Shaka Smart Texas Longhorns Press & Creating The Culture of Havoc

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Shaka Smart Texas Longhorns Press

The former VCU coach took his time finding a major program to call his home. Coach Smart is now in Year 2 at the University of Texas. Coach Smart is ready to turn his vision of Longhorns basketball into a reality. Shaka Smart turned down several programs before he picked Texas. Ever since he lead the VCU Rams from the first four to the Final Four in 2011. He has been one of the hottest coaches in the basketball coaching industry. He watched his two predecessors at VCU, Jeff Capel and Anthony Grant, jump at their first chance at a high major job, only to see their head coaching careers flop. Jeff Capel was fired after five seasons at the University of Oklahoma, and has been an assistant coach at Duke since 2011. Anthony Grant was fired after six seasons at Alabama, and is now an NBA assistant coach, joining Billy Donovan in OKC with the OKC Thunder.

Shaka Smart became famous at VCU for his HAVOC Press, a full court defensive scheme that pressures the opposing ball handlers for 94 feet, trapping and turning them over in an attempt to get the game going as fast as possible. Smart conditioned his players to an almost maniacal level, where he counted on them being able to win the game of endurance in the second half.

Shaka Smart at his press conference, December 14, 2016

Increasing the number of possessions in a game with pressure defense can be extremely effective, until you can face a team that can handle the increased pace and usually has more individual talent. The common them of VCU’s losses in the NCAA Tournament under Coach Smart was running into NBA caliber ball handlers who can handle the press.

Coach Smart came to Texas to coach the elite talent, but that isn’t going to happen right away. To see what Coach Smart’s pressing schemes could look like with elite players running them, you could go to the FIBA Americas U18 championship in Chile this past summer, When Smart’s Team USA roster blitzed opponents off the floor. It’s all on the table for Smart at Texas. He has access to one of the richest talent pools in the country. He can offer them a fast paced style of play that suited to leveraging their athletic gifts. If Smart can get this sleeping giant of a program then he will have full control of the program that he wants to the future.

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Shaka Smart Texas Longhorns Press & Creating The Culture of Havoc