Texas basketball: The choice to replace Shaka Smart is an obvious one for Longhorns

As former Texas basketball coach Shaka Smart makes his transition to Marquette, the top choice to replace him should be obvious.

In his six seasons as the head basketball coach of the Texas Longhorns, Shaka Smart got his team to the big dance five times but failed to win a single NCAA Tournament game. And now he leaves without winning one after taking the Marquette job.

The Longhorns won their first Big 12 Tournament this season but were bounced out of the tournament in the first round once again after an embarrassing loss to 14-seed Abilene Christian. With yet another disappointing season’s end, it had become painfully obvious that Smart’s future with the program was looking grim.

Before he could be fired by Texas, Smart decided that it’s time to start anew elsewhere and has been named the new head coach at Marquette. While the Golden Eagles are surely happy to receive Smart’s services, Texas is left to figure out their future.

It should be an obvious choice who the next head coach for Texas basketball should be and they won’t even have to leave the state to find him.

The choice to replace Smart has to be Texas Tech basketball coach Chris Beard.

Texas Tech’s Chris Beard could next to coach at Texas

The Texas Tech Red Raiders finished this season 18-11 under head coach Chis Beard. He is reportedly the top choice to land in Austin to replace Smart. He finished his fifth season as the head coach of the Red Raiders with an overall record of 112-55. He became nationally recognized when he took them to the Elite Eight three seasons ago and later the National Championship Game two years ago when they fell to Virginia in overtime.

He’s obviously the best choice the Longhorns could land as far as pedigree goes. What’s interesting about this situation is that if Beard leaves Texas Tech for another Big 12 school after April 1, his buyout drops to $4 million.

Even with that said, snagging Beard would still cost a pretty penny. Two years ago, he signed a six-year,$27.4 million deal. Even before the pandemic, that deal paid him over $5 million during the 2020-21 season. He would become one of the five highest-paid coaches in the nation.

And this is with Texas buying out Tom Herman and signing Steve Sarkisian and his staff to big-money contracts. Then again, Texas athletics prints money so it shouldn’t be an issue. With Beard a Texas graduate who also was a student assistant under Tom Penders, it’s a perfect fit for Beard to take Texas basketball to where Smart couldn’t.

Rumblings about Beard’s expectancy in Austin have already begun. Brad Townsend, the NBA reporter for the Dallas Morning News has suggested that it’s already a “done deal.”

While nothing is official yet and Texas will interview candidates for the job, if they don’t get Beard it will be both a surprise and a big disappointment for the program.

For more NCAA basketball news, analysis, opinion and features, check out more from the FanSided college basketball section to stay on top of the latest action.