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Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (Shaka is a damn good coach)

One of those coaches is not like the other; at least based on performance at Texas.
It depends on the starting and finishing line. The Barnes at the end wasn't the Barnes in the beginning or middle.

The Barnes at the end sucked, nobody would dispute that and that's why he was fired. Shaka is currently worse than the shitty Barnes at the end. It seems everyone but you can see that.

Question: How many of the current coaches who have teams ranked in the top 25 would you say are inferior coaches to Smart?
 
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The Barnes at the end sucked, nobody would dispute that and that's why he was fired. Shaka is currently worse than the shitty Barnes at the end. It seems everyone but you can see that.

Question: How many of the current coaches who have teams ranked in the top 25 would you say are inferior coaches to Smart?
That's a tough one to answer because I don't quite know how good I think Shaka is Good question, though. I don't know if I could answer it.

Give me a moment to think about it.
 
I don't know if I'd use the word inferior, but there are probably six or seven I'd prefer Smart over.
 
I think he's better than a lot of Texas fans think, and to act like he wasn't one of the top hires when he came to Texas is rewriting history based on his results at Texas. During his first year, many Texas fans on here posted they thought he'd reach Final Fours soon.

There are aspects I think he's good at (defense, individual player development, recruiting, long-term vision and program construction, connecting with people and players) and areas I think he needs to get much better in (offense, implementing more schematic influence > player freedom, generating consistent results).

I think he's a good coach that hasn't done, overall, a good job at Texas generating results so far for many reasons. Perhaps he will in the future. Perhaps he won't. The collection of three and four-year talent that will be on future rosters is good.

I don't know about votes because Chris Beard probably runs away with that, a guy that's 2-3 vs. Smart and should have been 1-4, but if Smart finished .500 in the league I bet he'd get a vote because .500 probably puts a team 5th, maybe in a tie for 4th in this league. Only OU and Iowa State are within 100 spots of Texas (337th out of 351) in team experience (youth).

I do think some Texas fans, for reasons I don't understand, have dismissed Jones being away from the program as something that shouldn't have significantly influenced the season. At one point, Notre Dame lost seven straight games after losing its best offensive player during that whole stretch, and its point guard for four of those games after being 13-3, and 3-0 in the ACC. Life on the hardwood in good leagues isn't easy when you subtract an offensive talent like Jones.

If Jones is healthy, Texas is probably something like 19-8 and we're not even having this discussion.
Now this makes sense to me. I also agree Shaka has been better than most people think and losing Jones has been brutal. However until he wins consistently I think that @Ketchum calling him a "damn good coach" sounds incredibly aggie-like when we are 8th in the conference and fighting for our tournament lives every game.

IMO, he doesn't even need to be a damn good coach for us to win if he can keep recruiting. All he really needs is an experienced roster and an assistant coach to implement an effective offense because he seems to have control over defense and can really develop talent. Again, not saying he is not a damn good coach, but calling him that before he wins consistently sounds like aggies chanting SEC when they can't even compete in their division of their conference. Let's wait for Shaka to win at least one tournament game before we get too carried away...
 
Now this makes sense to me. I also agree Shaka has been better than most people think and losing Jones has been brutal. However until he wins consistently I think that @Ketchum calling him a "damn good coach" sounds incredibly aggie-like when we are 8th in the conference and fighting for our tournament lives every game.

IMO, he doesn't even need to be a damn good coach for us to win if he can keep recruiting. All he really needs is an experienced roster and an assistant coach to implement an effective offense because he seems to have control over defense and can really develop talent. Again, not saying he is not a damn good coach, but calling him that before he wins consistently sounds like aggies chanting SEC when they can't even compete in their division of their conference. Let's wait for Shaka to win at least one tournament game before we get too carried away...
Basically, Dustin agrees with me, which mean that you agree with me, even if you don't know it.;)
 
@Ketchum can you please explain what Shaka Smart did at VCU that made him a better coach than other VCU coaches in the last 20 years? Please explain what other former VCU coaches have done in subsequent jobs and why Shaka Smart is different. He is .500 at TX in 3 seasons. Please tell us, why you are elevating him over other former VCU coach failures?

@scary jarbro

Interesting question. Here are the results from Kenpom, which only goes back to 2002, so it does not quite cover 20 years. In the 11 years where Shaka was not the coach at VCU their average Kenpom rank was 87.36. They made the NCAA Tournament 5 out 0f 10 years with a 2-4 record.

QpIRDD.png

In the 6 seasons that Shaka was at VCU their average Kenpom rank was 38. They made the NCAA Tournament 5 out of 6 years with a 6-5 record. So, Shaka was pretty special at VCU

ZKoQW9.png
 
Basically, Dustin agrees with me, which mean that you agree with me, even if you don't know it.;)
I can agree with that. I certainly dont think he's not a damn good coach, just dont think he's shown that he is one yet. Just thought your title is a little premature. Fair?
 
@scary jarbro

Interesting question. Here are the results from Kenpom, which only goes back to 2002, so it does not quite cover 20 years. In the 11 years where Shaka was not the coach at VCU their average Kenpom rank was 87.36. They made the NCAA Tournament 5 out 0f 10 years with a 2-4 record.

QpIRDD.png

In the 6 seasons that Shaka was at VCU their average Kenpom rank was 38. They made the NCAA Tournament 5 out of 6 years with a 6-5 record. So, Shaka was pretty special at VCU

ZKoQW9.png
They had exactly one season with as many as he had in six straight years.
 
I can agree with that. I certainly dont think he's not a damn good coach, just dont think he's shown that he is one yet. Just thought your title is a little premature. Fair?
Well, the title was going for an affect. That's what headlines and good writing do.
 
What happened 1 time? A disappointing tournament showing? I'm talking about the fact that out of 7 appearances / 1 Amazing tournament run happened... / otherwise not much

Getting completely blown out as a 5 seed against a 4 seed is absolutely a disappointing showing.

@o5prey

Of course what you forgot to mention was than 5 seed went to the finals that year and lost by 6 to Louisville and beat the number 2 seed Florida by 20. You did sort of forget to mention that.
 
I think he's better than a lot of Texas fans think, and to act like he wasn't one of the top hires when he came to Texas is rewriting history based on his results at Texas. During his first year, many Texas fans on here posted they thought he'd reach Final Fours soon.

There are aspects I think he's good at (defense, individual player development, recruiting, long-term vision and program construction, connecting with people and players) and areas I think he needs to get much better in (offense, implementing more schematic influence > player freedom, generating consistent results).

I think he's a good coach that hasn't done, overall, a good job at Texas generating results so far for many reasons. Perhaps he will in the future. Perhaps he won't. The collection of three and four-year talent that will be on future rosters is good.

I don't know about votes because Chris Beard probably runs away with that, a guy that's 2-3 vs. Smart and should have been 1-4, but if Smart finished .500 in the league I bet he'd get a vote because .500 probably puts a team 5th, maybe in a tie for 4th in this league. Only OU and Iowa State are within 100 spots of Texas (337th out of 351) in team experience (youth).

I do think some Texas fans, for reasons I don't understand, have dismissed Jones being away from the program as something that shouldn't have significantly influenced the season. At one point, Notre Dame lost seven straight games after losing its best offensive player during that whole stretch, and its point guard for four of those games after being 13-3, and 3-0 in the ACC. Life on the hardwood in good leagues isn't easy when you subtract an offensive talent like Jones.

If Jones is healthy, Texas is probably something like 19-8 and we're not even having this discussion.

Great post. Would you mind delving a little deeper into the long term vision/program construction part of your post.
 
Third time posting basketball specific questions... which you seem to avoid in the thread. You keep trying to go back into the football well where you are comfortable... questioning the pats coach about a decision in the super bowl is different than having a scheme, offense, base that gets you there... so i ask?

I will try again in more specific question form...

@Ketchum Can you draw up our fast break completion. What is our early offense? How many different sets do we run with 15 on the shot clock and 10 second sets. Draw up 5 inbounds plays we run. Can you draw up how many sets we run against a zone.

Take whatever sets you can find and compare what’s been added in conference play.

You may not like your answers but from abasketball pie chart the coaching x’s and o’s ismissing. He may be a damn fine human and amotivator of men, but he is not well prepared and his teams show it night in and night out inconference play.
 
I agree that he does do stuff that makes my head scratch, but all coaches do that. Shit, I questioned about 5 things Belichick did in the super bowl, from clock management at the end of the half to player personnel decisions to game strategy... and he's the GOAT.
Correct, even the GOAT has some head scratchers but nobody ever questions what the GOAT is doing when it comes to his system. His teams have a very clear offensive identity. I'm arguing that Shaka fails at the system level.

I don't think Shaka's capable of implementing a high level offensive system so he needs to hire an elite offensive assistant who can make up for his shortcoming.

When we hired Shaka I thought we were getting the Jurgen Klopp of college basketball because I thought "havoc" would be the "gegenpressing" of college hoops. Klopp wouldn't be the same coach if he abandoned his system. I'm not sure why Shaka abandoned "havoc."
 
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Well, the title was going for an affect. That's what headlines and good writing do.
Right- but in terms of the substance of the article, going out on a limb and endorsing shaka as strongly as you did sounds like aggie until Shaka is consistently winning or can win at least 1 tournament game. While I haven't turned on Shaka like a lot, and I don't think he's a bad coach, I certainly am not singing his endorsement or calling him damn good yet.

You said in your article "Instead of focusing on what he hasn't done with this team, let's focus on what he has done.." And I agree that if you do that, he has done enough to stick around and stay relevant. But, if you focus on his entire body of work (what he both has and has not done), he still has a lot to prove.
 
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Correct, even the GOAT has some head scratchers but nobody ever questions what the GOAT is doing when it comes to his system. His teams have a very clear offensive identity. I'm arguing that Shaka fails at the system level.

I don't think Shaka's capable of implementing a high level offensive system so he needs to hire an elite offensive assistant who can make up for his shortcoming.

When we hired Shaka I thought we were getting the Jurgen Klopp of college basketball because I thought "havoc" would be the "gegenpressing" of college hoops. Klopp wouldn't be the same coach if he abandoned his system. I'm not sure why Shaka abandoned "havoc."
I don't disagree with your comments or questions.
 
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Right- but in terms of the substance of the article, going out on a limb and endorsing shaka as strongly as you did sounds like aggie until Shaka is consistently winning or can win at least 1 tournament game. While I haven't turned on Shaka like a lot, and I don't think he's a bad coach, I certainly am not singing his endorsement or calling him damn good yet.

You said in your article "Instead of focusing on what he hasn't done with this team, let's focus on what he has done.." And I agree that if you do that, he has done enough to stick around and stay relevant. But, if you focus on his entire body of work (what he both has and has not done), he still has a lot to prove.
I didn't really give an endorsement. I called him a failure thus far at Texas and a guy that might not make it.
 
Some Horn fans are whiney bitches.
Some on here are idiots too.

Shaka's record at UT is .506. I guess if your bar is .500 then he is rocking it. Fact is he sucks and you can put as much lipstick on stats as you want, but he is barely over .500.

Ketch I like what you have to say about most everything non-political. But you are out of your mind on Shaka. Well I take your OL discussions with a grain of salt too, going back to Macks 5-7 season.
 
There's no chance that Texas is letting him go after this season for a million reasons, none of which are "optics" or political reasons IMO. CDC's fresh arrival, KD's unwavering and very important support for Shaka, Andrew Jones' unfortunate situation, etc. He'll be back. I hope to hell I'm eating crow for what has been a disastrous start to his Texas career, but not sure how next year can be better than this one unless Coleman takes a massive leap next year.

@WFHorn85

Deeper roster and older players. Could be much like the season after KD left.
 
Some on here are idiots too.

Shaka's record at UT is .506. I guess if your bar is .500 then he is rocking it. Fact is he sucks and you can put as much lipstick on stats as you want, but he is barely over .500.

Ketch I like what you have to say about most everything non-political. But you are out of your mind on Shaka. Well I take your OL discussions with a grain of salt too, going back to Macks 5-7 season.
OL discussions? Huh?
 
No.
You should have 4 as a base. This is why there is zero continuity on offense


I haven't been taking notes.
There isn’t one. Unexcuasable.



More than one.
20-30+ is the right number with late season additions


I don't draw well.
It’s terrible.
 
It is OK for anyone to be disappointed with a number of our close losses this year....we all are. However, anyone who does't appreciate what a great job Shaka Smart is doing in building a sustainable winning program with integrity and class doesn't know their butt from a hole in the ground about college basketball.

I am excited about where he has our program headed. Think about what he inherited when you consider minutes for 4 of the 5 positions on the floor this year are being filled with players in their first year at UT. We only likely lose one of those guys next year. Things are looking up!

Quit bitching and support this guy and the Horns.
That could easily have been written about Barnes. Yet, here we are
 
Big 12 Coaches

Tier 1

Bill Self

Tier 2

Bob Huggins
Lon Kruger

Tier 3

Shaka Smart
Scott Drew
Jamie Dixon
Chris Beard

Tier 4

Bruce Weber

Tier 5

Mike Boynton
Steve Prohm

Interesting you have Dixon in your third tier. Not saying right or wrong, just think his accomplishments are much closer to Huggins and Krueger as opposed to Smart, Beard and Drew.
 
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