A disappointing basketball season at Texas took another downturn Monday as coach Shaka Smart announced that sophomore Tevin Mack -- the team’s leading scorer -- will be granted a release from the school.
The 6-foot-6 wing was suspended for the second time in mid-January for what Smart termed a “violation of team rules.”
“We have a set of standards that we expect people in our program to adhere to, and Tevin has failed to reach them,” Smart said upon suspending him.
Mack’s eventual transfer will put a cap on what has been a tumultuous college experience for him. A heralded recruit who originally signed with Smart at VCU, Mack was released from his letter of intent and followed his coach to Texas when the school moved on from Rick Barnes. He was having a stellar sophomore season with his statistics up across the board, but trouble off the floor wouldn’t allow him to stay on it.
Pegged in preseason as a Top 25 team, Texas is 10-19. The Longhorns have struggled to find any sort of rhythm on offense in conference play, and especially without Mack, ranking last in efficiency in the Big 12 according to KenPom. Texas is 3-10 during Mack’s most recent suspension and now it seems it will have to move on without him.
