Tevin Mack released from scholarship at Texas
A bad season got even worse for the Texas basketball team as head coach Shaka Smart announced Tevin Mack will be released from his scholarship.
What has been a depressing, whirlwind type of season for Texas Longhorn basketball fans got just a little bit worse on Monday afternoon.
Shaka Smart announced that Tevin Mack, the team’s leading scorer in the 15 games he played, will be released from his scholarship.
Mack, a 6’6″ guard out of South Carolina, was averaging 14.8 points per game prior to his suspension on Jan. 12. He was replaced in the starting lineup by Eric Davis, Jr.
It has been a tumultuous season for Shaka Smart in his second season in Austin. After impressing with some of former head coach Rick Barnes’ players in his first season last year, expectations were high for Smart’s second season at the helm.
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The Longhorns were picked to finish third in the conference before the season, and, while their likely last place finish will leave some fans angered, there’s still reason for optimism for the near future -with or without Mack.
Stepping up for the Longhorns in Mack’s stead are Shaka Smart’s two headlining freshmen: Jarrett Allen and Andrew Jones. Since Mack’s suspension, Jarrett Allen has looked like one of the best big men in the Big 12, posting 16 points and 9 rebounds per game on almost 60 percent from the field.
Jones, on the other hand, is averaging almost 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists per game. Allen could conceivably leave for the NBA after this season, as he is projected as the 18th overall pick this summer by NBADraft.net. Jones, though, figures to be in Austin for the near-future.
Texas will, above all else, miss Mack for his three-point shooting ability. Their team three-point percentage is 339th in the country, and that includes Mack’s team-leading 39.5 percent three-point percentage. The Longhorn’s that aren’t named Tevin Mack are combining to shoot just 28 percent from downtown.
Sure, it’s been a down year for Smart and the Longhorns, and this definitely doesn’t help. But with the development of Allen and Jones, along with another solid recruiting class next season, it’s still easy to see the optimism with what Smart is doing in Texas.