Texas Basketball: 3 best players from Shaka Smart-era so far

A head coaching era ripe with talent hasn’t done much in the postseason for the Texas basketball program under Shaka Smart.

Most of the five year tenure of head coach Shaka Smart with the Texas basketball program thus far has led to disappointment. Promising results on the recruiting trail and deep rosters returning year-after-year didn’t lead to much actual success in the win column or when it mattered most in the postseason.

It looks like Smart is bound to return for his sixth year as the Texas men’s hoops head coach in the coming 2020-21 season. Texas athletic director Chris del Conte likely didn’t have ample reason to pull the trigger on the massive buyout that Smart still has remaining on his contract.

Ending the 2019-20 regular season with a record of 19-12 (9-9 Big 12), Texas was on the bubble heading into the Big 12 Tournament and Selection Sunday. But the novel coronavirus pandemic wound up cancelling most of the Big 12 Tournament just before Selection Sunday was supposed to determine the NCAA Tournament field.

As a whole, Smart has two NCAA Tournament appearances and no Big 12 Championships in five seasons as the Texas hoops head coach. Although you might as well consider the 2019-20 season a wash on his resume in terms of winning the Big 12 Tournament and nabbing a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Despite the lack of postseason success with Texas, Smart has coached up a lot of NBA-caliber talent during his five years on campus. He and former Texas head coach Rick Barnes had a lot of luck especially with ultra-talented big men in this program.

Here’s a look into the three best players coached up by Shaka Smart during his tenure with the Texas Longhorns basketball program thus far.