Shaka Smart’s Texas journey so far...
When Shaka Smart arrived at Texas in April 2015, he talked a lot about his core values to players, even putting them on T-shirts: “Appreciation, Enthusiasm, Competitiveness, Teamship, Accountability”
Four years later, after missing the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years, the search for the core values or culture of Smart’s program continues.
Ultimately, the decisions that have put Smart on the hot seat at Texas came down to who Smart surrounded himself with after being given a seven-year, guaranteed contract worth more than $24 million by then athletic director Steve Patterson. Patterson then extended that contract by one year after Smart’s initial 20-13 season at UT.
When Smart put together his staff at Texas of Darrin Horn, Mike Morrell and David Cason with Jai Lucas as director of operations and a chief of staff named Denny Kuiper, it turned out Smart had put together a volatile mix.
All of them had varying ideas about what it was going to take to be successful at Texas. And there were clashes internally over which players to recruit, and at one point, assistant coaches Horn and Morrell almost came to fists, according to sources.
But final decisions would come down to Smart, and, according to sources close to the situation, Smart didn’t take control.
An attempt to reach Smart for comment by Horns247 was unsuccessful. Texas basketball spokesman Scott McConnell said Smart was busy preparing his team for a Sunday NIT matchup with Xavier and would prefer to address big-picture questions about the program after the season.
A couple of the first decisions Smart had to make were on the recruiting trail — in 2015, whether to recruit Jordan Murphy out of San Antonio Brennan or Tevin Mack out of Columbia, S.C., and in 2016, whether to recruit Carsen Edwards out of Atascocita or Jacob Young out of Houston. And Cason was recruiting Murphy and Edwards. Morrell, now the head coach at UNC-Asheville, was recruiting Mack and Young.
Shaka sided with Morrell, and Texas signed Mack and Young, while Purdue signed Edwards; and Minnesota signed Murphy — both All-Big Ten selections going into this season.
According to sources, Mack, who just finished his senior year at Alabama, was a toxic presence who was allowed to undermine the start of the Smart era at Texas.
Sources said Mack helped influence teammates, including Kerwin Roach, into poor decisions resulting in at least one suspension for both players (to start the 2016-17 season) for violating team rules.
Mack ended up being suspended indefinitely (and ultimately getting kicked off the team) by Smart after Mack talked back to Smart in front of the entire team during an 11-22 season in 2016-17.
Smart has seemingly had a different person in charge of his offense in each season. The first year, it was Darrin Horn. The second year — when Texas went 11-22 — it was Smart, according to sources.
The third year, it was Smart and director of operations Cody Hatt, sources said. This year, Smart said Jai Lucas was going to be in charge of the offense.
(Smart also apparently blamed Jai Lucas for not keeping a better handle on Kerwin Roach
But, ultimately, the culture of the program and whether Smart was going to run things or his players were going to run things had to come down to Smart.
Smart said he’s tried to involve his players in establishing a culture for the program. But sources said the culture of the program is still missing.
At VCU, Smart hired a guy named Denny Kuiper as a consultant. At Texas, Smart made Kuiper a full-time member of his program. And, according to sources, Smart would meet with Kuiper in the mornings and then have Kuiper tell the assistant coaches (Horn, Cason and Morrell) what the plan was for each day.
Kuiper retired after last season, but sources said the first couple years with Kuiper at Texas made communication within the program completely dysfunctional.
In the spring of 2016, Morrell nearly derailed UT’s recruitment of 5-star big man Jarrett Allen of Austin St. Stephen’s by talking down to a member of Allen’s inner circle connected to Allen’s AAU team out of Houston, sources said.
Smart ended up demoting Morrell and promoting Texas director of operations Jai Lucas to assistant coach after Lucas and his father John Lucas Sr. were able to save the recruitment of Allen, sources said.
Jai Lucas had also gotten some interest from TCU coach Jamie Dixon and OU coach Lon Kruger, prompting Smart’s decision to promote Lucas.
The following year, when Cason was recruiting Jarrett Culver and Zhaire Smith and Morrell was recruiting Jase Febres and Mo Bamba, Smart decided to fire Cason to make room for Morrell to rejoin the staff as a full-time assistant.
Smith, who was a one-and-done player for Tech on the Red Raiders’ Elite Eight team last season, was on his official visit to Texas in the spring of 2017 when Smith’s family started asking about the whereabouts of Cason?
When Smart told them he had fired Cason, Smith and his family terminated the visit and left Austin, sources said.
Culver is this year’s Big 12 player of the year at Texas Tech.
Cason is now an assistant coach at Florida International University.
There were questions about the recruitment of Bamba emanating from his own brother, Ibrahim Johnson, who accused Bamba of taking impermissible benefits from a man named Greer Love, whom the NCAA ultimately deemed a longtime mentor of Bamba.
There were questions about UT’s recruitment of Brian Bowen, who took two unofficial visits to Texas before signing with Louisville.
Louisville fired Rick Pitino over allegations Bowen’s father was paid $100,000 by Adidas at the urging of a Cardinals coach for Bowen to sign with Louisville.
But, so far, the FBI’s investigation into college basketball has stayed away from Texas’ connections to Bamba and Bowen.
The bottom line is Smart rapidly appears to be losing support.
Only 1,739 fans showed up for UT’s first-round NIT victory over South Dakota State on Tuesday.
Texas will play host to Xavier in a second-round NIT game on Sunday at 3:30 pm CT.
After four years, Smart is 67-66 at Texas, and the biggest reason he could be returning for a fifth season in Austin might be the $14 million buyout it would cost Texas to get out of the four years still remaining on Smart’s guaranteed contract after this season.
(Chip Brown)