Oso planning to go pro
There, Smart took a team that was largely dysfunctional amid roster churn and got it to the NCAA Tournament.
He took over a team that had three returning players (ranked 6th, 7th and 10th in minutes the year prior) kept some key recruits, got in some decent transfers, and made the NCAA tournament.A pretty good coaching job IMO.
TAMUI do know, Newsie is right on you knowing ball.
Basically an A for the regular season last year. No excuses made about the roster or youth, brought in great transfers, brought back some toughness. But you wonder how it went so badly so quickly at the end -- reminded me of the previous coach. Fully understanding they ran into a UNC buzzsaw - but regardless, they looked dysfunctional in that NCAA game.
Smart coaches figured them out.
As did some not-so-smart coaches.
Top tier was predictable: Bennett, Calipari, Drew, Few, Izzo, Pitino, Sampson, Self.
I'd also take Shaka over any of the other coaches in his tier.
Overall I'd say this group of coaches if pretty accurate in terms of where he should be ranked.
The Athletic has ranked most P6 college basketball coaches by tiers, and Shaka was in the Tier 3 ... along with some pretty good company:Randy Bennett, Mike Brey, Hubert Davis, Jamie Dixon, Greg Gard, Anthony Grant, Chris Holtmann, Juwan Howard, Dan Hurley, James Jones, Tommy Lloyd, Thad Matta, Fran McCaffery, Greg McDermott, Niko Medved, Porter Moser, Nate Oats, Kevin Willard, Buzz Williams, Brad Underwood, Mike Young.https://theathletic.com/3619418/2022/09/28/college-basketball-best-coach-rankings-tiers/?source=pulsenewsletter&campaign=5157326Top tier was predictable: Bennett, Calipari, Drew, Few, Izzo, Pitino, Sampson, Self.Criteria was "intentionally vague," and "because tiering 350-plus coaches would be folly, we culled the list according to the following qualifications": head coaches from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC; any head coach from a non-“power” conference who has led his team to the NCAA Tournament or won a regular-season conference title in the last three seasons; must have already coached a full season at the Division I level.I guess that's further evidence that the Big East is considered part of the "Power 6."Of our coach, The Athletic said:Shaka Smart went to a Final Four with VCU and bypassed a ton of offers before jumping at Texas. He was not bad in Austin. The Longhorns went to the NCAA Tournament in three of his last five years (and probably would have made another were it not for COVID-19), before he opted out and headed to Marquette. There, Smart took a team that was largely dysfunctional amid roster churn and got it to the NCAA Tournament. “I know there’s a wide range of opinions on Shaka, but he has been to a Final Four,’’ one agent says. “He’s been to the NCAA Tournament every year but three that he’s coached. I mean, that’s pretty damn good."Calling Shaka's breakup with Texas him "opting out" is a little generous, but I otherwise agree that Shaka has been a "pretty damn good" college basketball coach.
Mu82 You continue to be a negative. Apparently you aren't aware of your cynicsm or sarcasm. You've proven over and over that you are a real "Debbie Downer." For this reason you are being muted.
I really can't tell if you are being serious or if you are committed to a years long bit.If the former, yikes on bikes. If the latter, respect for the commitment.
The one thing I would say to this is that he could have theoretically returned the entire roster if he wanted to. He didn't. He blew it up instead and still made the NCAAT. Pretty good coaching job indeed.