Rodney Terry explains how he kept Texas together after Chris Beard incident
Texas head coach Rodney Terry recently discussed how he kept the team together after Chris Beard’s departure early in the season.
Beard was fired amid domestic violence allegations and is now at Ole Miss. Terry kept the train rolling and led Texas to a Big 12 tournament title and to the Elite Eight.
He was rewarded with the full-time job with the Longhorns and explained how they didn’t miss a step.
“Guys do took a lot of ownership,” Terry said on the College Hoops Today podcast. “And you know obviously had a lot of pride and they really wanted to try to attain the goals that we set out to start the season with. As we continued to embark on the season, guys really bought into trying to play Texas basketball. It was really hard in November trying to establish an identity. It got really hot every night. You know, that we were going to be an unselfish team and (said) that we will be great teammates and I thought our guys really stayed connected all year.
“We’re truly a team. A lot of guys made a lot of sacrifices for the better of the team and just really bought into trying to be a really good offensive team, and try to be an elite defensive team, every day.”
Terry went 22-8 as head coach of Texas once he took over for Beard. He’s 185-164 in his career with stops at Fresno State and UTEP prior to his time with the Longhorns.
Kevin Durant ‘excited’ for Rodney Terry after Chris Beard
Kevin Durant was vocal in support of Terry, once again expressing his excitement with the hire. Terry was an assistant coach under Rick Barnes while Durant was on campus, working together for a season.
Durant says the culture will be coming back to Austin in a big way since Terry is familiar with how things operate.
“I’m very excited for RT,” Durant said on The ETCs with KD podcast. “Because when you somebody that coached there, had a stint there for a long period of time, get to come back — a lot of the guys that he recruited really left the mark there at Texas and built a culture there at Texas.
“So, for him to come back and kind of bring everybody back and have that support again, it was key… Looking forward to seeing what we do in the future.”