Everything Rodney Terry said ahead of the Longhorns' first game in the NCAA Tournament
Texas interim head coach Rodney Terry was available to the media in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday to preview the Longhorns’ opening round matchup with Colgate in the NCAA Tournament.
[Get Inside Texas Plus until 8/31 for just $29.99!]
Courtesy of ASAP Sports, here’s everything Terry had to say.
Opening statement: Thank you guys for being here. Wow, we have a tough match-up with Colgate. Matt (Langel) has done a great job with his program there. I think this is his fourth straight NCAA appearance in a row. Older team, a lot of guys that have played in the NCAA Tournament. They’ve played in a lot of big games over the past few years. This season, they beat Syracuse at Syracuse, and you have a team that’s going to take care of the basketball, play with a great pace, one of the best shooting teams in the country. They’re going to put pressure on us to get back and sit down and guard.
A really, really good ball club and we’re going to have a great challenge with them.
Q. RT, you mentioned the recent appearances in the NCAA Tournament for Colgate. How much more difficult is it to avoid the upset when they have so much experience. They haven’t won a game in the tournament but they have been here and know the environment. How much more difficult is that for preparation?
RODNEY TERRY: They’re not going to be intimidated by us, they’ve been in this environment before and they have the experience as a team.
I think the thing for us — we know that this is a really, really good shooting team here. We’re going to have to do a great job of defending the three-point line and keep these guys off the glass and have a really good urgency to get back on defense because they play with a great pace of play on offense as well. Just a really good team.
For us, we feel like we’ve been battle tested, we played in the Big 12, the best league in the country and every night you have to bring your A-game and we are going to have to bring our A-game against a well-coached team in Colgate. So for us it’s another game on the schedule in terms of big games. Every game has been a big game for us throughout the course of conference play for us as well.
Q. I think Marcus was asked if Colgate reminded him of anybody you faced. Do they resemble anybody you guys have faced this season?
RODNEY TERRY: For us, if I liken anybody to them, even in our league in Big 12 play, Baylor puts so much pressure on you shooting the basketball in every position. Their guards can really score the ball. Colgate’s guards are really good. They can really shoot the basketball and score the basketball.
Creighton was really good offensively as well and played with a great pace. I would say those two opponents probably we had this year would be guys that we really had to defend the three-point line with, get back in transition with. They just put a lot of pressure on you defensively, and that’s what Colgate does to you.
They really make you have to sit down and guard and play really hard on defense.
Q. Rodney, obviously you swept through the tournament and played very loose and well-flowing and everything like that. Now you’re in a win-or-go-home thing. Anything you do to keep ’em loose? Poker nights? Go bowling?
RODNEY TERRY: I don’t think you do anything special. I think a lot of times teams, once you get into a routine, we’ve been in a good routine and groove the way we do things on a daily basis.
I encourage our guys when they’re doing really good things and try to keep a really positive attitude and approach in everything that we do, even when we experience some adversity, we try not to be too negative with our guys.
I think if you have that approach and great spirit about yourself every day and in life in general, you will be where you need to be. I always tell our guys, pressure is if you had to go out and do something that you hadn’t worked on and prepared for. We’re going to be prepared for a really good Colgate team, and all we have to do is go play the game and get out there and get lost and compete at a high level. No different than what they have to do in the classroom. You go in and take an exam, it’s a lot of pressure if you are not prepared. But if you are prepared, you going in to take that exam, man, and you just knock that exam right out. Preparation trumps pressure. You just go out and play.
Q. Your players get along well. They have a bond. Why do they get along so well? What’s the source of the chemistry?
RODNEY TERRY: I think that started this summer. I don’t think you start that during the season. That went way back to the very beginning when guys got on campus and we spent a lot of time encouraging our guys to spend time with themselves off the court and it wasn’t really — to be honest, coach driven. It was player driven in terms of those guys spending time with one another off the court. And I think when you are able to do that, that carries over into the start of your season. As you get into the season, you become really unselfish teammates and great teammates.
Q. Coach, you guys have such a veteran team. How has that impacted the way you have prepared them this time around with all the experience that they have?
RODNEY TERRY: Well, we do have some guys that have played in the NCAA Tournament. I think the thing we have tried to do with our team over the last month of the season is we tried to play March basketball. We tried to play with the urgency that you have to play with this time of year, understanding that you can’t give 20 minutes away. First four minutes, second four minutes, third four minutes, you’ve got to try to win every round and you’ve got to — not play perfect but have a sense of urgency about how hard you play.
You give 20 minutes away in the NCAA Tournament, it’s going to be hard to make that up. We have tried to work every game for forty minutes and understand you are going to have to play from the time that horn goes off at the start to the time that horn goes off at the end of the ball game, but you are working the game, the whole entire time.
Q. Just wanted to talk to you about how your guys mentioned that playing against an underdog, people want to root against the favorites in the NCAA Tournament. Has there been a similarity throughout the season playing and coaching at UT and being a part of the Texas brand, people rooting against y’all in general, everywhere you go? Is that a similarity? Do y’all see anything like that?
RODNEY TERRY: That’s a great question. I think, again — I don’t think of Colgate as an underdog. They can play with anybody in this tournament. They’re well coached. I think they’re a great team. Anytime you score 80 points a game a night you can beat anybody in the country on any given day, so I wouldn’t first off call Colgate an underdog.
They’re a really, really good ball club. Do we get everybody’s best game at Texas? Man, I don’t think we are sneaking up on anybody at Texas. I think everybody is ready to play us. I think our guys understand when they signed up to play at Texas that they were going to get everybody’s best game.
I think they embrace it. They embrace it and I think we have played at a very high level consistently all year long.
Q. Rodney, I know you have been coaching with a heavy heart; you mentioned how close you were with your father. What kind of an influence was he on you? What lessons did you take from him and carry with you through life?
RODNEY TERRY: Great question. My father was a high school basketball coach, football coach for over forty years. I just think of the impact that he made on so many young lives and people that he always interacted with and the way he carried himself. People loved my dad, just by the way he carried himself. A lot of his former players, the respect they had for him after they finished playing for him.
I think he inspired me to want to be a coach and continue to work with young people and hopefully have an impact on young people’s lives and I learned so much from him in that regard.
I think the last thing I would say in regards to that, I think he always saw me in a bigger light than even I saw myself. You know? He saw me doing the things that I’m doing right now at this level right now, even before I thought I could be at this level. And he believed in me that much.
He said, you are a high major coach. You are a guy that can do exactly what those other guys are doing. And you should have one of those jobs. Different jobs would open up and he would say, you should be trying to get that job, you’re ready for that job. That’s your job! But he always saw more in me in terms of the bigger picture and really instilled me to dream big.
Q. Rodney, we ask you about the job and the permanent job and now that March is here and the stakes go up, do you feel in some ways — I know you are about the team, but are you coaching for the permanent job this month?
RODNEY TERRY: I have continued to do what we have done all year long and work the process. Live where your feet are, live in the moment, enjoy this journey right now. We all don’t want it to end, everybody at the NCAA Tournament, we want to continue to ride this journey.
I’ve got a special group I have worked with all year long, special staff I’ve worked with all year long, and I have to be honest with you, I have really just stayed the course in terms of working with them every day, enjoyed being with them every day. We had a great practice this morning already, and I just haven’t given a whole lot of thought to it in terms of what we’re doing. I just want this team to continue to play and to continue go as far as we can go with this group.
