If today’s Zoom conference with Texas head coach Shaka Smart was any indication, the Longhorns are listening to an extremely competitive, energetic head coach prepping his team for tomorrow's contest against Iowa State (7:00 p.m. on LHN). At times, a borderline fiery Smart unintentionally delivered the media a pep talk for tomorrow’s game.
“I'll tell you what. We've had a lot of bad things said about us too,” responded Smart when asked how he keeps the guys levelheaded while people are writing and saying so many nice things. “I think our job is to understand who we are and who we want to be independent of what anyone else says about us. I think when you're going through tough times clearly, there's a lot of negativity that gets thrown at you. And it's very, very easy to internalize that as a coach, as a player. And then when you win a couple of games are you know some things go well… again, just the way it's like a mathematical equation: one plus one equals two. So, you're going to have some positive things thrown at you.
“To me, and this is why I'm not a huge fan of social media or any of that kind of stuff, you can't get high on one and then reject the other; like if you're into all the positive things that people are saying about you and that's making you feel good in terms of self-esteem and your own, you know self-worth, then you can't ignore the negative things that people say. And I think that's something as a young person that these guys have to go through and learn sometimes the hard way. But we got practice today, this afternoon. So, it's about us getting better and trying to improve on where we are. And then we've got a really good Iowa State team coming in here that played West Virginia extremely tough, played Baylor extremely tough, and is certainly capable of beating us if we're not at our best. So, we've got to focus on having that edge so that we can be our best.”
The last time Texas and Iowa State played Texas returned home after a disastrous 29-point loss. The Longhorns looked so bad everyone thought it signaled the end of Smart at Texas. Now, players were the first to bring up the last matchup as a point of emphasis heading into tomorrow’s game.
“I mean if you're a competitor it does,” stated Smart matter-of-factly before a long pause. “It helps me. I know that game is at the front of my mind. A long time has passed between that game and now. But again, if you're a true competitor then the last time you played someone or, you know, to me, the fifth to last time you played someone is in your mind. And so that's something that we talked about yesterday, and I'll give our guys credit. They brought it up. They brought last year up.
“So, it's good that that's something that's in their mind, but at the same time we had a seven to nothing I believe lead against them here last year. And then they came back and were leading for most of the second half. So, you can learn from all these games, and that's the thing for these guys again as young people is like, there are so many opportunities to learn and take lessons out of these situations if you're willing to just have the humility to the look closely and say, ‘what can I learn?’
Just before the press conference began, the AP announced its updated Top 25 poll, which ranked the Longhorns No. 4. It’s the highest Texas has been ranked since February 2011. A major emphasis point for Texas remains keeping its edge and playing with energy on defense, and that means not allowing a high ranking to change that.
“On the defensive end our guys have done a really good job playing with energy, but we also know that that's not a given you know it's something that we've got to make sure that we bring. As I tell the guys all the time, it starts with our edge; we have to have an edge about us,” Smart said. “And that's the thing… you asked about rankings. If where you're ranked dulls your edge, then you're not a real contender. If your last game is still impressive to you two, three days later, then that doesn't really say much about what you're trying to be, or where you're trying to go. I understand where, oftentimes, I think Coach Saban calls it ‘rat poison’ that can infiltrate the minds of players. And that is a function of human nature, but our job as players and coaches is to fight that.”
I’m sure many Texas fans are going to see Iowa State on the schedule, who will arrive a big underdog, and think back to the way Texas ended the regular season last year with a massive letdown against Oklahoma State. Smart was asked about avoiding that situation again. And I thought he was going to start pounding the table and jump through the screen at one point.
“Well, listen, you can't play and coach out of avoidance. And that's been a real issue here at times. I don't know if you talk to other coaches in other sports if they would agree or not, but you can't play not to lose. You can't say, ‘let's not let that Oklahoma State thing happen again.’ Like, that's not how it works as a competitor,” he said. “You have to go after the other team, and say, ‘You are in our way. And we're trying to win. And we're going to do everything under our control to win.’ And you know, ironically, it's the same thing going up to Kansas the other day; like you can't tiptoe up there and hope, ‘Well, you know, hopefully we don't mess this up. We got a heck of an opportunity. We got a pretty good team. We think we can go in there and win, but man, I hope it works out.’ It does not work.
“And again that’s the thing, man. I'm sure it's like this in other places too. But like, you have to have an edge to you! There has to be a reason that you're here, especially in this year and this craziness going on with you know all this stuff around us. Why are you here on the court doing what you're doing? And then how's that go into your approach towards Iowa State tomorrow night?’
MORE NOTES:
--- Texas will again be without Kamaka Hepa and Royce Hamm for tomorrow’s game against Iowa State. The two didn’t travel to Kansas due to COVID-19 protocols.
--- Smart said Jase Febres wasn’t quite ready to take the court against Kansas. Based on Smart’s comments the last couple weeks, the senior guard is seemingly close to a return.
How would that affect the rotation? I’m not quite sure, but Smart remains bullish on Donovan Willams’s future at Texas. Smart joked he told Andrew Jones, Matt Coleman and Courtney Ramey that Williams sometimes act like he’s those guys and has already gone through the years of experience they have. Undoubtedly, Williams still has a long way to go and still isn’t back to 100% following his knee surgery. But he’s clearly the fourth guard now and Smart said they need him to have a positive role on this team. Additionally, the Texas head coach stated Williams is actually more gifted than those three guards mentioned above.
--- Coleman deserves every bit of recognition he’s received, but his partnership on the court as a leader and playmaker with Ramey is helping bring the best out of him. Smart said one of Ramey’s best qualities is that he’s never really impressed by anything he does on the court, and that’s affected Coleman positively because he’s similar.
“You don’t really see those guys super impressed with themselves. We’ve had some other guys over the years here [and] we certainly have some young players on our team now that they get really impressed when they do something good,” said Smart when asked about Ramey and Coleman mentioning maturity after the win against Kansas.
Smart also said when the team was in Asheville, North Carolina for the Maui Invitational Ramey made it a habit of labeling each game the team played as a statement opportunity instead of just saying it about one.
--- Jericho Sims was again labeled by Smart as the best and most important player on the floor for Texas against Kansas. “There’s not a guy in the country that’s as versatile,” said Smart, specifically noting Sims’s ability to defend around the perimeter and stay on the floor when opposing teams use smaller lineups.
--- Texas announced fans will not be allowed to attend tomorrow’s game.
“I'll tell you what. We've had a lot of bad things said about us too,” responded Smart when asked how he keeps the guys levelheaded while people are writing and saying so many nice things. “I think our job is to understand who we are and who we want to be independent of what anyone else says about us. I think when you're going through tough times clearly, there's a lot of negativity that gets thrown at you. And it's very, very easy to internalize that as a coach, as a player. And then when you win a couple of games are you know some things go well… again, just the way it's like a mathematical equation: one plus one equals two. So, you're going to have some positive things thrown at you.
“To me, and this is why I'm not a huge fan of social media or any of that kind of stuff, you can't get high on one and then reject the other; like if you're into all the positive things that people are saying about you and that's making you feel good in terms of self-esteem and your own, you know self-worth, then you can't ignore the negative things that people say. And I think that's something as a young person that these guys have to go through and learn sometimes the hard way. But we got practice today, this afternoon. So, it's about us getting better and trying to improve on where we are. And then we've got a really good Iowa State team coming in here that played West Virginia extremely tough, played Baylor extremely tough, and is certainly capable of beating us if we're not at our best. So, we've got to focus on having that edge so that we can be our best.”
The last time Texas and Iowa State played Texas returned home after a disastrous 29-point loss. The Longhorns looked so bad everyone thought it signaled the end of Smart at Texas. Now, players were the first to bring up the last matchup as a point of emphasis heading into tomorrow’s game.
“I mean if you're a competitor it does,” stated Smart matter-of-factly before a long pause. “It helps me. I know that game is at the front of my mind. A long time has passed between that game and now. But again, if you're a true competitor then the last time you played someone or, you know, to me, the fifth to last time you played someone is in your mind. And so that's something that we talked about yesterday, and I'll give our guys credit. They brought it up. They brought last year up.
“So, it's good that that's something that's in their mind, but at the same time we had a seven to nothing I believe lead against them here last year. And then they came back and were leading for most of the second half. So, you can learn from all these games, and that's the thing for these guys again as young people is like, there are so many opportunities to learn and take lessons out of these situations if you're willing to just have the humility to the look closely and say, ‘what can I learn?’
Just before the press conference began, the AP announced its updated Top 25 poll, which ranked the Longhorns No. 4. It’s the highest Texas has been ranked since February 2011. A major emphasis point for Texas remains keeping its edge and playing with energy on defense, and that means not allowing a high ranking to change that.
“On the defensive end our guys have done a really good job playing with energy, but we also know that that's not a given you know it's something that we've got to make sure that we bring. As I tell the guys all the time, it starts with our edge; we have to have an edge about us,” Smart said. “And that's the thing… you asked about rankings. If where you're ranked dulls your edge, then you're not a real contender. If your last game is still impressive to you two, three days later, then that doesn't really say much about what you're trying to be, or where you're trying to go. I understand where, oftentimes, I think Coach Saban calls it ‘rat poison’ that can infiltrate the minds of players. And that is a function of human nature, but our job as players and coaches is to fight that.”
I’m sure many Texas fans are going to see Iowa State on the schedule, who will arrive a big underdog, and think back to the way Texas ended the regular season last year with a massive letdown against Oklahoma State. Smart was asked about avoiding that situation again. And I thought he was going to start pounding the table and jump through the screen at one point.
“Well, listen, you can't play and coach out of avoidance. And that's been a real issue here at times. I don't know if you talk to other coaches in other sports if they would agree or not, but you can't play not to lose. You can't say, ‘let's not let that Oklahoma State thing happen again.’ Like, that's not how it works as a competitor,” he said. “You have to go after the other team, and say, ‘You are in our way. And we're trying to win. And we're going to do everything under our control to win.’ And you know, ironically, it's the same thing going up to Kansas the other day; like you can't tiptoe up there and hope, ‘Well, you know, hopefully we don't mess this up. We got a heck of an opportunity. We got a pretty good team. We think we can go in there and win, but man, I hope it works out.’ It does not work.
“And again that’s the thing, man. I'm sure it's like this in other places too. But like, you have to have an edge to you! There has to be a reason that you're here, especially in this year and this craziness going on with you know all this stuff around us. Why are you here on the court doing what you're doing? And then how's that go into your approach towards Iowa State tomorrow night?’
MORE NOTES:
--- Texas will again be without Kamaka Hepa and Royce Hamm for tomorrow’s game against Iowa State. The two didn’t travel to Kansas due to COVID-19 protocols.
--- Smart said Jase Febres wasn’t quite ready to take the court against Kansas. Based on Smart’s comments the last couple weeks, the senior guard is seemingly close to a return.
How would that affect the rotation? I’m not quite sure, but Smart remains bullish on Donovan Willams’s future at Texas. Smart joked he told Andrew Jones, Matt Coleman and Courtney Ramey that Williams sometimes act like he’s those guys and has already gone through the years of experience they have. Undoubtedly, Williams still has a long way to go and still isn’t back to 100% following his knee surgery. But he’s clearly the fourth guard now and Smart said they need him to have a positive role on this team. Additionally, the Texas head coach stated Williams is actually more gifted than those three guards mentioned above.
--- Coleman deserves every bit of recognition he’s received, but his partnership on the court as a leader and playmaker with Ramey is helping bring the best out of him. Smart said one of Ramey’s best qualities is that he’s never really impressed by anything he does on the court, and that’s affected Coleman positively because he’s similar.
“You don’t really see those guys super impressed with themselves. We’ve had some other guys over the years here [and] we certainly have some young players on our team now that they get really impressed when they do something good,” said Smart when asked about Ramey and Coleman mentioning maturity after the win against Kansas.
Smart also said when the team was in Asheville, North Carolina for the Maui Invitational Ramey made it a habit of labeling each game the team played as a statement opportunity instead of just saying it about one.
--- Jericho Sims was again labeled by Smart as the best and most important player on the floor for Texas against Kansas. “There’s not a guy in the country that’s as versatile,” said Smart, specifically noting Sims’s ability to defend around the perimeter and stay on the floor when opposing teams use smaller lineups.
--- Texas announced fans will not be allowed to attend tomorrow’s game.
