Why did Shaka Smart leave Texas? How former Longhorns coach came to Marquette basketball to the Sweet 16

Shaka Smart was hired at Texas in 2015 as one of the up and coming coaches in college basketball.

The then-37-year-old landed the Longhorns job with expectations to lead Texas back to prominence after showing he could architect a March Madness run from the First Four to the Final Four in 2011 with VCU.

However, despite making the NCAA Tournament in three of five years and winning a Big 12 Tournament title, Smart fell short of that leading to his departure in 2021 for Marquette.

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Smart, now 46, is set for his second return to the Longhorn State since he left in 2021 for Milwaukee as his now 2 seed Golden Eagles (27-9, 14-6 in Big East play) take on 11 seed NC State in the Sweet 16 at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Friday, March 29 at 6:09 p.m. CT. Smart first returned to Texas in 2022 when Marquette took on North Carolina in March Madness at Fort Worth.

And so, as the Golden Eagles get ready to take the court on Friday in their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2013, let's revisit why Smart left Texas and ultimately found his way to Milwaukee.

Here is what you need to know about what led to Smart leaving Texas for Marquette:

When did Shaka Smart coach Texas?

Before joining the Golden Eagles, Smart coached the Texas Longhorns for six seasons from 2015 to 2021 before leaving for Marquette in 2021 with two years remaining on his contract at Texas. He was hired by the Golden Eagles when his predecessor, Steve Wojciechowski, was fired after being unable to win in the postseason in seven seasons with just two tournament appearances and no Big East titles to show for it.

Why did Shaka Smart leave Texas?

Truthfully, there isn't a definitive answer, as he was never officially fired at Texas and voluntarily left for Marquette. But it does revolve around winning.

Like his predecessor at Texas, Rick Barnes, Smart won at Texas throughout his tenure in Austin. But it wasn't enough for a program like the Longhorns, which has lofty expectations on the recruiting trail with five-star recruits on the court.

Perhaps one of the final straws, which led some in the college basketball world to believe Smart would enter the 2021-22 season at Texas on the hot seat, was the Longhorns' loss to 14 seed Abilene Christian in 2021 in the NCAA Tournament after being ranked as high as No. 4 in the AP Top 25 poll that season.

There's also the case to be made that Smart left for Marquette, a basketball-first institution and conference like the Big East, for a better fit. At Marquette, Smart has been able to build a culture and a program that represents who he is and what he values: relationships, growth and victory.

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"You can't possibly overstate what a great fit he is for this storied program," Marquette vice president and athletic director Bill Scholl said at Smart's introductory press conference back in March of 2021. "He is smart. He is thoughtful. He is principled and he can coach ... This is going to be a thrilling new era of Marquette basketball."

Smart has certainly lived up to Scholl's words, as he has taken the program to new heights while returning it to national prominence faster than some may have originally thoughts.

By the time Smart's second season in the Brew City ended, he had led the Golden Eagles to the program's first Big East Tournament title in 2023, its highest seeding in the NCAA Tournament in years and Marquette's first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2013 amongst other things. Smart was also named the Big East Coach of the year in 2023.

He's continued that this season, as Marquette was a preseason Top 5-ranked program, has appeared in the national rankings for 29 consecutive weeks dating back to last season and punched its ticket to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013.

As evidenced by the quickly found success, Smart's relationship with Marquette is already highly symbiotic.

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Shaka Smart coaching history

Before joining Texas and Marquette, Smart got his start in coaching as an assistant at Akron (2003-06), Clemson (2006-08) and then at Florida during the 2008-09 season under now Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan.

He got his first head coaching job in 2009 at VCU. Things changed for Smart during the 2010-11 season as he went from a novice head coach to a college basketball household name as he led the Rams from the First Four to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament.

Smart then got his first high-major head coaching job in 2015 when he left VCU for Texas, replacing Barnes. He spent six seasons in Austin before returning to his home state of Wisconsin to take over the Marquette program in 2021. At Marquette, Smart has brought the Golden Eagles program back to national relevance while leading them to the program's first Big East Tournament title in 2023, the same year he won the conference's Coach of the Year and the Associated Press' National Coach of the Year honors.

Here's a breakdown of his head coaching history and record:

• VCU (2009-15): 163-56 overall
• Texas (2015-21): 109-86 overall
• Marquette (2021-present): 75-29

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Shaka Smart record at Texas

Smart went 109-86 overall in six seasons at the helm of the Longhorns program. He led Texas to three NCAA Tournament appearances and a National Invitational Tournament (NIT) title in 2019.

Here's a full year-by-year breakdown of how Smart did at Texas:

• Career: 109-86 overall
• 2020-21: 19-8 overall
• 2019-20: 19-12 overall
• 2018-19: 21-16 overall
• 2017-18: 19-15 overall
• 2016-17: 11-22 overall
• 2015-16: 20-13 overall