Rodney Terry addresses what his staff at Texas will look like

What a strange year it was for the Texas hoops team — but also, an oddly very successful one, considering Texas finished second place in one of the great modern conference years in the 2023 Big 12. Then, the Longhorns made a run within inches of the Final Four but ultimately flamed out in the Elite Eight, and that’s still the furthest UT has advanced in the NCAA Tournament since 2006. And all of this occurred during a season where Texas fired their head coach and replaced him with interim Rodney Terry.

As you would expect following a tremendous season under such tough circumstances, Texas went ahead and inked Rodney Terry to become the official head coach, removing his interim tag. So now, Coach Terry enters the offseason with that weight off his shoulders.He doesn’t have to worry about trying out for the job anymore because he now has it.

With his first offseason as he Longhorns coach underway, Terry recently joined Jon Rothstein on his podcast to discuss various hoops topics, including what his staff will look like. Per Terry, he’ll have a bit of an older and more experienced staff.

“Well, I think again, had a very experienced staff a year ago. You know, same thing will be the case here this next upcoming season,” said Terry. “We’re a very experienced staff. You know, guys that have been doing this for a long time at this level and have had a lot of success in head coach’s roles, obviously, and recruiting the best of the best — and there won’t be a drop-off in terms of what we have on our staff.”

Many teams have opted to go younger with their staffs. Go look at Duke. It’s an incredibly young head coach (given the level of the Duke job) and he filled out his staff with a bunch of fellow young guns. Sure, that’s one to do it. But Rodney Terry would rather have that experience and wisdom on the sideline than some young buck who may know a thing or two more about the modern state of college hoops and how to relate to recruits.

Alas, the formula worked for Chris Beard in 2022 and then again for Rodney Terry in 2023. He’s seen first hand how valuable an experienced staff can be and he’s sticking to it. Surely he’ll shuffle the bench up some, but Texas fans ought to expect experienced, veteran names when looking for assistants in the future under Terry.