Rodney Terry praises resiliency of Texas in close games

Rodney Terry‘s Texas team wasn’t able to close out Oklahoma in regulation this weekend but the Longhorns were able to pull out a major 85-83 victory in overtime. It is just the latest game where Texas battled through close games to pull out a victory.

Rodney Terry said his team has stepped up to the task in the playoff-like games.

“I’ve challenged these guys here, early February, really just start trying to play March basketball,” Terry said. “Today was March basketball. You’re gonna be in games like this all year. In postseason play, where you’ve got to maybe not have your best day to day but you got to find a way to get it done in those 40 minutes. I thought this group again, they’ve been very resilient, all year long, in terms of fighting through adversity, had a chance to have the game won in regulation.”

Terry said the big difference was his team’s attitude heading into overtime. They didn’t pout and instead were the aggressors to start the period.

“We have to go play an extra five minutes,” Terry said. “Hit the reset button and say we’re going to win this game with our defense. A lot of times in overtime, the team that comes out in the first minute of overtime and sets the tone with how they’re going to play both on offense and defense really finds a way to get it done in overtime. I thought our guys did that to start the overtime period.”

Rodney Terry makes case for Big Ten champ to be No. 1 seed in March Madness

Texas, Kansas, Baylor, Kansas State and Iowa State all have a chance to win the Big Ten regular season title this year. With so much parity in the league, Rodney Terry thinks the winner should get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“There’s no question about it. When you look at the teams, I think we have six ranked teams in our league right now and could probably make a case for the teams not ranked in our league,” Terry said Monday. “They are all really good teams … There are no nights off in our league. There are a lot of leagues that can’t say that. I think our league is very deserving of a 1-seed. If you come out of our league, you’re battle-tested every night.”