Rodney Terry: 'It was never about me. It was always about these guys.'
Rodney Terry did as good of a coaching job as there was this season in college basketball. While many doubted what the Longhorns could still do after the relieving of Chris Beard, he took the reins and went right to work coaching Texas all the way to the Big 12 Tournament Championship and a spot in the Elite Eight.
However, with their season ended by Miami in Kansas City this evening, Terry had nothing but appreciation to extend to his players after the loss. In a heart-wrenching clip, Terry becomes emotional when discussing how his love for them will extend far beyond this season and how much he’s going to miss working with them day after day.
“Not only have I loved these guys for the time that I’ve gotten a chance to coach them. But I’m gonna love them for the rest of their lives” said Terry. “I’ll be at their weddings, I’ll be talking to those guys when they have their firstborns. It was all about this team and I enjoyed every single day of this journey with this group.”
“I’m gonna really miss working with this group,” a choked-up Terry then said through tears. “It was never about me. It was always about these guys. I love these guys.”
Again, Terry and the Longhorns had to cover a lot of ground together over the course of this season. Even so, they battled through it all with one another and gave themselves a genuine shot at reaching the program’s first Final Four in 20 years. Terry proved to be as great of a players coach as there is in the country over that time and, for Texas’ sake, they’ll make the right call on his future considering how he exemplified what their program and its players have meant to him.
Miami comes back from double-digit deficit to eliminate Texas
Miami is on to the Final Four for the first time in school history after battling back from a double-digit deficit in the second half to defeat Texas on Sunday. In a game that came down to the final seconds, the Hurricanes made several clutch free throws down the stretch. Those helped them come away with a 88-81 victory on Sunday.
Texas led by as many as 13 points in the second half. That was before Miami battled back to take a 73-72 lead with 5:32 remaining on an and-one from Norchad Omier. That completed a 13-2 run for the Hurricanes as Texas was held without a field goal for nearly four minutes.
From there, the teams traded scores as the game was tied three more times. However, Miami scored six straight points on free throws to take an 85-79 lead with 24 seconds. That helped Jim Larrañaga’s team pull away for good.
Jordan Miller scored 26 points, four of which came on late free throws, to lead the Hurricanes in the win. All five Miami starters finished with double figures. Overall, the team shotaon efficient 29-of-49 (59.1%) from the field and 30-of-34 from the foul line.
Texas jumped out to their 62-49 advantage by the 14:26 mark after a 3-point shot from Sir’Jabari Rice. Unfortunately, they melted down over the final 10 minutes of the game and, in the end, could not come away with the win.