I ran across the following article from here as I was doing
research for core values for our program. It’s an article about Shaka Smart’s initial
impact on the UT men’s basketball program.
It was written before the start of the basketball season, and you can
see the change of ‘energy’ in the program immediately after Smart taking over.
The first 5 paragraphs below with the red font are the first few
paragraphs of the article which quickly highlight the immediate impact of Smart
and his staff on the UT program. I then
bulleted key takeaways that I saw from the article. You can read the article in full after the
jump.
New coach has put the fun back in the game for his players.
When Smart was introduced, Isaiah
Taylor was so fed up with Texas basketball that he couldn’t wait to pack up and
leave. The way March ended, could you blame him?
Get me outta here.
Javan Felix, Demarcus Holland, Connor
Lammert … go right on down the list. Basketball, at Texas anyway, wasn’t fun
anymore. Players weren’t mentally broken, but they were mentally beaten to a
pulp. Dispirited.
Last week, Taylor and several of his
teammates appeared to be different people. They radiated positive energy. They
smiled. Felix boasted about his daily regimen of 600 shots. Holland flexed his
arms to show off some bulging biceps. Lammert was dripping with sweat after a
midday workout.
- Longhorns radiate positive
energy as they ‘attack the day.’
- Last week, Taylor and several of his teammates appeared to be
different people. They radiated positive energy. They smiled. Felix boasted
about his daily regimen of 600 shots. Holland flexed his arms to show off some
bulging biceps. Lammert was dripping with sweat after a midday workout.
- “I’ve probably
been in the gym more in these last two months than I have my whole time at
Texas,” said Taylor, who eventually cooled off and ultimately chose to come
back for his junior season.
- Can a new coaching staff really make that much of a difference?
Perhaps. Especially when it’s a staff that radiates positive energy, preaches
values like appreciation and enthusiasm and demands you “attack the day.”
- “Everything he told us from the first day he met with us has been
true,” Felix said. “From the time we step out of the bed in the morning, he
wants us to be aggressive.”
“I don’t know if coach Smart gives them supplements to get them
going or what,” Lammert said. “It seems like they’re on something, I’ll be
honest, but it’s contagious.”
- Best anyone can tell, this
may be Smart’s secret to success: enthusiasm. He devotes an entire day to it.
Enthusiasm Tuesday. “To me, that should be the easiest one, if you set your
mind to it,” Smart said.
- It’s one of Smart’s five
core values, along with appreciation, competitiveness, accountability and
something he calls “teamship,” in which players align themselves with team
goals. Those five made the cut from an initial list of 19 when Smart was at
Virginia Commonwealth.
- “He told us if you’re
going to come to practice and not have energy, you might as well not come,”
Holland said. “He said he’s really open to that. Well, I’m not sure he’s
totally open to that.”
- If you show up, you best
be ready to compete. Nowadays, everything is a competition. “And they’re
keeping score,” Felix said.
- “He’ll never get mad if you
take a wide-open shot,” said Lammert, who has been working on taking one
dribble in from the 3-point line before shooting. “If you miss it 10 times in a
row, he’ll tell you, ‘Keep getting ready to shoot it with confidence.’ ”
- “A lot of people probably
didn’t believe in themselves,” Taylor said. “I think a lot of people weren’t
afraid, but they didn’t want to make a mistake and make anybody mad. This year,
Shaka is basically telling us that there are going to be mistakes, but you’ve
just got to limit those mistakes. It’s all about positive reinforcement with
him.”
- “If there’s anything in
terms of philosophy that our guys hopefully understand after four months that’s
important to us as coaches, it’s those five core values,” Smart said. “That
doesn’t guarantee you’re going to have purpose or even perform at a high level
at those, but they understand what the expectations are.”
New coach has put the fun back in the game for his players.
Longhorns radiate positive energy as they ‘attack the day.’
New Texas men’s basketball coach
Shaka Smart won the opening news conference in smooth style. Crushed it,
actually. In the four months since, he appears to be winning over the
Longhorns, too. And that was no easy task.
When Smart was introduced, Isaiah
Taylor was so fed up with Texas basketball that he couldn’t wait to pack up and
leave. The way March ended, could you blame him?
UT’s star point guard shook his head
in disbelief after the late-game meltdown against Iowa State in Kansas City,
Mo. He was present in Pittsburgh but had no answers after the
what-are-they-doing-out-there performance against Butler in the NCAAs. Taylor
held his tongue, but his body language was unmistakable.
Get me outta here.
He wasn’t the only one. Myles Turner
was so ready to leave, he started working on a YouTube video that announced his
decision to jump into the NBA draft long before the season ended.
Javan Felix, Demarcus Holland, Connor
Lammert … go right on down the list. Basketball, at Texas anyway, wasn’t fun
anymore. Players weren’t mentally broken, but they were mentally beaten to a
pulp. Dispirited.
“You never really have a feel for
where the individuals on a team are when you take over a new situation,” Smart
said. “Things are so different from the outside looking in anywhere.”
Last week, Taylor and several of his teammates appeared to be
different people. They radiated positive energy. They smiled. Felix boasted
about his daily regimen of 600 shots. Holland flexed his arms to show off some
bulging biceps. Lammert was dripping with sweat after a midday workout.
“I’ve probably been in the gym more in these last two months than I
have my whole time at Texas,” said Taylor, who eventually cooled off and
ultimately chose to come back for his junior season. The
same guard who wanted to leave UT just spent four days in Long Beach, Calif.,
at an Adidas camp as a counselor and Longhorns ambassador.
Can a new coaching staff really make that much of a difference?
Perhaps. Especially when it’s a staff that radiates positive energy, preaches
values like appreciation and enthusiasm and demands you “attack the day.”
“Everything he told us from the first day he met with us has been
true,” Felix said. “From the time we step out of the bed in the morning, he
wants us to be aggressive.”
Felix already feels
comfortable poking his head coach. The 5-foot-10-inch guard swears that he’s
taller than Smart, but somehow, Smart came out a half-inch taller in the tale
of the tape. Felix demands a new measurement and wants Longhorn Network to
capture it live.
“We can do that.
I’m happy to do that,” Smart said. “It was a clear half-inch taller.”
Holland isn’t sure
what to make of Smart’s sometimes blank expression, though.
“He’ll ask me a question, and I’ll
give him a really detailed answer,” Holland said. “He’ll just stare at me with
no emotion, like a Derrick Rose face. No emotion at all. He makes me wonder,
‘Is what I’m saying that dumb to where you don’t want to respond? Or are you
soaking it all in?’ I’m confused.
“It’s that look,” Holland added, “and
everybody who knows him knows what I’m talking about.”
Everyone is growing acclimated to one
another. Lammert said assistant coaches Mike Morrell, David Cason and Darrin
Horn are so positive, it’s a little unnerving.
“I don’t know if coach Smart gives them supplements to get them
going or what,” Lammert said. “It seems like they’re on something, I’ll be
honest, but it’s contagious.”
Best anyone can tell, this may be Smart’s secret to success:
enthusiasm. He devotes an entire day to it. Enthusiasm Tuesday. “To me, that
should be the easiest one, if you set your mind to it,” Smart said.
It’s one of Smart’s five core values, along with appreciation,
competitiveness, accountability and something he calls “teamship,” in which
players align themselves with team goals. Those five made the cut from an
initial list of 19 when Smart was at Virginia Commonwealth.
“He told us if you’re going to come to practice and not have
energy, you might as well not come,” Holland said. “He said he’s really open to
that. Well, I’m not sure he’s totally open to that.”
If you show up, you best be ready to compete. Nowadays, everything
is a competition. “And they’re keeping score,” Felix said.
How many shots can you make? How much
can you bench press? Holland said he has classes with Felix, and he texts Smart
that he plans to take more notes in class. Smart, a voracious texter, demands
the players communicate with him. “He says if you don’t text back, you lose
minutes,” Holland said.
By NCAA rule, teams cannot have full
workouts during the summer. Groups of players come in at various times during
the week. Smart said there has been no full-scale implementation of X’s and O’s
just yet, only bits and pieces of things.
Taylor and Holland said players are
focused on individual improvement at the moment. Taylor, who is a chiseled 184
pounds, said he already feels like an all-around better player. He’s studying
“pick-and-roll reads, being aggressive on defense, 15-foot jumpers, when to
feed the post, when to put my players in position to make a great play.”
And players better get used to
shooting, shooting and shooting some more. The Horns do need to score more
points. Last season, Texas was eighth in the Big 12 at 67.4 points per game.
“He’ll never get mad if you take a wide-open shot,” said Lammert,
who has been working on taking one dribble in from the 3-point line before
shooting. “If you miss it 10 times in a row, he’ll tell you, ‘Keep getting
ready to shoot it with confidence.’ ”
What’s odd is that this bunch
shouldn’t be short on confidence.
Think about this possible starting
five: Felix, Holland and Kendal Yancy in the backcourt with Lammert and Cam
Ridley up front. All but one have more
than 2,000 career minutes. Taylor has 1,812, thanks to missing 10 games with a
broken wrist.
So what happened during last season’s
disappointing 20-14 campaign? It can’t all be because of former coach Rick
Barnes.
“A lot of people probably didn’t believe in themselves,” Taylor
said. “I think a lot of people weren’t afraid, but they didn’t want to make a
mistake and make anybody mad. This year, Shaka is basically telling us that
there are going to be mistakes, but you’ve just got to limit those mistakes.
It’s all about positive reinforcement with him.”
The season opener is about three
months away. Plenty of time for Smart, the assistants and the players to
continue building better relationships.
“I feel good about the progress we’ve
made so far,” Smart said.
Attack the day.
SMART’S CORE VALUES
Much has been made about Charlie
Strong’s five core values, but Texas men’s basketball coach Shaka Smart has
five of his own — appreciation, enthusiasm, competitiveness, accountability and
“teamship,” in which a player must align individual goals with those of the
team.
Smart’s five core values were
developed during his time at Virginia Commonwealth.
“I started brainstorming what should
our core values be, and I remember I had a list of 19,” Smart said. “I knew I
had to cut it down to a manageable number.”
Smart assigns a core value its own
day. Like Appreciation Mondays, for example. “Saturday and Sunday? The weekend
is just putting them all together at once, I guess,” guard Demarcus Holland
said.
“If there’s anything in terms of
philosophy that our guys hopefully understand after four months that’s
important to us as coaches, it’s those five core values,” Smart said. “That
doesn’t guarantee you’re going to have purpose or even perform at a high level
at those, but they understand what the expectations are.”
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