Rodney Terry shares key to remaining focused through outside noise

The Texas basketball team has gone through a heck of a lot this season, some courtesy of an absolutely brutal Big 12 schedule and some manufactured outside noise.

More pointedly, the Longhorns got caught up in a whole back-and-forth over the ‘Horns Down’ gesture that players and coaches alike are probably tired of hearing about at this point. So how does coach Rodney Terry keep his team focused?

“I think I was asked that earlier today by the media group doing the game today, and I think a lot of it is predicated on your leadership,” Terry said after a 76-72 loss to No. 4 Houston. “I think if I come in and I’m moping around and ‘poor me’ and feeling sorry for myself or where we are right now we’re not going to be the team that I think we have a chance to be by the end of this year.”

Texas does appear to be one of the nation’s more dangerous teams. That much was evident when Terry’s guys pulled off back-to-back wins over No. 9 Baylor and No. 11 Oklahoma.

But the consistency hasn’t quite been there. The two games preceding those two major wins were losses at West Virginia and to UCF. Both were close, but those are the kinds of games Texas needs to be winning to maximize its NCAA Tournament seeding.

As the Longhorns look for consistency, Terry is turning inward, away from the outside noise.

“I think team’s going to feed off what I bring to the table every day,” Terry said. “If I come in, I’m positive, I’m upbeat… we’ve got a lot of basketball to be played in this league. We can compete with anybody in this league, at home, on the road, every night. That’s what you have to have this time of year. I have to practice what I preach.”

Texas needs Terry to keep bringing the energy and ignoring the outside noise, because the schedule doesn’t get any easier.

The team has faced four straight ranked opponents and has two more on the docket before facing that same West Virginia team that beat it a few weeks back.

The closing stretch? It includes seven games against teams currently ranked in the Top 25.

Bottom line, Terry better have energy to share with his guys.

“I try to bring that every single day. And again, I still think this team has a high ceiling,” Terry said. “I just said it to our two best players. I think we can be as good as we want to be this year. We have a good team. We’ve just got to take the next step. We’ve got to be completely bought in and we’ve got to stay the course. Can’t listen to the outside noise.

“We control our own destiny in terms of what we do and how we do it the rest of the way, but I think a lot of it is predicated on myself and how I carry myself and how I respond to wins and losses and everything. So that’s where I put it. I don’t put it on our guys, I put it on myself.”