Rodney Terry explains what Texas’ senior class means to him

Texas took care of business in their regular season finale and senior say on Saturday, knocking off the Big 12’s top team Kansas 75-59 in the Moody Center. On a night dedicated to the Longhorns senior class, interim head coach Rodney Terry spoke on just how special that group of guys is to him.

“I’m really proud of this group, I can’t say it enough to those guys,” Terry said. “Just the way they’ve carried themselves on the court, off the court, they’ve stayed the course. We’ve probably been the most challenged team all year from an adversity standpoint and these guys never stopped working.”

Texas’ dismissal of head coach Chris Beard was certainly adversity and a distraction that the Longhorns had to face this season. But they leaned on their interim coach and senior class to notch a 23-8 regular season record, securing the No. 2 seed of the upcoming Big 12 Tournament.

“They kept working every single day, their work ethic has been off the chart, they’ve been so much fun to be around,” Terry said. “I got a chance to visit with our seniors yesterday after practice and just echoed to them how much they meant to our program this year, how much I’ve loved it coaching them, our coaching staff loved being around them every day and we don’t want this journey to stop, we don’t.”

Texas’ five seniors Marcus Carr, Christian Bishop, Timmy Allen, Dylan Disu, and Sir’Jabari Rice all played a huge and valuable role in Texas’ success this season, with the five being six of the Longhorns’ top scorers this season combining for 53.1 points per game.

Rice and Hunter were the two shining senior stars on senior day, as the two scored a combined 43 points and gave the No. 3 ranked Jayhawks problems all night.

“There’s a lot of basketball to be played and I’m just extremely proud of the way they’ve helped the young guys and just represent this university the right way both on and off the court,” Terry said.

It’s clear that Terry has a lot of love for his senior group, but wants their journey to continue in the postseason. The Longhorns have earned a bye in their conference tournament and will face the winner of Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma on Thursday, as they enter the Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments with high expectations, largely thanks to the success built by their senior class.