Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Texas removes tag, staying with Terry

- JIM VERTUNO

AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas named Rodney Terry as full-time head men’s basketball coach Monday, removing the interim tag after he led the Longhorns to the

Elite Eight following the midseason firing of Chris Beard.

The school tweeted the news of Terry’s appointmen­t and scheduled a news conference today to introduce him as head coach going forward.

The announceme­nt came barely 24 hours after the Longhorns’ season ended when Texas was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by Miami on Sunday. Financial terms and years of the agreement were not immediatel­y available.

Rewarding Terry with the promotion was no surprise.

He took over the Longhorns as acting head coach when Beard was first suspended on Dec. 12 after a felony domestic violence arrest. Terry was then given the title of interim head coach when Beard was fired Jan. 5. The charge against Beard was dismissed in February.

Beard was the head coach at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock in 2015-16, leading the Trojans to 30-5 record and Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament titles.

Texas won the Big 12 Tournament championsh­ip under Terry and questions about his future with the program were amplified as the Longhorns kept winning in the postseason. Texas fans wondered what more he needed to prove and Longhorns players publicly advocated for him to get the job.

“It was all about this team. I’ve enjoyed every single day of this journey with this group,” Terry said in Sunday’s postgame news conference as his voice cracked and he held back tears. “It was never about me. It was always about these guys. I love these guys.”

Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte had praised Terry’s job handling the team in crisis and gave him a raise, though only through April. He’d also noted Terry inherited a veteran, senior-heavy roster and strong staff of assistants built by Beard.

That lineup could have disintegra­ted into chaos after Beard’s arrest. Instead, the Longhorns finished second in the Big 12 in the regular season and earned a No. 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Texas went 22-8 under Terry, and the march to the Elite Eight was the program’s first time beyond the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend in 15 years.

Terry is the second Black head coach in program history, joining Shaka Smart, who coached Texas from 20152021.

Terry, 54, had a previous stint as an assistant at Texas under Rick Barnes from 20022011. He also was head coach at Fresno State and UTEP. He left UTEP after three seasons to join Beard’s staff in 2022. He is 185-164 as a head coach.

Former Texas player T.J. Ford, who led the Longhorns to 2003 Final Four and was that season’s Naismith national player of the year, praised the move to keep Terry.

“I’m very excited that the right decision was made to continue this great culture,” Ford tweeted.

The dormant Texas program had all the signs of renewal under Beard, as he mined the transfer portal to build a roster to compete in the rugged Big 12. He had done the same at Texas Tech, where he led the Red Raiders to the 2019 national championsh­ip game.

Beard was arrested after his fiancee called 911 and told police he choked, bit and hit her during a confrontat­ion at his home. She later recanted that she was choked, but Texas still fired Beard as university lawyers called him “unfit” to lead the program.

The Travis County district attorney eventually dismissed the felony charge, saying the charge could not proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and because of the fiancee’s wish to not prosecute.

Beard has since been hired as head coach at Mississipp­i.

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