getting through Selection Sunday with a single-digit seed is the expectation that this fan base has been dwindled down to.

The Longhorns started out the Smart-era with a first round loss in the NCAA Tournament, back in 2016. In the four years since, Texas might only have one appearance in the NCAA Tournament. That came back in 2018, and also resulted in a first round exit.

Texas had their NCAA Tournament resume building up in the right direction with a five-game winning streak, including two that came over top 25 opponents. They also finished up the regular season with a top-four seed in the Big 12 standings. There’s a good chance that the Longhorns could still solidify their tourney resume if they take down the Texas Tech Red Raiders in their first game of the Big 12 Tournament.

What went wrong for the Longhorns to put them in the position they’re in now was the embarrassing 22-point home loss at the Frank Erwin Center on March 7 at the hands of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Coming into that game, Texas carried a record of 19-11 (9-8 Big 12). Oklahoma State had a record of 16-14 (6-11 Big 12) and they sat far outside the tourney bubble.

This should’ve been a game where Texas came out more motivated than ever. They were a completely different team in the last five games, where they established that impressive winning streak, than they did against the Pokes over the weekend. The wins over Texas Tech, the West Virginia Mountaineers, and Oklahoma Sooners, saw Texas come out with a different attitude and confidence.

Seeing the Texas scoring fall flat and the pace get away from them at the wrong time is a staple of Smart’s coaching tenure on the Forty Acres. Texas seemingly always finds a way to let down their fans when it matters most pertaining to NCAA Tournament resume building or success.

Smart wasn’t able to capitalize on the scoring presence of the trio that is junior shooting guard Andrew Jones, junior guard Matt Coleman, and sophomore guard Courtney Ramey in the 81-59 loss to Oklahoma State. The frontcourt rotation also didn’t contribute much beyond the game-high 20 points from freshman forward Kai Jones.

Texas is pretty firmly on the bubble ahead of the start of the Big 12 Tournament and Selection Sunday. There will be a lot of nerves surrounding the Texas team and their fans in the first game of the Big 12 Tournament, which occurs on March 12 against Texas Tech.