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Report: Marquette to hire Oregon native Shaka Smart as next men’s basketball coach

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Shaka Smart.

A Madison-area native is reportedly heading back to his home state to become the next coach of the Marquette Golden Eagles.

CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein is reporting Marquette is hiring Shaka Smart to take over for Steve Wojciechowski, who was recently fired.

The report has also been confirmed by several other outlets, including the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel and ESPN.

Smart is from Oregon, Wisconsin and rose to national prominence when he took the underdog Virginia Commonwealth Rams to the Final Four in the 2010-2011 season. Smart made the NCAA Tournament 5 times in 6 seasons at VCU, compiling a 163-56 record there before taking the head coaching job at the University of Texas.

In the last six years with the Longhorns, Smart’s teams have gone a combined 109-86, but struggled with a 52-56 record in the Big 12, and failed to win a single game in the NCAA Tournament.

Marquette has yet to officially announce the hiring. The school fired Wojciechowski, who went 128–95 overall and 59-68 in the Big East over 7 seasons with the Golden Eagles.