The head coaching job at Texas hasn’t been vacant for two whole days, but the search is already sending shockwaves throughout the college basketball landscape. Now, the top candidates for the gig had been rumored as successors even before athletic director Steve Patterson let Rick Barnes go on Sunday, and nothing has really changed since then, so none of the names are exactly surprising. But now that the wheels are actually moving, things could get real in a hurry. Here’s a quick rundown of the three coaches most likely to take the reins in Austin.

Say, that orange tie looks pretty good on Shaka… (sportsillustrated.com)

1. Shaka Smart, VCU – Smart’s teams at VCU have turned heads ever since he led the Rams to the Final Four in 2011. While Smart hasn’t returned to the second weekend, much less the third, since that memorable run, that doesn’t make the 37-year old any less viable of a candidate. While some have doubts about his lack of experience as a head coach at a high-major program, he spent time on Billy Donovan’s staff at Florida and has successfully leveraged his track record, youth and enthusiasm to land commitments from some of the top prospects in the country. And he’s done it at a school with a fraction of Texas’ recruiting budget. Smart has notoriously rejected offers from plenty of high-major programs to stay at VCU, but turning down a top-10 job in terms of resources and access would be much tougher for him to do.
2. Gregg Marshall, Wichita State – Marshall spent the day Monday meeting with Alabama athletic director Bill Battle, but he’ll remain in play for Texas until he shows up in Tuscaloosa to pick up his bags of money. The 52-year old has catapulted Wichita State to new heights on the strength of its 2013 Final Four run followed by a perfect regular season and another great campaign this year. Now that he’s led the Shockers to a defiant win over Kansas (in a high-stakes environment, no less), there just isn’t much left for him to accomplish in Wichita other than ushering stars Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet to their graduations. The biggest question Marshall could face at Texas is whether his aggressive and demanding nature would fly with blue-chip recruits, but it shouldn’t be a big enough concern to cause Patterson to move on to the next candidate.
3. Buzz Williams, Virginia Tech – It wasn’t all that long ago that Texas and Buzz Williams felt like a match made in heaven. While it was never a given that Williams would succeed Barnes, the prevailing notion among experts two years ago was that the then-Marquette coach would emerge as the ideal candidate to replace him if he had another rough season. As it turned out, Williams left for Virginia Tech when it became clear during Texas’ surprising 2014 season that the opportunity wasn’t going to be there. Williams’ first year with the Hokies didn’t go very well, but that’s the nature of most rebuilding seasons in middle-tier power conference jobs. Williams’ outgoing demeanor as a native Texan and his demonstrated success in March (two Sweet Sixteen finishes and an Elite Eight appearance) still make him a viable candidate, but the question of whether he would leave Virginia Tech after just one season and if Texas would foot the bill for the $3 million buyout on Williams’ deal could lead the two sides to an impasse.

Brian Goodman (987 Posts)

Brian Goodman a Big 12 microsite writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BSGoodman.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2015 at 9:31 am by Brian Goodman and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: buzz williams, feature, gregg marshall, rick barnes, shaka smart, texas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.