After its first trip to the Elite Eight in 15 years, the Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team has to decide whether interim head coach Rodney Terry will take on the role permanently.
Terry took over when former head coach Chris Beard was arrested in a family domestic violence dispute at his home in Austin in December, just eight games into the season.
Under Terry, the Longhorns went 22-8, took second place in the Big 12 regular season, won the Big 12 tournament, and nearly reached the program’s first Final Four in 20 years.
The interim head coach went on to be named National Coach of the Year by The Sporting News and landed on several national coaching award lists.
“I can’t say enough [about] how proud I am of this group and what they’ve been able to do this season,” Terry told the media in a press conference following Sunday’s loss to Miami.
“They accomplished a lot. We had guys who came back and were on a mission to accomplish great things, and we were right on the brink of being right where we wanted to be to close out this season.”
Terry gave all the credit to his team and the way they stuck together through adversity all season.
“I’m just so proud of this group that I got a chance and was blessed to work with this year,” Terry said after the game. “These guys, more than any other group I’ve worked with in 32 years of coaching, really embodied — in terms of staying the course — being a team. These guys were incredible teammates all year. They were so unselfish as a team, and they gave us everything they had.”
When asked about possibly becoming the permanent head coach, Terry said he has yet to spend much time thinking about it.
“I haven’t really had a whole lot of time to give a lot of thought to that, to be honest,” Terry admitted. “I’ve been wrapped up in my team. Again, I love these guys. … It was all about this team, and I enjoyed every single day of this journey with this group.”
While no official announcement has been made, reports indicate Terry could be announced as the permanent head basketball coach as early as Tuesday.
The Dallas Express contacted the program to confirm and had not received a response by the time of publication.
Terry was in the second season of his second stint as an assistant with the Longhorns and has previously been a head coach at Fresno State and UTEP.
