Rodney Terry jokes SEC teams 'just throw rocks at each other' in conference play

The Texas basketball season has already taken some interesting swings. Coach Rodney Terry and the Longhorns lost four of their first five games in SEC play, getting off to a rough start.

But the unit is slowly working on bouncing back. On Tuesday, a 61-53 win over a ranked Missouri squad was a huge step in the right direction.

After the game, Rodney Terry was asked what one thing he was proud of that the team could build on from that result. He had an interesting answer.

“Yeah, rock fight game tonight, right?” Terry said. “Just throw rocks at each other.”

In other words, it was a knock-down, drag-out decision that took everything in the tank. And Texas is going to play a whole lot more of those over the course of the regular season.

Sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes to come out with the win.

“No, you know what, I thought it was just one of those games where you’ve got to dig deep and you’ve got to find a way to get stops,” Terry said. “They came out in the second half and had a great surge. I thought we responded well and didn’t fold.”

Rebounding was also a huge key. Texas became the first team in SEC play to out-rebound Missouri, proving a more physical presence on the glass.

That was no small factor in the game.

Then there was just the general resilience that Texas showed. Rodney Terry knew his team was capable, but he hasn’t always seen it in every game.

“A lot of times we say we can’t crack. We didn’t crack,” Terry said. “Our guys stood toe-to-toe and didn’t flinch against a really good team. We put together some consecutive stops. Then we came down and we executed. I thought there were some pivotal times offensively where they came back in zone, we didn’t settle. We executed some plays and got the ball right where we wanted and as a result of that we were able to get to the foul line.”

Rodney Terry’s squad finished with 30 free throws in the game, scoring 23 of the 61 points at the charity stripe. That’ll do.

Now for the more challenging feat: Finding a way to replicate that energy and effort for another game. Up next is a Saturday showdown with rival Texas A&M at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.