Rodney Terry amid Texas' struggles: 'I'm not a panic guy'

Texas dropped to 1-3 in the Big 12 with their loss on Wednesday to UCF. Even so, Rodney Terry remains calm considering how is still very much in control of the outcome of their season.

Terry answered a question about the Longhorns potentially pushing the panic button during his postgame press conference after the 77-71 loss to the Knights. His response was no considering his own religious faith. Regardless of the valleys that he and his team may have to go through, he trusts that they’ll have a chance reach the peaks once again.

“I’m not a panic guy,” said Terry. “I’ve never been a panic guy because I believe in God and I have a lot of faith in him. He has the master plan.”

“There’s nothing that’s going to be put in front of us right now from a basketball standpoint, from a life standpoint that we can’t overcome,” Terry said. “In terms of obstacles? You have that blind faith, man. You live that way, you live your life that way. There’s no fear, there’s no worry. You put it in his hands.”

Faith or not, though, the fact of the matter is the six-point loss brought Texas’ record down to 12-5 as part of a poor start to conference play.

After falling to Texas Tech and West Virginia, the Longhorns seemed to be back on track with an early 16-point lead over the Knights. However, from then on, UCF hung around until outright taking the lead with under eight minutes to go. Even with a little more jockeying, the road team had already made the comeback as they came into the Moody Center and won by closing on a 10-4 run over the final three minutes.

Much of UCF’s success came from their work down low. They outrebounded Texas by 15, outscored them by 12 in the paint, and had four more blocks.

With another loss to their record, all that Texas can do is keep on improving and lean on their experience.

“To answer your point, we’ve just got to continue to work,” said Terry. “We have some guys over there in the room that are veteran players that want to win. They understand that it’s about the details and it’s about the inches in the twelve.”

Texas now sits third from last in the league after their latest defeat. Still, as far as a panic, Terry isn’t going to feel any because of his belief and reliance in his team as well as in a higher power.

“I’m a firm believer in God, man,” Terry said. “There’s no weapon for ’em against me or my team that we can’t overcome.”