Shaka Smart Replaces Rick Barnes as Texas Basketball Coach

Shaka Smart, who coached Virginia Commonwealth to the school’s only Final Four berth in 2011 and who has been on a lot of teams’ coaching radar ever since, accepted an offer April 2nd to coach at the University of Texas. Smart replaces Rick Barnes, who was fired last weekend after 17 years as the Longhorns’ head coach. Barnes was only briefly unemployed; he was quickly hired as the head coach at Tennessee.

Smart, 37, is a rising star in the coaching ranks, and the fans and students at VCU voiced their support and hoped that the popular coach would stay. Some in Richmond went further. A barbeque place offered Smart unlimited brisket and apple fritters if he stayed, and two strip clubs him unlimited lap dances if he’d stay. But in the end, the chance to move up to the Big 12 Conference, and no doubt bigger money, was too much to turn down. Besides, we’re guessing there’s some pretty good barbeque to be had in Austin, and as to other thing, well….

Here’s a nice little profile of Smart from CBS Sports: