Rodney Terry shares feelings of facing Rick Barnes, Tennessee

Texas travels to Tennessee on Saturday for one of the biggest non-conference games of the season. There, interim Longhorns coach Rodney Terry will take on Rick Barnes, his old mentor from Barnes’ days as the Texas coach.

After Texas beat Oklahoma State and turned its attention toward Tennessee, Terry shared his feelings on coaching against Barnes.

“We played against a top 10 defense tonight, we were able to score 89 points, we had a little bit more turnovers than we wanted to have,” Rodney Terry said. “We always try to have 10 or less, we had 18 tonight. But give them credit, they do a great job defending.”

After crediting Oklahoma State for its defense, he emphasized how good Tennessee is on defense. Terry also emphasized that this is the kind of game worth getting excited about.

“We’ll play the best defensive team in the country on Saturday. Coach Barnes, he’s like family to me. He’s a mentor, someone I stay in close contact with on a regular basis. But, it’s gonna be a great game. It’s gonna be a great atmosphere,” Terry said.

“It’s what you want when you come to Texas to play in these types of games. College GameDay is there. So, I think it’s gonna be a special opportunity for us. You know, I’ve only had a chance to coach against him one time here in a highly competitive game years ago when I was at Fresno State and we’ll be excited about the challenge, going up and competing against one of the best teams in the country.”

Rodney Terry on Texas’ ceiling

Rodney Terry thinks that this Texas team has an incredibly high ceiling and feels that they have yet to reach it.

“I’m still really excited about this team because, again, I think our ceiling is still high. We haven’t played our best basketball [yet]. To be honest with you, you don’t want to be playing your best basketball in January. You want to play your best basketball in February or mid-February and the end of March,” Terry said.

“Again, this team has really focused on trying to fix the things that we need to fix. There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll try to continue to work and get better as the season goes along.”