Texas fans were left disappointed with the Shaka Smart era after the coach failed to lead the team to an NCAA Tournament win in six seasons. It sounds like Smart wasn’t thrilled with them, either.
Smart was officially introduced as the new head coach at Marquette earlier this week. He reflected on his time with both Texas and VCU, and he hinted that fan support was better when he was with the latter.
“I was at VCU for six years, and we had a sellout streak over 100 when I left,” Smart said, via college basketball reporter Jaden Daly. “I learned not to take for granted that the arena was full.”
That comment probably won’t sit well with Longhorns fans. Again, Texas did not win an NCAA Tournament game in six seasons under Smart. They’re a major program with high expectations, so the lack of sellouts was almost certainly a direct result of the lack of success.
Former Longhorns have been disappointed in the direction of the program for quite some time, which may have contributed to Smart not feeling the love. Either way, it’s not a great look to talk about games not selling out when the product was worse than expected.
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