NCAA Basketball: Smart’s hot seat, Duke’s weakness and more takeaways

1) Shaka Smart will be coaching for his job in February/March

Shaka Smart’s tenure at Texas has been marred annual underachievement, but also the promise of better things to come the following year. The problem is that the Longhorns have never taken that step forward.

Smart has done a good job recruiting at Texas. He has already produced a lottery pick in Mo Bamba, a first-round pick in Jarrett Allen and current big man Jaxson Hayes is projected to be a first-rounder in this year’s draft. However, that talent has made the Longhorns’ track record all the more troublesome.

Texas is just 60-57 in Smart’s three and a half years in Austin. That’s not a standard Texas is comfortable with. Heck, they ran Rick Barnes out-of-town for going 80-57 in his last four years in charge of the program. Barnes was also criticized for his NCAA Tournament struggles as he failed to advance past the first weekend in each of his last seven seasons. Smart hasn’t even won a game in his two appearances.

Those tournament bids have largely kept much of the hot seat talk away from Smart, but it can’t do that anymore.

Saturday’s loss to Georgia marked their fifth loss in the last six games and dropped the Longhorns to 11-9 on the season. They’re also on pace to finish under .500 in conference play for the third consecutive season.

The season began with so much hope after the Longhorns beat North Carolina in Las Vegas. However, back-to-back home losses to Radford and VCU shortly thereafter put a familiar stain on their season that has only gotten worse with their recent play.

Smart’s struggles are no longer able to be ignored – Barnes’ success at Tennessee is playing a part in that – and he’ll need to produce a great February and March if he’s going to keep his job.