Texas Basketball and My Case for Rodney Terry
Active Texas Longhorn basketball Head Coach, Rodney Terry is currently 7-1 after defeating TCU Wednesday night.
An interesting couple items that few Texas Basketball fans know about HC Rodney Terry: he is from Angleton, Texas, he went to St. Edward’s University in Austin, coached high school basketball for 6 years and was on coach Rick Barnes’ Texas staff from ‘02-’11. Rodney Terry was in Austin coaching basketball for a few months of Sundays before spreading his wings and flying to Fresno State to be the man in charge. After his first two seasons at Fresno State, Terry was .500 or better the following five except 2014-15. His Bulldogs finished 15-17 but 10-8 in the Mountain West. The following season in 2015-16, the Bulldogs were 25-10, finished 2nd in the Mountain West and went to the NCAA Tournament. Fresno State was defeated in the first round by 11 points. They faced the Utah Utes who ONLY had 2 NBA players that start in the league today: Kyle Kuzma (Wizards) and Jakob Poeltl (Spurs). He left Fresno and went to El Paso, Texas in 2018. This was a tough job to take considering UTEP’s last coach Tim Floyd resigned 6 games into the 2017 season. After his first season, Terry brought the Miners back to .500 before leaving. He headed to Austin to become the Associate Head Coach under Chris Beard. Now Chris Beard is terminated and Associate Head Coach Rodney Terry is currently 7-1 leading the Longhorns into Big 12 Conference play.
We all know Texas has deep, unlimited pockets but that does not mean top tier coaches want to go to the 40 acres. UT, historically has not been a powerhouse in basketball. Texas is known as a football state first and not basketball. Although, Texas has always strived to have a great basketball program and it had that when Rick Barnes was coaching (up until the end). Texas went after Shaka Smart in 2015 and at the time he was the hottest coach around. Most top tier coaches are already the faces of big programs so it is hard to reel them away. Jim Calipari and his Kentucky Wildcats just loss at home last night to South Carolina. Does Texas really want to go after him? Texas should be looking for an up and coming coach who will be hungry. Someone who will be focused on the task ahead. What’s on the line? Every thing. Just like college football, this is a billion dollar business and it pays to win, baby. Chris Beard was the 4th highest paid college basketball coach. I think what the younger kids call it is “fumbling the bag” and now Texas starts over. Or do they?
We ran a poll on Twitter the day of Chris Beard’s arrest to gauge the Longhorn Basketball fans’ opinion on which direction UT should head. Listed were: Chris Ogden, Rodney Terry, Royal Ivey and other. Royal Ivey won the poll. So it made me think about it. Ivey played for UT and has experience as an NBA player. He is currently on the Brooklyn Nets’ staff and coaches the South Sudan national team. Random, I know. Point being, Ivey does not have the experience with recruiting after spending his entire coaching career in the NBA. He has zero college coaching experience. I don’t think this would be the right move. There was also Chris Ogden from Seminole, Texas that also played for UT. Odgen has the experience but he’s also on the current UT coaching staff. So, one may think to themselves, if he’s going to be the man to takeover, why was he not already the associate head coach? I’m not sure how much sense it would make to name Ogden HC instead of Terry unless the UT season goes completely down the drain. The lone write-in was TJ Ford. He has zero coaching experience and I don’t believe he would be a realistic option unless Jim Irsay is now the University of Texas’ Athletic Director. So, who should it be?
Now that we know a little more about Rodney Terry let’s figure out what he could do for the University of Texas’ Basketball team to bring it back to glory. It’s been far too long. Terry has proved he can build a program from nothing. At Fresno State, Paul George had just left the program before Terry arrived so he didn’t have any superstar assistance. It took two years but he did what he was hired to do - succeed. When he went to UTEP he showed off his recruiting prowess by bringing in guard Souley Boum. The same Boum we just saw torch Creighton for 26 points and 8 assists tonight. He’s been dominating for Xavier all season. If you haven’t noticed, that’s quite the step up from UTEP by playing in the Big East. He also brought in center Efe Odigie who now starts at center for the SMU Mustangs. Texas and its staff have been able to bring in top recruits the past two years. Some could say that it was all Chris Beard but we will see come the end of the season. I believe at the end of the season the University of Texas will name Rodney Terry head coach. A proven winner and recruiter from the state of Texas ready to build again. This time for good.
