Interim coach Rodney Terry previews No. 10 Texas at No. 4 Tennessee

Rodney Terry, the Texas interim head coach and former longtime Rick Barnes assistant coach, brings his 10th-ranked Longhorns (17-3) to Knoxville to face No. 4 Tennessee (17-3) on Saturday (6 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: ESPN) in a Big 12-SEC Challenge game inside a sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena.

Terry previewed the matchup and looked back at his time working with Barnes during a conference call with reporters on Thursday:

Facing coaches he’s worked with in the past, who know him well

“Man, I guess I don’t have a preference for it. Coach Barnes and I, we’re like family. He’s a mentor for myself. Obviously I worked for him for nine years. So much respect for him, not only as a coach but as a person, as a great human being. I know Coach is highly competitive. I’m competitive. I know once the ball is thrown in the air and we’re able to start the game, he’ll be trying to coach his team to a win, I’ll be trying to coach my team to a win as well.”

If he heard from Rick Barnes after he got the interim head coach title at Texas earlier this season

“I spoke to Coach shortly after the Rice game. It was the first time we got to visit about the situation. We got a chance to have a really good talk. Some basketball, some just how his family is doing, how my family is doing. We got a chance to connect and visit about things. 

What a win over Tennessee would do for the Texas resume 

“You talk about one of the elite programs in the country right now. Top five, possibly top two in the country. A team that has a chance to make the Final Four. They’re Final Four good. No. 1-rated defense in the country. They’ve got size, they’ve got shooters, they’ve got experience. They got a little bit of everything you need in terms of being elite. To go in and compete on their home floor, against that quality of opponent, for us to go in have success, obviously we have to do some things that are at a very elite level ourselves. It will be an incredible resume game for ourselves, if we’re able to go in and get that done.”

Rodney Terry worked for nine seasons under Rick Barnes at Texas

What he learned from Rick Barnes that he still uses today

“Well as a person and as a man, Coach is a God-fearing man. Has tremendous faith. Myself, also being that type of person, a guy that is a strong believer in faith as well. From a basketball standpoint, Coach’s teams have always rebounded really well, play physical, hard-nosed defense, and you win with that ingredient every night, night in and night out. His teams play extremely hard, they compete at an elite level. And I think the other thing I learned most when I was working with Coach was that if you’re going to run a program, you have to have a great staff behind you. You have to have good continuity and you have to let your guys coach and let your guys evaluate. But you have to have a great staff. You’re only going to be as good as the people you surround yourself with.”

The game against Tennessee last season at the Erwin Center, when Texas had a homecoming for Rick Barnes 

“I think first off, I think when we brought Coach back here last year, I thought that was an incredible opportunity for the city of Austin and Longhorn nation to get a chance to salute Coach Barnes. I mean, Coach didn’t get that kind of send off. Seventeen years here, sixteen he made the NCAA Tournament. Probably should’ve been 17 for 17. But that’s an incredible run. Kind of unheard of this day and time, where you have that longevity of winning at an elite level. You talk about a Final Four, you talk about Elite Eights, you talk about Sweet Sixteens, he did that over the course of the time that he was here. But I thought it was a great opportunity for the city to salute him and what he did for this program here. I thought it was a great opportunity. Again, last year, two teams that really slugged it out a little bit, in kind of a defensive game that night. We were fortunate enough to make some big plays, make some shots down the stretch to win that ballgame. Coach Barnes gave me an opportunity to really coach at the elite level. I started out at Baylor and got a chance to go to UNC Wilmington for four years and work for Jerry Wainwright. But getting a chance to work in the Big 12 again, as a top-tier assistant, Coach taught me a lot about recruiting at this level. Taught me a lot about coaching at this level and what it takes to win at this level.”

Rick Barnes telling Rodney Terry he was experienced and ready to handle the interim role at Texas

“Well again, you have so much respect for who it is coming from. Coach has always given me incredible advice. I leaned on him quite a bit when I was a head coach at Fresno State, bead coach at UTEP as well. I would call him often and pick his brain about different things. He wouldn’t tell me what to do, but he would give me some pointers on things in terms of how he would particularly deal with things. He said to me you know what, you better be prepared to be in that seat all year long. Be prepared to wheel this team throughout the rest of the course of the season. And you’re more than prepared for this opportunity. You’ve got 10 years under your belt, you’re successful, you’ve been doing it. And you’ve been coaching this team already, so you’re prepared for this opportunity. You’re prepared for this season, so go out and enjoy the ride. Try to take these guys are far as you can take them.”

Up Next: No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 10 Texas, Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN

What Tennessee does well defensively 

“Rick’s teams always rebound the ball really well. They’re a really good defensive rebounding team. They do a great job with their stuff. They have great gap help. They don’t really let you get into the paint. Try to keep you out of the paint. Try to take your ball if you’re not strong with your ball. They do a great job defending the 3-point line. Not much that they don’t do at a very efficient level from a defensive standpoint. So they’re really, really elite at what they do on that end of the floor. It will be a great challenge for us. But we just played a top-seven defensive team in the country that is really, really good defensively as well. We have a lot of really good teams in our league that ware good defensively. Iowa State will probably be comparable to what we’re about to face with Tennessee. They do a great job trying to turn you over. They play in the gaps. They’re going to help strong side. They do a great job trying to give you one shot and that’s all you’re going to get. Not giving you a great look.”

The moments or memories that come to mind from his time working with Rick Barnes

“We had an incredible run here. As much as we had, we had great players, too. Any time you have a run over that span of time, that means you’ve done a pretty good job recruiting and you’ve had some good players to help you win at that level. But getting to the Final Four, we had probably had three teams in my nine years that could’ve won a national championship. DeLoss Dodds was here, one of the greatest (athletic directors) of all time was here. DeLoss often said you have to get lucky to win a national championship. You have to have the right kind of matchups on a neutral floor to have those kind of outcomes. But man, the Final Four run was incredible. That was a team that could’ve won a national championship. I felt like our team with Lamarcus Aldridge, when we lost to LSU in the regional final, that was a team that could’ve won a national championship. I think we won 31 games that year. PJ Tucker and Brad Buckman and Daniel Gibson. We were loaded on that team. That was a really, really good team. And even my last year here, we won I think 28, 27 games with Tristan Thompson, Cory Jospeh. Another team that was a young team that, boy, could’ve gone a long ways had we won that Sweet Sixteen game. But man, a lot of fond memories. A lot of great times. The Kevin Durant season was a phenomenal ride as well. Start four freshmen, one sophomore, man, what a fun time. What a great scoring team as well. A lot of great memories with Coach Barnes. We won a lot of games. The only thing we didn’t do during that stretch was win a national championship.”