Rodney Terry is Coaching on a Toasty Seat at Texas

The college basketball coaching carousel is already shaping up to feature a few high-profile openings. If Texas doesn’t pick up some late-season wins, they could be looking for a new head basketball coach this offseason.

Indiana is moving on from Mike Woodson. Villanova may not let Kyle Neptune hang around for much longer. Hubert Davis doesn’t have a whole lot of friends at North Carolina.

Similar to Davis at North Carolina, Terry started his Texas tenure strong. Filling in for Chris Beard following his abrupt departure, Texas won the Big 12 Conference Tournament and advanced all the way to the Elite Eight before falling to Miami. They were knocked out in the second round of last year’s NCAA Tournament by Tennessee. After losing three straight, Terry was booed when his name was introduced at the Moody Center on Tuesday.

“I don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff. I didn’t hear any boos. I don’t know, maybe there was boos,” the Texas head coach said after a 23-point loss to No. 2 Alabama.

“To me, personally, I’m all about trying to get my team better. It’s all about focusing on those guys, focusing on what we have to do as a program and continue to stay the course and keep working. I don’t get caught up on outside noise. If I worry about what people say or this or that, that’s not my job. There’s not anything people can say or do to me. I got the No. 1 protector in God. I got strong faith, I’m a Christian guy, and nothing anybody says can bring me down.”

Tre Johnson has been incredible for the Longhorns. The freshman is the SEC’s leading scorer, averaging more than 19 points per game, and he’s scored 22+ in four of the last six games, including a 30-point night in a miraculous comeback win over Texas A&M.

Despite Johnson’s success, the losses are adding up. Texas has lost four out of their last five games to put them firmly on the bubble. Joe Lunardi has the Horns as one of the last four byes. If they don’t start wracking up wins, they may be on the outside of the Big Dance looking in. Terry is not putting any extra public pressure on his team to perform down the stretch.

“Every game we play is an NCAA Tournament game. In this league, every night you’re playing a quality opponent. That’s the No. 2 team in the country right now. We’re going to get a team on Saturday that’s also been in the Top-10 at some point in the season as well,” he said on Tuesday.

“In this league, there’s no nights off, in terms of the quality of teams you’re playing. It’s an NCAA Tournament team every night. You just keep your head down, you keep staying the course, keep working, and you gotta make it happen.”

A win over Kentucky will probably be enough to put Texas in the NCAA Tournament field. The leash on Terry is short. A loss may have him looking for a new place of employment this offseason.