ESPN: Shaka Smart and why it pays to have patience with college basketball coaches

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per ESPN:

On Sunday, Texas men's basketball coach Shaka Smart punctuated a weekend that included a thrilling victory at West Virginia -- cancer survivor Andrew Jones made the winning 3-pointer -- by playing in the snow with his daughter during a rare winter snowstorm in the Lone Star State.

"My daughter has never lived in a cold climate, and she's maybe once or twice seen snow," Smart said during his news conference on Monday. "I wanted to make sure we got that done [Sunday]."

While this season's 10-1 start for the Longhorns has turned Smart into a strong contender for national Coach of the Year honors, the unbridled joy has only come in spurts since his arrival at Texas.

In a previous era, Smart's run at VCU turned him into the sport's hottest target. After leading the Rams to the Final Four in 2011, Smart was tied to multiple openings; indeed, he was "The Bachelor" for college basketball. When he arrived in Austin, the narrative was that he had picked the Longhorns, not the other way around.

www.espn.com

Shaka Smart and why it pays to have patience with college basketball coaches

Texas' Shaka Smart has a potential Final Four team after facing questions about his job status in the spring. Here are other coaches also on the brink of turning it around -- if their schools have patience.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Go Gophers!!
 

So many ways to go with this...
 

BleedGopher said:
per ESPN:

On Sunday, Texas men's basketball coach Shaka Smart punctuated a weekend that included a thrilling victory at West Virginia -- cancer survivor Andrew Jones made the winning 3-pointer -- by playing in the snow with his daughter during a rare winter snowstorm in the Lone Star State.

"My daughter has never lived in a cold climate, and she's maybe once or twice seen snow," Smart said during his news conference on Monday. "I wanted to make sure we got that done [Sunday]."

While this season's 10-1 start for the Longhorns has turned Smart into a strong contender for national Coach of the Year honors, the unbridled joy has only come in spurts since his arrival at Texas.

In a previous era, Smart's run at VCU turned him into the sport's hottest target. After leading the Rams to the Final Four in 2011, Smart was tied to multiple openings; indeed, he was "The Bachelor" for college basketball. When he arrived in Austin, the narrative was that he had picked the Longhorns, not the other way around.

www.espn.com

Shaka Smart and why it pays to have patience with college basketball coaches

Texas' Shaka Smart has a potential Final Four team after facing questions about his job status in the spring. Here are other coaches also on the brink of turning it around -- if their schools have patience.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Go Gophers!!
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Myron should have found examples of those that had 7 plus years not 4. And with Skaka it should be pointed out he did not build VCU. And he never won the conference. Hats off for the Final 4 but it happened right away. He was not even the first choice at Texas. Why did Myron not do a comprehensive study on all the coaches kept longer than 4 years to see what actually got done, what got built. FYI, i am in favor of 5 so i can see what he does with his own classes of upperclassmen. I know what happens before then.
 




Good to see Coach Pitino get some positive pub after an excellent start to the season. Well deserved.
 

golf said:
Good to see Coach Pitino get some positive pub after an excellent start to the season. Well deserved.
Click to expand...
Done a pretty good job. But Myron throws the program under the bus by thinking this is about where we would be no matter who worked here. That is foolish. We can win Big 10 titles and beyond. There are coaches who have taken worse programs than this and won big.
 

builtbadgers said:
Texas was not going to fire him . They liked where they were at for this year.
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Kentucky wasn't going to fire Tubby in 2007 either. Not saying it's certain by a long shot, but the right offer to get out of town ahead of the firing squad could have been enticing. Ask Tom Herman.
 

I disagree with his claim that Minnesota is a program that cant have sustained success. Why is Minnesotas potential less than Wisconsin? The right coach could build it here.
 



howeda7 said:
Kentucky wasn't going to fire Tubby in 2007 either. Not saying it's certain by a long shot, but the right offer to get out of town ahead of the firing squad could have been enticing. Ask Tom Herman.
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Shaka had a giant parachute, so did Herman. Tubby just took a soft landing or it was the axe ! This is all well known. Fools doing the hiring for decades. They were begged to not make the hires they did for over 20 years !
 

bmb5270 said:
I disagree with his claim that Minnesota is a program that cant have sustained success. Why is Minnesotas potential less than Wisconsin? The right coach could build it here.
Click to expand...
We can and should be UW level of success but we never hired like they did.
 

Shaka has always recruited very well. MN is still waiting for those types of recruits, and they are right in our backyard, from Pitino.
 

What is all the fuss about Shaka. He is not coming here and never even won the conference at VCU. He was never interested in this job.
 




builtbadgers said:
Done a pretty good job. But Myron throws the program under the bus by thinking this is about where we would be no matter who worked here. That is foolish. We can win Big 10 titles and beyond. There are coaches who have taken worse programs than this and won big.
Click to expand...
That was my takeaway, I have been meaning to ask this but what is his beef with us? Did a local paper fire him?? Did he not get into the u?
 

Who was it that saw him at the airport? Good times.
 

Shaka had ties to Mega Tongue. So, he ain't coming here.

Minnesota just needs the facilities to get a coach.
Minnesota just needs a good conference to get a coach.
Minnesota needs a first class stadium.
Minnesota needs the right kind of administrative support.

I almost put a line through the last one. I thought those days were over with the new leadership but I may be wrong.
 

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