Postseason offers opportunity for Longhorns to validate Smart’s emphasis on ‘culture’

Since April 2, 2015, when he took over as the men’s basketball head coach at the University of Texas, Shaka Smart has relied on an assortment of principles that make up the foundation of his coaching philosophy. At the top of that list has been the Longhorns’ “culture.”

If the Longhorns enjoy significant postseason success, whether that is marked in a victory over Oklahoma State to win the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship or a run of any length in the NCAA tournament, that concept of culture might be the primary reason why.

The 2021 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, like what seems like just about everything else over the last year and a half, has been unusual, to say the least. In the Longhorns’ case, a tough win over Texas Tech set up a semifinal matchup with Kansas, until the Jayhawks withdrew from the tournament because of a positive Covid test, sending the Horns through to Saturday’s championship game against Oklahoma State, which beat Baylor.

Smart, and coaches across the country, have talked all season about the unexpected challenges brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic. Schedules were altered, games postponed and/or cancelled, players opted out of the season while others were required to quarantine because of failed Covid tests. Throughout it all, Smart, amplified the theme of the Longhorns doing things “the right way,” following protocols and being there for each other.

That approach got tested in UT’s first-round win over Texas Tech.[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level3)]

Forward Greg Brown left the bench during the second half. Television cameras caught Brown heading up the tunnel to the locker room, leaving the announcers to speculate about the reason. Brown returned to the bench moments later, sitting at the end of the back row in the Longhorns’ bench area. 

Smart’s response was, well … smart.

First, he never put Brown back in the game. Nobody has identified the cause for Brown’s brief exit from the floor, and it seems unlikely anyone will — that’s the kind of thing that teams will keep in-house. Smart let forwards Jericho Sims and Kai Jones handle the bulk of the remaining minutes, mixing in an appearance by little-used Royce Hamm. If Brown was frustrated by the game, or his role, or his lack of shots — he had just two points in only 13 minutes, slamming his only field goal attempt for a thunderous dunk — Smart wasn’t going to let the emotions of a freshman dictate the outcome of the game. Call it a teaching point.

But even more impressive was Smart’s response in his postgame press conference, in which he declined to call out or embarrass the über-talented youngster.

“Well, I haven’t talked to [Brown] since the end of the game,” Smart said. “You know, I think the first thing is having a passion and excitement, all of our guys, for winning. That was a heck of a win — it wasn’t easy.

“Secondly, Greg’s a guy we really value and appreciate. But I think for all of our guys, really, really taking ownership of how to play well, and how to help your team on both ends of the floor is huge. Obviously that’s toughest when you’re in your first year. So we’ve got to help him with that, we’ve got to help him understand he’s not on an island — we love him, care about him. Tonight, as a team, we turned the ball over too much, and we’ve got to do a better job with that.”

It would have been easy for Smart to pound his fists on the table and mutter something about how “we’re not going to tolerate that kind of behavior.” Instead, he saluted the intense competitiveness that runs throughout the team — whether intentional or not, he certainly implied that the compliment was intended to include Brown — and then heaped the responsibility for helping the precocious Brown on the entire team. Without naming names, he suggested no matter how talented a young player is — Brown is as gifted as any freshman to roll through Austin since Kevin Durant — he can’t succeed with the guidance and mentorship of his older, more experienced teammates. 

He implied that in some way, the team had let Brown down, not the other way around. He ended his analysis of the situation by steering the attention back to the fact that the Longhorns — the whole team — have to be better.

Timing is everything
Above all, the most important result of the decision by the Jayhawks to withdraw from the conference tournament has to be KU keeping those within its program, as well as those on opposing teams, healthy and safe. Nothing is more important than that.

But if circumstances dictate that a game had to be cancelled for any reason, it came at an ideal time for the Longhorns, because it gave them a chance to embrace Smart’s “culture” principle and put it into action.

“We’ll spend time together, tonight and tomorrow,” Smart said late Thursday night, before the KU game was scrapped, “and try to get right for tomorrow.”

As it turned out, the schedule change meant the Longhorns got an extra day, a decided advantage of whichever team advanced from the Oklahoma State-Baylor tilt. The Longhorns got to watch their next opponent and recover from the battle the night before against the Red Raiders.

It also gave them an extra day, away from cameras and microphones and video interviews, to pick up Brown, to live by their coach’s “culture” credo.

If it works — if Texas beats the Cowboys to win the conference tournament, and/or makes a deep run in the NCAA tournament … and especially if Brown rebounds with a sizable contribution to the Longhorns’ postseason success — Smart will have a permanent record of evidence that what he teaches is not a bunch of canned coaching clichés. It will forever validate Smart’s culture lesson, this season and in the years ahead.
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level3)] [horns3] [/s2If]