AUSTIN — In the middle of campus — caddy-cornered from the undergraduate library and across the street from the University of Texas’ largest dormitory — the lines of burnt-orange clad fans stretched out of Gregory Gym and around the block.
A curious passer-by, having never before seen such a spectacle in that area, tapped a stranger on the shoulder.
“What’s going on in there?” she asked.
The answer, Shaka Smart hoped, was the beginning of a new trend in Texas men’s basketball.
In a Wednesday night scrimmage that filled venerable Gregory Gym nearly to its capacity, Smart’s Longhorns displayed an up-tempo, high-energy style of play that seemed to generate some genuine enthusiasm in the crowd of 3,129.