Texas Gets Smart: Shaka Smart is New Men’s Basketball Coach
It’s almost like it was meant to be.
In January 2014, the #TexasStrong era began. Now it’s #TexasSmart, too.
[On April 3, 2014] Shaka Smart was announced as the new head coach for Texas men’s basketball. Smart, who was previously the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth University, replaces Rick Barnes, who led the Longhorns to 16 NCAA Tournament appearances and one Final Four in his 17 seasons at Texas.
“Shaka Smart is one of the best basketball coaches in the nation, and we’re thrilled to bring him to Texas,” said UT president William Powers. “He has vaulted VCU into the top tier of basketball programs and will now build on the great tradition established by Rick Barnes and the other Longhorn coaches who came before him. With his upbeat style of play, proven leadership and focus on education, Coach Smart will inspire our student-athletes for years to come. I look forward to seeing our program thrive under Shaka Smart.”
The 37-year-old Smart won 26 or more games each season during his six years at VCU and shot to national prominence after the 11-seed Rams reached the Final Four in 2011. He is known for his signature “Havoc” style of play, including an intense full-court press on defense. His team workouts have included a week of Navy SEAL training.
“Havoc” was a hit with the VCU fan base. The Rams concluded the 2014-15 season with a streak of 66 consecutive sellouts at the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center. That is the fifth-longest active streak in the nation, trailing only Duke, Kansas, Michigan State and Gonzaga.
In the classroom, all 15 seniors during the first six seasons under Smart graduated with at least a bachelor’s degree. Three of the 15 went on to earn a master’s degree. All three seniors on the 2014-15 VCU roster earned their bachelor’s degrees in May 2015.
Smart’s tenure in VCU will be forever linked to the magical 2010-11 season, which saw the Rams advance to the NCAA Final Four for the first time in school history. VCU posted a 28-12 overall record, including a 12-6 mark in CAA play, and earned a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Forced to play in a First Four game in Dayton, the Rams registered five consecutive upsets in what many experts called the greatest run to the Final Four in tourney history.
Along the way, VCU defeated “Power 5” schools USC (59-46), Georgetown (74-56), Purdue (94-76), Florida State (72-71 OT) and Kansas (71-61). The Rams’ victory against Kansas, the No. 1 seed in the Southwest Region, was voted the “Best Upset” of 2011 at ESPN’s annual ESPY Awards.
VCU, which fell to Butler in the NCAA semifinals, finished the season ranked No. 6 in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll, the highest in school and CAA history. Smart earned the Fritz Pollard and Clarence Gaines National Coach of the Year Awards.
Smart was a four-year starter at Kenyon College, graduating magna cum laude with a history degree. He later earned his master’s degree in social science while an assistant coach at California University of Pennsylvania. He went on to serve as an assistant coach at Dayton, Akron and Clemson before spending the 2008-09 seasons as an assistant at the University of Florida. (Another Gator assistant coach that year: Charlie Strong.)
A native of Madison, Wis., Smart and his wife, Maya, have one daughter, Zora Sanae (born Sept. 25, 2011).