Shaka Smart Coaching For His Job

By Nick Kucholtz

Reporting Texas

The Texas Longhorns Men’s Basketball team won their season opener against Northern Colorado.

The burnt orange went up early and wouldn’t look back, crushing the Bears 69-45. But despite the 24 point victory, the team has plenty of areas to improve on.

“We had way too many turnovers,” red shirt Sophomore Point Guard Andrew Jones said. “Fifteen, that’s not our standard, so there’s a lot of room for improvement. If we can limit the turnovers and have more assists and just hit our shots, it’s just early in the season so we have a lot of improvement to do.”

Last year, the Longhorns won just 16 games in the regular season, and failed to make the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years.

“You know, it’s really all about how you respond,” Head Coach Shaka Smart said. “That’s a word we use a lot in our program, and we say response is your ability to focus on the next most important thing.”

Shaka Smart was just 71 and 66 in his first four seasons at Texas, and the patience of the UT fan base is running low. If this season brings the same losing results, then some fans are ready for a new head coach to be in charge.

“I think Shaka has definitely under performed so far while he’s been at UT,” Texas basketball fan Shawn Barnett said. “He definitely needs to perform well this year, and if he doesn’t, I think UT should definitely make a move to hire a better coach.”

The Horns are off to an undefeated start to the season, but have a long way to go to meet their fans and their own expectations.