Smart discusses areas of focus this offseason, is excited about his roster

The incoming 2018 recruiting class – besides Kamaka Hepa, who is currently in Canada playing for the USA U18 National Team – is on the UT campus, and so are guards Andrew Jones, Kerwin Roach II, and the rest of the roster. In what is unquestionably a pivotal offseason for the Longhorns, there’s an excitement over at Cooley Pavilion surrounding the roster that will tackle the upcoming 2018-19 season, a roster that’s received a lot of good news over the last couple of months.

But make no mistake, excitement is joined by an understanding and mindset of work needing to be done. Specifically, the Longhorns know they need to improve before the upcoming season begins. As Shaka Smart and his staff, completed recently with the addition of former Iowa State assistant coach Neill Berry, begin working with their 2018-19 roster, their focus starts with improving their personnel in all areas.

“So many you’re looking at… probably the most important component of that is your personnel. And not just the roster itself, but where guys are in their development in their progression maturity wise and basketball IQ wise,” responded Smart when asked what is he and his staff’s main focus this summer. “I bring that up first because everything goes from there. If the personnel moves forward in those areas, it makes [everything] better. That’s a big emphasis for us just continuing to grow these guys as people and players. We have two extra hours a week per summer. Spending a ton of time on their games… strengths we want to build on and weaknesses we want to improve.

“One of the things this time of the year - and there’s never been a year I’ve not felt this way - is you’re rooking at the different inches, if you will, that can be gained in a variety of areas. Basketball is a game of inches, one play here, two seconds there. There’s a lot of little areas we can improve on... And then take another big step culturally with our guys understanding and living out our core values and our cultural principles.”

When anyone discusses strengths and weaknesses about the Texas Basketball team and specifically the 2017-18 season, attention is immediately pulled to one area: offense. Smart is, obviously, aware of the Longhorns needing to improve offensively.

“Number one (basketball wise) would be scoring more efficiently, and probably at the top of the list for that in terms of scoring would be making a higher percentage of our threes and free throws,” he said when discussing priority, basketball-specific focus areas this summer. “As you know, there’s a lot of things that go into that – passing, execution, ballhandling, combinations, getting more guys comfortable playing together. Last year we had a lot of different combinations depending on the time of the year. We need to get guys more and more comfortable playing together in different combinations… I’m excited about the fact we’ll have a good core back that played a decent amount of minutes together… hopefully those guys will be further along than they were last year at different times because they’ve played together more.”

Texas received an enormous lift in those areas when Roach announced he planned to withdraw his name from the upcoming NBA Draft, and was returning to Texas. Now, Smart is poised to have his most experienced and deepest roster during his time at Texas.

“It’s important because as we’ve learned sometimes the hard way there is no sub for experience,” he said about Roach’s return. “You can sign good recruiting classes, can bring in impact players and even guys that are only in college one year. But freshmen are freshmen. They have a real learning curve. They have a lot of ups and downs. Sometimes, they’re not quite ready to be what they want to be and what you want them to be. One thing about the best guys is they get better so fast.

“It’s going to be good to have more experience and it is important in that it helps your younger guys because leadership, we always say leadership is the ability to make those around you better. Hard to do that if you look around and no one has really done what you’re trying to do. At times last year there were a lot of moments we had one or two guys on the floor that played in a big 12 game before this year. Hopefully, it’ll be four, maybe five guys at times next year.”

When thinking about possible future lineups, that experience on the floor should, finally, be a constant theme. Roach, Dylan Osetkowski, Matt Coleman, Jase Febres, Jericho Sims, and Royce Hamm, Jr. all return with experience; some, obviously, have more than others, but four of that group played starting roles down the stretch. Plus, Jones is trying to work his way back on to the court, and there is optimism he’ll be able to this season; Elijah Long will be a redshirt junior, who played a ton of minutes at Mount St. Mary’s, including a NCAA Tournament game.

On paper, the roster appears like the best collection of talent, experience, versatility and depth that Smart has possessed at Texas. The Longhorns should have good point guard play and depth; a guard group that compliments each other well; multiple skilled forwards; a true wing; and uniquely long and athletic bigs with size.

But games aren’t won with a roster on paper, and, as we all learned last season, there’s no guarantee a coach can put the same lineup on the floor to begin each game.

“We’re excited about it. I don’t disagree with that at all, but at the same time as we’ve learned looking at the roster on paper in May doesn’t win or lose you any games it’s what it looks like when the starting lineup is announced and when you look at the box score, particularly after Big 12 games,” said Smart when asked if he agrees this is the best roster he’s had since he arrived at Texas. “We’re really excited about the blend… definitely the first year in a few years where our best player isn’t a freshman big. As good as those guys were, there are some challenges inherit in that type of roster dynamic. That’s not a negative in any way towards them, but when that’s your best player and he’s literally suiting up for his first time in November and 15th time in January…”

While the offense will still look to throw the ball inside when a good opportunity arises, particularly when Ostetkowski and Sims have positive matchups, Smart believes the Texas offense this upcoming season will resemble more the offense Texas ran during the 2015-16 season; it’ll run through more experienced, perimeter-oriented players or skilled forwards instead of a freshman big that everyone is focusing on.

Back then, Texas lost Cameron Ridley right before conference play, and became a multiple, motion offense that moved the ball around, spaced the floor well, utilized pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop, and executed well in the half-court. It helps that Smart has Coleman back, another heady point guard in Long, and added Courtney Ramey, who has earned terrific reviews. Looking back at the guards from that 2015-16 team, there are a lot of similarities between Isaiah Taylor (point guard), Javan Felix (smart, crafty combo guard), Roach (athletic combo guard with size, playmaking, and defensive ability as a freshman), and Eric Davis, Jr. (shooter) to Coleman (experienced point guard), Long (smart, crafty combo guard that can run an offense), Ramey (athletic point guard with size, playmaking and defensive ability as a freshman), and Febres (shooter).

“Yeah, I think we should be,” he said about an offense that looks more similar to his first season. “And again we have to keep getting better at this, I think we’ll have a much better pick and roll team than we’ve had. As a team overall, we should be better at that. The better you are at it, the more you want to do it, but you want to create movement, motion first. It’s always an option you want to utilize but again when your very best player is that [big] guy and that’s where he’s most comfortable there’s an onus on trying to force feed him. When that’s a freshman, there are all kinds of freshmen they get hit with physicality, standpoint and throughout the year that there are adjustments. It takes time. That’s not to say we won’t throw the ball inside.”

Texas is planning on receiving a boost offensively, especially in the perimeter-shooting department, from its incoming class and also sophomores taking a big step forward.

“We need it,” he said about receiving more shooting. “As you know, if there’s any one individual skill where we can say, ‘Hey, as a freshman if you can give us a shot in the arm in this area it’s shooting a good percentage from three, and being able to make some timely threes.’ Quite a few games the last couple years when we had maybe a big-time look in terms of being wide open for a pretty good shooter in a crucial time and that three just chances the game if you make it. We haven’t made a great percentage of those.

“We definitely recruited Kamaka (Hepa) to do that. Gerald (Liddell) and Courtney (Ramey) are capable. Brock (Cunnigham) is capable. One thing we’ve learned is most freshmen have an adjustment and learning curve in terms of shooting a great percentage early on. You’ll see some, but a lot of times you’ll see a big jump between freshmen and sophomore years. That’s where we’re hoping for and counting on with Matt (Coleman) and Jase (Febres).”

On the other side of the floor, Texas has been stellar defensively back-to-back seasons, and although it’ll miss Mohamed Bamba in that area, there’s no reason why Texas can’t again be one of the nation’s better defenses, especially with the return of Roach. However, there is one question that many will ponder when assessing this Texas roster: will Smart use full-court pressure heavily for the first time at Texas?

“Certainly would like to, but I wanted to more last year and we had some of the injuries and Andrew’s situation that affected our depth,” said Smart about full-court pressing. “And sometimes there are things that aren’t as apparent. Snoop played a lot of the conference with a broken hand. I would like to play more that way. It’s still based on who you have on your team. With Snoop and Matt those guys have demonstrated they can be really good perimeter defenders. It has to start there when you want to extend the floor, get after people. I think when we’ve used our diamond press we used it a decent amount but I think it’s been relatively effective… I’d like to use that more, and mix in some more man-to-man (full-court pressure).”

We’ve seen it occasionally, and actually saw it fairly often early last season before Jones’s departure and injuries/roster issues infiltrated the season. Now, Smart will have more of the type of player that he believes can have success pressing: competitive, aggressive, athletic, versatile players. Most importantly, Texas should have a much-improved depth situation.

“Courtney is. I think Gerald can be. We have to really rev his motor. He can be. He has the physical makeup and good instincts. Jericho certainly has the physical makeup to do it,” said Smart when describing players that should fit that full-court pressing mold. “It’s so much more mentality than anything else. And that was the case for us when I was at VCU. One thing I learned there even though we led the nations for three straight years in steals and turnovers… I don’t know if Bob Huggins would agree with this or not, but you learn these guys aren’t robots and there is going to be some variability from game to game in terms of how much you’re able to really go after people with that style. The other thing is this is a high-level conference. Every team has really good guards.

“We will definitely do it some. I hesitate to say exactly how much because you know you have to see how effective something is. To your point, roster wise, knock on wood, hopefully we’ll have the depth all season and it’s just a matter of really committing to going after people.”

In the end, though, Texas must do one thing: attack wins.

As Smart, who thought the program was set to take a big jump last season, enters his fourth season, he does so with the pieces to put Texas firmly back on the collegiate hoops map. He also knows where his program needs to improve. Now, it’s a matter of doing it, and taking that next step, which begins right now.