VCU Loses Shaka Smart To Texas

The Texas Longhorns have a new men’s basketball coach. Shaka Smart will leave VCU. Since taking the Rams to the final four in 2011, ​Smart, 37, has turned down multiple offers to leave VCU.

Smart received a seven-year contract, the first six fully guaranteed, for $3 million per year. He also becomes Texas’ first African-American basketball coach.

Virginia Commonwealth University offered men’s basketball coach Shaka Smart a $1 million raise in order for him to stay, according to a USA Today report. 

The offer would have constituted a 55% raise, and elevated Smart’s annual salary to $2.8 million. Smart made $1.8 million during the 2013-14 season, according to ESPN. 

In six years at VCU, Smart led the Rams to a 163-56 record

Smart is married Maya Payne Smart, they have a daughter.

Maya is accomplished in her own right. Maya graduated from Harvard in 2002, and is a freelance journalist.

From the archives:

My interview with Shaka Smart on the red carpet at the ESPYS in 2011