Texas Basketball: 3 reasons keeping Shaka Smart is the wrong move

1. There could be more of the same

How much can the Longhorns just rely on Coleman and Ramey to get them to the next level next season?

Considering how up and down that guard pairing was last season, it might be hard to get a push out of them to make Texas a true NCAA Tournament caliber team. They weren’t able to do that in the two seasons they’ve been together thus far.

Perhaps a healthy rising senior center Jericho Sims could help out next season.

Texas was staring yet another mediocre season square in the face before Smart and his squad made a largely unexpected run toward the end of the regular season. They beat quality teams such as the Oklahoma Sooners, West Virginia Mountaineers, and Texas Tech on their way to that five-game winning streak.

Assuming that Texas even did make the NCAA Tournament this year, they likely would not have been a single-digit seed which would make their path to the Sweet 16 or Final Four very difficult. If Texas had fallen short against Texas Tech and still got in the field of 68, then they might’ve been forced to take part in a play-in game.

The reality of the situation is that Texas has made the NCAA Tournament just twice in what is about to be six years under Smart’s direction. It is unfair to put anything on any college basketball head coach for not making the Big Dance this year since it literally didn’t even happen, but Smart had plenty of chances to make it beforehand.

The real question for the Longhorns is will anything actually be different now that Smart just has three years left on his current contract, and his buyout is getting closer to $10 million.