The local media just wrapped up a Zoom press conference with Shaka Smart. A few immediate notes and look for more notes throughout the week:
--- On the injury front, the Longhorns have been okay so far. Jase Febres, recovering from microfracture surgery to his knee, still hasn’t been cleared for practice. The rest of the 12 scholarship Longhorns have dealt with what Smart described as “typical preseason bumps and bruises,” but nothing serious. He’s hopeful he’ll have all his players ready to go for the November 25th season-opener besides Febres.
--- Smart described finding the best rotation for Texas as the biggest challenge right now for the coaching staff.
“There's a lot of different ways you could go,” he said. “We've got really all of our returning guys at different moments Last year, helped our team. Some certainly more consistently than others. But some of those guys are not the exact same player that they were. So, you don't want to base everything on last year. I think at times in my coaching career, I've tried too much to maybe play too many guys or focus on where the ninth or 10th or 11th man is mentally. But the reality is we got to do the right thing for Texas, and our guys put so much time and effort into it. It'll be interesting to see how that goes.
“I think so far in practice there are some guys that have separated themselves at the top, which is good. And then there's a bunch of guys in the middle that we really need to sort through which of those guys can be most effective helping us win in the game, which obviously we’re 15 days away from getting a chance to test that out.”
When asked about players standing out, Smart went right to what could be the team’s difference-making strength – the guards.
“The three guards stand out more than anyone,” he said. “Those guys just have a maturity about them in terms of their games."
Smart pointed out without Febres the Longhorns don’t have a ton of perimeter players. Recently in practice, Texas put all three of the guards Smart is referring to – Matt Coleman, Courtney Ramey and Andrew Jones – on the same team which meant Gerald Liddell had to run point for the other group.
Smart also singled out...
READ THE REST OF OUR REPORT AND DISCUSS TEXAS BASKETBALL INSIDE THE 40 ACRES (PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS)
Not an Orangebloods.com member? Take advantage of our special offer below.
