Skip to main content

Everything Rodney Terry said ahead of Texas' Elite Eight matchup with Miami

Joe Cookby:Joe Cook03/26/23

josephcook89

On3 image
Rodney Terry (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Texas interim head coach Rodney Terry was available to the media on Saturday ahead of the Longhorns’ regional final matchup with the Miami Hurricanes.

[Get Inside Texas Plus until 8/31 for just $29.99!]

Here’s everything Terry had to say on the media stage, courtesy of ASAP Sports.

Q. Rodney, you see your guys out there talking to opponents, letting them know how they feel. That’s kind of their vibe a little bit. As a coach, how much do you encourage that, kind of wearing their emotions on their sleeve a little bit during a game?

RODNEY TERRY: “We have an older team. We have a team that I always talk to our guys. I like our guys to have swag when they step out on the floor.

I think this year I would reference back to it to, I got a chance to coach P.J. Tucker when he was with us previously. P.J. always had swag. He was one of those guys who always thought he was the baddest dude on the floor no matter what.

I like our guys feeling that way. We have an older team. They play with a lot of emotions. Sometimes I can be an emotional coach as well. But we want to channel it in the right direction and play with a purpose as well.

But I like our guys getting charged up and showing emotion and that they’re emotionally attached to the game.”

Q. What stands out to you about this Miami team?

RODNEY TERRY: Man, they’re well coached. Coach (Jim) Larranaga, got a lot of respect for him. Over the years we’ve had a chance to compete previously, when he was coaching at George Mason, and I was at UNC-Wilmington.

He has his team playing at the highest level right now. They can play really fast in transition. They do a great job of really sharing the basketball. They’ve got great guard play. They have an elite offensive rebounder with the mirror inside. They’re a very talented ball club.

They’re underrated defensively. They do a great job of really trying to turn you over, their length. They’re stunting and doing a great job of really trying to get after you defensively. It’s underrated. They’re a really, really good ball club.

Any time you win the regular season ACC, you’re pretty doggone good.”

Q. You talked about being an emotional coach. I think I saw some emotion when Timmy was telling that story about the first day and how you weren’t unprepared. He’s talked about that before, the awkwardness of that first moment and what you told them. What sticks out to you? Were you unprepared? How could you possibly have been prepared for something like that?

RODNEY TERRY: “I don’t think there’s a playbook for what happened in terms of when it happened or how it happened. I think the one saving grace for myself, I was already in front of our guys. I was kind of a co-head coach with Coach (Chris) Beard already. So I was already in front of the guys coaching our defense and was always in front of the guys already coaching as opposed to just being an assistant, to where you didn’t maybe have as much input.

But I think my one constant message to our guys on that day and moving forward was to live where your feet are, stay in the present right now, and we’re going to control what we can control. We’re going to continue to have a great season. We’re going to block out all the noise. And we’re going to play for one another, and we’re going to continue to have all our goals and everything that we set out to start the season sit in front of us.

We’re going to do it every single day. We’re going to do it with a great attitude, great approach, and we’re going to be excited about still competing. I thought those guys have done a great job of that every single day. Really living where their feet are, trying to really enjoy the moment, enjoy the journey.

I think, a lot like myself, they don’t want this to end.”

Q. Going back to Miami, I wanted to ask about Coach Larranaga and maybe any similarities you see between both of you? You’ve both had a part in bringing these programs back to national prominence recently. I mean, Texas is in their first Elite Eight since 2008, and the Canes made their first Elite Eight in program history last year. Thoughts on that?

RODNEY TERRY: “I’ve always been a fan of Coach Larranaga. Again, I go way back with him to George Mason days. I thought his teams always played with a great joy and a great spirit about themselves. They play loose and freely all the time.

I really looked up to him as a players’ coach. Guys really, really enjoy playing for him. They run through a wall for him over the years.

He’s brought that to Miami. He’s obviously taking them to the top of the league in the ACC. It doesn’t get any better than that. A lot of great respect for him and his staff. He has some of his same guys on his staff that he had when he was at George Mason and experienced a high level of success. So he’s had really good continuity over the years that have really helped him.

We’re only going to be as good as the people around us. I’ve got a great staff working with me right now. We have great chemistry with how we’re doing things and how we’ve done things the last two years. You can’t do it by yourself. I’m blessed to have a really good one behind us.

So Coach Larranaga, a lot of respect for him.”

Q. Marcus, Tyrese, Jabari, last night they shared it, they scored it, they protected the ball. How much confidence do you have in a deep run like this when you have those kind of guys running things?

RODNEY TERRY: “Well, I think we’ve done it all season long, to be honest with you. This team, one of the characteristics of this team is they’ve been extremely unselfish. They play for one another. They’ve had each other’s back. We work on it all the time in terms of sharing the basketball. One guy has a good shot. The other guy has a great shot.

And they’ve really bought into that mentality. Let’s get the best shot that we can get. Let’s get a shot up every time now because we knew how hard it is for us to get a defensive stop, we know we’ve got to earn a basket at the other end.

Let’s share the basketball. Let’s continue to take care of the basketball. And let’s not beat ourselves.”

Q. You’ve got transfers from New Mexico State, Minnesota, Creighton, Utah. It seems fragmented, yet in a short time there’s this obvious, very deep, great bond. How do you think that happens?

RODNEY TERRY: “I’ve got to think it happens — we had seven guys return this year. They gave us a little bit of continuity.

Last year we had an influx of guys — the one thing we were fighting last year is we were building a culture and we were trying to build a team last year and we were behind on time. We were going against teams a lot of times that had been together a number of years. So we were always saying, man, we’re fighting time.

Now we got our seven guys back, we had that experience of those guys being together. Now we needed to blend the new guys, the younger guys in with our older guys. I thought again this year we’ve been able to defend that culture. I thought we’ve been able to spend a lot of time this summer with different activities.

A lot of it was player driven, not coach driven. The best teams that have a high level of success, they’re player driven, not coach driven. We didn’t really have to force feed these guys to spend time with each other off the court and do different activities off the court. They did it willingly on themselves.

They formed a bond this summer and had incredible chemistry that carried over into the fall, off the court right over to on the court. It’s really helped us this year have a great year and doing what we’re doing right now at this moment.”

Q. R.T., a couple questions. It sounded like the defensive buy-in might have happened after the 116-103 game with K-State. Can you talk about that? And then what specifically each members of your staff — Donewald, McClain, Ogden, Chappell, what are they doing specifically to help prepare the team?

RODNEY TERRY: “Great question. Chip’s alluding to the game where we played K-State, and people didn’t really know how good K-State was at the time. Jerome has done a great job, by the way, this season. Really happy for him and his success and what he’s been able to do there at K-State this season.

They came in our building and scored 116 points. We scored 103. We really in November spent a lot of time trying to establish an identity that we were going to be a team every night and every day that we were going to play really hard on defense and we were going to hang our hats every day on trying to be a team that could put stops together.

We didn’t put any stops together that night obviously, and they went on and run the game. So a couple days later when we were back on the floor, we really needed to hit the reset button and kind of get back to our identity that we set out with the very beginning.

But from a coaching perspective, I thought it was very important that it didn’t take away the fact that we could score. We’re a team that could score the basketball. We scored 103 points, and that wasn’t a fluke. We’re a team that could be an elite team that could play offensively, but we also wanted to be a team that could really guard and be an elite defensive team as well.

So that was kind of a give and take there. I didn’t want to come in and take away offense because we can score, but I also had to send a message that, for us to win games or meaningful games in a highly competitive Big 12 conference race, we were going to have to be the guard and take a lot of pride in guarding.

So we kind of hit the reset button, came back, and really worked hard on our defense and tried to have more of a defensive-minded approach, as well as playing with really good pace on offense and still wanting to score the ball at a high level as well.

As for guys on my staff, Bob Donewald is a guy that’s worked with our offense since the day he’s been here. He does a great job preparing our game plan for what we’re trying to do offensively.

Steve McClain has done a great job with our defense. He’s done a great job every game, having our guys prepared in terms of what we’re doing from a defensive standpoint.

Oggie has really kind of tied in, whether it be special edits on guys, in terms of individual players. We had a big matchup with Pickett with Penn State, probably one of our toughest matchups of the year. He dove into that matchup and what we needed to do defensively in regards to defending him.

Brandon has done a great job with putting together the actions of the opposing team and really taking those to the floor with our scout team.

Our scout team’s done a great job this year, by the way, as well. I want to commend those guys. A lot of times those guys don’t get the recognition. And the guys that play the game and the guys on the floor, they get the recognition.

Our scout team this year have done a phenomenal job. Cole Bott has done a great job. Alex (Anamekwe) has done a great job. Gavin (Perryman) has done a great job, Rowan (Brumbaugh), Preston (Clark). Those guys, you never hear those guys’ names, but those guys have done a great job every day preparing our guys for the teams they’re going to compete against.

They give us great looks in terms of who our opponents are going to be, and I just want to make sure we give those guys a little bit of shine as well. They’re incredible, and what they’ve done for us this season has been amazing. So that’s kind of the rundown of our staff in terms of what guys do from a staff-wise. Our staff’s been incredible as well.

[Sign up NOW for the Inside Texas newsletter for Texas Longhorns daily updates and breaking news in your inbox!]

Q. I’m sure every Texas fan wants a Dylan Disu update. What are the chances he plays tomorrow? And if he’s not available, how will you adjust?

RODNEY TERRY: “Again, it’s day to day. Dylan obviously worked really hard to get to this point of the season right now. We’ve got the best trainer in the country in Warren (Young), and Warren has done a great job all year long. He’ll continue to work with him every single day.

We went through the Big 12 Tournament without Timmy Allen, a guy that had become a real focal point of our offense down the stretch in Big 12 play. Next man up had to step in and do the job for us.

No different type of mentality we’ll have going into tomorrow’s contest against Miami, next man up, and that will be by committee. It could be Brock (Cunningham). It could be obviously C.B., Christian Bishop, played really well for us. Timmy Allen had to play a little more inside for us as well.

I always say to our guys, we’re all we need, we’re all we got. You know what I mean? We’ll find somebody ready to go, and we’ll band together like brothers, and we’ll go out and compete against a really, really good Miami team.”

Q. You mentioned those guys taking their turns, interior defense. This is a tall team you’re facing. Eight guys that are 6’7″ or taller. Who have you played this season that reminds you of them, and what problems will they present?

RODNEY TERRY: “Always giving a reference point back to our league, I thought our league was the best league in the country. As we’ve embarked on this postseason play in the NCAA Tournament, I think it always gives your guys a good reference point to someone we played in in our league, and I always try to liken the team we’re playing to someone in our league.

Today as we start our preparation this morning, TCU was a team that came to mind when we’re talking about Miami. TCU, really good point guard, a lot like one that could play downhill. Mike Miles, preseason Player of the Year. You’ve got (Nijel) Pack first team all league in the Big 12. Their players, you throw (Eddie) Lampkin out there, either of their bigs, really great offensive rebounders. Miami’s got great offensive rebounders, elite offensive rebounders, same type of team. They can play in transition, get up and down the floor.

K-State was the other team. K-State can play fast. They can score the basketball. They can turn you over as well.

But those were two teams that I liken these guys to that we played that were really good teams in our league. Again, a lot of respect for Miami and what they’ve done this season. They’re an excellent ball club.”

Q. Coach, you are speaking a lot throughout this season and here in the tournament about God and faith. You haven’t shied away from that at all and have leaned on your faith. I just would like to you go a little bit deeper as to why you’re unafraid to speak on that and include God in your post-game and pregame press conferences.

RODNEY TERRY: “Great question. I was raised by a Christian mom and dad, and my mom was always one that she lived a Christian life. She’s here watching us play right now, and she’s beaming in the glow and enjoying this ride as well. But she lived a Christian life.

When you live that way, it seemed like I was in church every day. I’m in church every day. I was taught right from wrong. She instilled in me, or they instilled in me, my parents, a great value system with it being faith-based.

You’re not going to get anywhere in life without having strong faith. It’s always taught me that man’s going to disappoint you. God’s never going to disappoint you, and he’s never going to leave you. He’ll be with you in your highest of high moments. He’ll be with you in your lowest of low moments. But you have to develop your own relationship with Him.

I love her, and I love my dad for giving me, instilling in me to have that as one of my values in terms of having strong faith. Again, we’re not perfect. There’s only one person that’s going to judge you. He gave His only son to us to be able to forgive us of our sins. I live by that every day, and I have strong faith and strong belief.

I try to not push that down my players’ throat, but I try to set a good example for those guys and try to live the right way and hopefully be an inspiration for them to also understand how important it is to have that as a value when they become a father, a provider, and a great husband one day.”

Q. With Miami’s five-out look, what struggles do they give to you all defensively, and how do you plan to attack that five-out look on offense? Also, how would you rate Timmy Allen’s voice?

RODNEY TERRY: “I’ll answer the first point. I didn’t quite hear you on the last part of that question. I’ll start with the first part of that question with Miami.

Boy, I’ll tell you what, they put so much pressure on you defensively with their pace of play. We call it rebound and go. Any guy can get the rebound and really initiate their offense, which really makes them dangerous in transition. Valuing taking care of the basketball is really big.

This is going to be one of those games where you’re going to have to do a great job of trying to guard the basketball. They spread you out. It’s going to be really hard to play in rotations because they’re a really, really good shooting team. If you’re having to play in rotations and they’re moving the ball as well as they’re capable of moving the basketball, they put a ton of pressure on you with their shot makers.

Then they’ve got guys that can go rebound the basketball. We’re going to have to do a great job of having to guard one-on-one defense and trying to stay out of rotations.

Timmy Allen, as for singing, probably wants to stick to his day job right now, and that’s trying to be the best version of himself, being a basketball player first right now and maybe continue to work on honing his skills singing.

Those guys are great young men to be around, and they like having a lot of fun. I encourage them to enjoy this ride and have a joy about themselves here in March.”

You may also like