Texas basketball: Fans call for Shaka Smart to be fired after latest March Madness choke job

After the Texas Longhorns were upset by Abilene Christian in the first round of March Madness, fans are calling for Shaka Smart’s job.

This year wasn’t one to remember for Shaka Smart and Texas basketball after all. Well, it’ll be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Earlier in the season, the Longhorns, like many other NCAA teams, were affected by COVID-19. Smart himself came into direct contact with the disease and was forced to miss time because of it.

After overcoming the negativity that plagued the college basketball season, Texas still fought its way into a great position in this year’s NCAA tournament. They won their first Big 12 Tournament championship and things seemed to be looking up. Smart’s squad came into March Madness as a 3-seed and had their first-round matchup with No. 14 Abilene Christian, a game most didn’t look twice at on their bracket.

Then, Abilene Christian soundly outplayed Texas and sent them home, ending their season, and giving Smart another ugly NCAA Tournament loss on his Longhorns resume.

Today, Smart and company find themselves at home with the rest of us, watching the tournament continue without them and fans are up in arms about it.

Texas fans call for Shaka Smart’s job after March Madness upset

In their lowest-scoring game of the season, the Longhorns fell to the Abilene Christian Wildcats 53-52 on Saturday. After the massive upset, Texas fans weren’t shy about the fact that the season was not supposed to end that way.

Fans put a lot of that onus on Smart and took to Twitter to call for his job.

https://twitter.com/atantum99/status/1373490868678762499?s=20

Would the Longhorns fire Smart after he just brought the school their first Big 12 Tournament title? That still remains to be seen but Smart has been at the helm at the university since 2015 and has yet to win a tournament game.

Smart came to Texas after leading VCU to a Final Four but he’s got a losing record in the Big 12, has struggled against ranked teams and is still seeking a tournament win as the Texas basketball coach.

Despite carrying a $7.1 million buyout, Smart shouldn’t feel safe. After all, large buyouts never stopped Texas from firing high-priced football coaches as Tom Herman and Charlie Strong can attest.

Could the writing be on the wall after losing in such an embarrassing way?

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