Rodney Terry reveals how successful he views last season

Texas basketball experienced quite an unusual season, although you’d still have to consider it a massive success given the extenuating circumstances. Of course, college hoops fans remember well that the Longhorns had to let go of head coach Chris Beard over issues off the basketball court. As a result of that whole ordeal, assistant coach Rodney Terry stepped in to lead the team and had such a strong finish to the year that Texas went ahead and made him the permanent head coach.

That’s what happens when you take over a messy situation off the court and produce good results on the court, as Terry did. Behind a bevy of upperclassmen transfers and a small-ball lineup, Texas finished No. 2 in the Big 12, won the conference tourney and then advanced to the Elite Eight.

That’s one heck of a season, especially for an interim coach who was unexpectedly thrust into the position a few games into the year. So when asked about his own evaluation of the 2022-23 year for Texas by the Field of 68, Terry answered that’s extremely proud of what the team accomplished this spring.

Here was that response:

“Well, I think we had a great season, you know. I mean, anytime you win, you know, 29 games — I think it was the third-most games we’ve won in in school history. And, you know, I’ve been a part of teams here where we’ve won 30 games as well, and you always looked at those as great seasons as well.

“You know, won a Big 12 Tournament Championship, only second time we’ve done that as a member of the Big 12. There was four to five years where we didn’t do that, so we had a chance to do that.

“I thought we had a team that — obviously, like any given year, you want to try to compete for a national championship here in Texas. I thought we had a team that could be one of those type teams.

“But, you know, again, when you reflect back on the year, man, we had an incredible season. We really did. We had a team that was probably the most connected team I’ve been apart of in 32 years, and they were all about just winning.”

Terry certainly appears to have loved coaching that group, and they were certainly as successful as any team in recent Longhorn history. Hopefully, more of the same is in store as Terry heads into his official Texas head coach career.