Rodney Terry addresses idea of this being Chris Beard's team, reveals conversation after hire

As Texas moves into the Rodney Terry era, it should be a much smoother transition than hiring a coach from outside the program. For one, Terry helped build this team.

That was one of the questions posed to Terry at his introductory press conference: How much is this your team versus Chris Beard‘s team?

“I think our staff really helped lay the foundation for this team,” Terry explained. “I think obviously Chris was our leader in terms of the architect of really making final decisions on putting together individual guys with our team, but we all had a say with who we brought into our program. I thought it was a team effort in terms of building this team, not an individual.”

However it was built, the construction was excellent.

With the core of the team Beard and his assistants built Texas was able to reach the Elite Eight this season, falling a little bit short of the Final Four.

That’s a place a lot of teams would like to be. Rodney Terry attributes that success with the staff’s lack of egos in a tumultuous season where Beard was suspended and ultimately fired midway through.

“I think that was one of the things with our staff, as we put our staff together there was no egos,” Terry said. “Everybody put their egos aside and said, ‘We want to get the best individual that we can bring in here that will help represent this university and basketball program the right way, both on and off the court.’ So we all had a hand in building this team and putting an incredible product on the floor the last two years.”

Terry will be the man who takes over at the top, but the construction of his support staff will likely remain similar. After all, why fix what isn’t broken?

The new Texas head coach has also heard from the previous coach.

Beard, of course, has taken the head coaching job at Ole Miss, so he’s back on his feet and working at the highest level in the industry still.

He also had a message for Rodney Terry.

“Chris reached out to me yesterday and congratulated me on the opportunity here and expressed his love for myself and always having his back, and me likewise for him, and wishing him nothing but success where he is right now as well,” Terry said. “But that’s kind of how this team was put together, it was put together by our staff and we did due diligence on the guys we brought in. And they were great fits for us.”