Everything Rodney Terry said ahead of Texas' Sweet 16 matchup with Xavier

The Longhorns have made their way to Kansas City, Mo., for their Sweet 16 matchup with the Xavier Musketeers in the Midwest region semifinals.

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Texas interim head coach Rodney Terry was available to the media on Thursday. Courtesy of ASAP Sports, here’s everything he had to say.

RODNEY TERRY: “Getting back to Kansas City wasn’t easy. We faced a really good Colgate team. They put a lot of pressure on us in terms of shooting the basketball. Really good, well-coached Penn State team as well.

We were here a couple weeks ago and had a great experience in terms of getting a chance to win a Big 12 championship. I thought our league was really, really good this year. We had a great experience while we were here. So we’re excited about being back in Kansas City.”

Q. Rodney, you’ve done an excellent job since taking over, now leading your team to the Sweet 16. Why hasn’t Texas hired you as the official next head coach of the Longhorns, and what do you think it will take to secure that role?

RODNEY TERRY: “I’ll be honest with you, we’ve really just — from the time that I was named acting head coach, I’ve really just poured a lot into these guys. They’re a great group of guys I’ve had a chance to work with every single day and really have tried to instill in those guys, much like how I approach life in terms of just being an everyday guy, living where your feet are, living in the present, and again controlling what you can control.

Our administration has been great to me. They’ve done an incredible job backing myself, our staff, and being very supportive with our team. Really at the end of the day, we’ve just tried to handle what was in front of us, 40 minutes by 40 minutes.

We’re blessed enough to be here in the NCAA Tournament and playing in the second weekend, and we’ve got an incredible challenge ahead with Xavier, who’s a well-coached team as well. We’re just excited about where we are right now, living in the moment.”

Q. R.T., can you talk about your relationship with Souley (Boum), getting him to UTEP. I think you spent three years with him. What stands out about him as a player and a person and all that stuff?

RODNEY TERRY: “Souley Boum, I just saw Souley in the hallway. You talk about a great kid, one of my favorites to coach. Came to us at UTEP after having a really successful rookie campaign as a freshman at San Francisco. We knew he was coming. He was on the All-West Coast Conference rookie team.

He was a guy that was wired to score. He was a guy that came in that we played a lot at the two. I made him play a little bit at the point, and he wasn’t really happy playing at the point because he didn’t get to keep the ball in his hands as much as he wanted to.

Just watching him grow as a player over the years. My last year at UTEP, he played alongside Bryson Williams, Jamal Bieniemy, Keonte Kennedy. They were some really good players. He was a guy that was all about trying to win. Souley is so focused on winning sometimes to a fault. He’s like, just give me the ball. Let me go do it. I’ll show you, Coach. We’ll get it done.

Just a fierce competitor, great kid. Love him like my own son. We’ll be major competitors come Friday night, though. He wants to win. I want to win.

But I can’t say enough great things about him as a person and love his mom as well.”

Q. Could you just list one or two of the biggest challenges that you face taking over midseason. And I also wanted to ask you about the job Norm Roberts did at Kansas, who was in a similar situation.

RODNEY TERRY: “That’s a great question. I think the biggest thing any time you’re in a situation that I was in, I think, one, you just have to be yourself. I don’t think you try to be something that you’re not. You can’t go and — Chris is a great coach, Beard, but I couldn’t be Beard. Beard is totally different than myself.

So for myself, I just had to be Rodney Terry. And I think that boded well with our guys in terms of them really trying to buy into what we were trying to get done. We still had a whole season to play, and everything was still in front of us.

So I think that was one thing that was a challenge that I’m not sure how the guys thought that that would turn out. I think the other thing was continuing to have great chemistry among your staff. I think our staff, from the start, we were all committed to trying to try to have a great season and take this team as far as we could take them.

I think also having a chance to sit down with our captains on our team, the leaders of our team, and talked about what our new leadership style would look like, where we wanted to go, and really trying to continue to build on what we were already trying to do early in the season.

I think Norm again — I’ve known Norm a long time as well, longtime assistant. I think, again, you have to be prepared for the opportunity too. Norm’s been a head coach, so he knows what that entails in terms of leading a program. I thought he did a very admirable job down the stretch in leading KU.

You have a Hall of Fame coach that you’re working with in Coach Self, that we have the utmost respect for. Hopefully he’s doing well as well. Sending prayers to him and his family. But you have a quality guy in Norm Roberts, who’s been a part of the program and has been very instrumental in the success of that program at a very high level.

He’s also, I’m sure, had a voice as well. I had a voice. I was already coaching. It wasn’t like you were just all of a sudden sprung in front of the team. I was already coaching the team, just on the defensive side of the ball and in front of those guys. I’m sure Norm likewise was in front of those guys. When you’re able to do that, it makes a smoother transition in terms of the guys understanding your style and also being held accountable.

But I thought Norm did a great job. It probably wasn’t an easy situation for him as well because you’re never expecting what happened to Coach Self to happen during the season at the most pivotal time of the season as well. But I thought he did a great job.”

Q. In 2008 you guys made it to the Elite Eight, and this team’s trying to get there as well. The alumni, the guys from that team have been really active in reaching out to you and supporting. What does that mean to you as a guy who recruited a lot of those guys, A.J. Abrams, D.J. Augustin, Connor Atchley, all those guys. What does that mean to you all these years later?

RODNEY TERRY: “When you sign up to be a part of your program, they’re part of your family for life. I think that’s just, again, just a reflection of your lifelong relationships that you have with your players. You don’t just coach guys for four years and you’re still not a part of their lives.

You’re going to be at their weddings. You’re going to call them and talk to them when they have their first kids. I think I’ve always tried to do a great job of staying in my former players’ lives and still being a part of what they’re doing and investing in those guys as a true extension of my family as well.

So I think that just kind of speaks volumes to those relationships.”

Q. This journey of yours started in Angleton. I wonder what some of the values you taught, the lessons you learned at your alma mater too that you took from Angleton. I wonder if you hear from a few more people now that you’re leading the Texas Longhorns to the Sweet 16?

RODNEY TERRY: “For those who don’t know, Angleton, Texas, is a small town 22 miles outside of Houston, outside of the big city. Man, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Growing up in a small town, everybody knows everybody. You play every sport. I had some great coaches and great guys that instilled in me discipline, respect for how hard you have to work.

I had a football coach named Coach Kettler. He played for Bear Bryant and played for the Junction Boys. Boy, we didn’t get very many water breaks. He had that tie like Bear Bryant would have in football.

But he always came in every day, and he always said, hey, it’s a great day to be alive, men. We looked at Coach Kettler like he was crazy. Got us out in 100 degree weather, and we’re doing two-a-days. Anyway, just instilled a lot of toughness in you.

I had a great college basketball coach in Coach Reynolds, was a really good player at TCU that played at a very good level. Again, my upbringing there, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I got the best of really a lot of great worlds. Played a lot of baseball too. When you grow up, you play every sport.

Just a great, great place to grow up and a great town to grow up in that area. Am I hearing from a lot of those classmates and people back that way? 100 percent. A lot of Longhorn fans back that way in Brazoria County.”

Q. I wanted to ask you about Christian Bishop and the value of having an experienced guy, fifth year guy like that who’s willing to take a role on a team and do his part?

RODNEY TERRY: “C.B., boy, I’ll tell you what, he’s a guy that we know day in and day out, whether it be in practice or in games, he’s going to bring energy. He’s going to bring some physicality. He’s going to make some things happen out on the court.

He’s had some really good games for us, where he’s come in and made incredible impacts on both ends of the floor. He’s been a team guy. Started a lot of games for us last year. Coming off the bench this year, hasn’t complained one time, just been all about winning.

Was super excited last night to be back in his hometown, Kansas City, ‘Coach, we’re back.’ He’s talking about the hotel where he had his prom and all that good stuff. So he’s excited about being back here. He’ll have a lot of family here and a lot of people rooting for him here. But he’s been great to work with the last two years. Love C.B.”

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Q. Two questions: What have you learned in this process? What have you experienced that’s made you a better head coach? Secondly, did you finally demand Dylan Disu start taking shots? You’ve been telling him to shoot it all year, but then it finally happened.

RODNEY TERRY: “I was scratching my head back a little bit too to look at turning points. What’s made me a better coach? I think what made me a better coach, I had a chance to be blessed to coach ten years and be a head coach, trying to build a program at Fresno State and trying to build a program at UTEP. You learn your roster management in this day and time, especially with the portal, retention with guys. How to put together a roster and how to put yourself in the best position to be successful in year one and year two.

I think having had a chance to be an assistant as an associate head coach a year ago, step back a little bit, take a deep breath and kind of get a different perspective on things. When you’re a head coach, you’re just going, going, going. I think you take a lot of things for granted in terms of just really enjoying the process.

A lot of people will tell you, man, just enjoy it. Soak it up. I thought having had a chance to be one year removed, I’ve really done that this year. I’ve really tried to just soak it in, enjoy the process, enjoy working with my guys every day, smile a little bit, don’t always have a growl all the time and think you have to coach a team hard and coach upset. You don’t have to really do that.

Enjoy this process. You get a chance to do it maybe one time in your life and everything. So just make the most of it. I think that’s one thing I’ve really taken away the most.

Really I think my demeanor has been a whole lot different. I’ve been a lot more poised and calm in situations probably in the past I wouldn’t have been as much in that regard. Man, it’s been an incredible journey. Yeah, absolutely.

Dylan, I left that point out about Dylan. We’re playing at TCU. We were in the last week of the season. We’re trying to win the regular season Big 12 race. We’re having a tough go in the first half over at TCU. They’re kind of taking it to us a little bit.

My guys were ready to play, though. They knew what they were playing for. They knew they were playing for a conference championship. Boy, we just couldn’t get it going that day.

I came in at halftime, and I knew we were ready to play, but I thought we were a little too amped up to play, and they were having their way with us. I kind of challenged some guys in the halftime speech there a little bit in terms of guys need to step up. They need to play at a whole different level. You’re playing — not to a point where you’re playing scared, but you’re not playing as confident as you need to play, in so many words.

He was one of those guys that was challenged at a very high level. He had a lot of chippies early in the game that he could have converted for us, and that would have changed the early point of that ballgame. I think from that point on it’s been over. He’s like, Coach, I’m going to show you. I’m going to do my part with it, and he’s done that.

He’s really responded. He responded in that game at an incredible level. He had a great second half. And really the rest has been history in terms of where I think he’s gone in postseason play.”

Q. He only played for one year at the school, but Kevin Durant has been important to this program. What has he meant to you all? And has he reached out during this run?

RODNEY TERRY: “K.D., I got a chance to coach K.D. the one year he was in college at Texas. You talk about a fun bunch to work with right there now. That was in the days you lose the entire team. I think we were coming off an Elite Eight team in LaMarcus Aldridge and P.J. Tucker and Daniel Gibson and those guys going out the door. We bring in seven freshmen. K.D. is probably the centerpiece of that group.

We had a good group of seven guys that came in, and they were fun to coach and fun to work with. They were a high-scoring team, a young team. I think we started five freshmen and one sophomore, A.J. Abrams, the second all-time leading scorer at the school.

We had an incredible run. We had a chance to win both the regular season and Big 12 Tournament. We lost to Kansas both of those that year. We finished second in the regular season, and we lost a Big 12 Conference Tournament championship game that we feel like we should have won.

So we didn’t win the championship that year. Then we go into the NCAA Tournament, and he plays well in the Tournament. I say all those things because he had an incredible experience at Texas in the one year. If you didn’t know he was leaving, you wouldn’t know he was leaving. Up until the time he went up and did his press conference and said, I’ve got to put my name in the Draft, you would have thought he’d still be with us.

I know he’s very fond of Texas, his experience he had. He came back this summer. He hadn’t been back on campus in a long time. Got a chance to work out with our guys, just jump right in. Whatever you guys are doing, I’m doing. I think our guys are looking around like, wow, okay, Kevin is jumping into all the stuff we’re doing.

He just spent some time with the players we currently have on our team, worked out with those guys. He’s one of those guys that’s invested in our program. He wants nothing but the best for Texas. Having had a personal relationship with him, I think it means a lot to him in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it right now.”

Q. Rodney, you’ve been to Sweet 16s before. You’ve been to the Final Four. You also had a team with K.D. that flamed out in the second round. You understand what it takes to kind of get to this level. I mean, how have those past experiences sort of helped you this week?

RODNEY TERRY: “Yeah, I don’t know if we flamed out but — (laughing). That was a pretty good team. We actually ended up having to play the hottest team. We played USC. They were the hottest team in the tournament. They had pros too. They were pretty good too, Taj Gibson and those guys.

I don’t know. We experienced a high level of success when I was here before. We expected to be in the second weekend every year. When we weren’t in the second weekend, then we were disappointed in our season. That was the standard, and that was the expectations.

When I came back here and joined Chris on the staff here, those were the same type of expectations that we had. We wanted to be a Monday night program. We want to try to get to that last night and get to that third weekend where you’re playing and trying to play for the whole thing.

I think over the course of that time, I think you’re always trying to figure out how you want to manage the week. I spoke to Rick a couple days ago, and just talking about we have the Friday game, they have the Thursday game. You have to really manage your workload that week, and you want your guys to be fresh, and you want them peaking and playing at the right time come Friday night.

So just talking with him a little bit about that process, talking about some things that we did during those stretches as well. I think you always lean on other people a lot of times too that have also been there.

Our strength coach John Reilly has done a great job with those guys physically this year, and we feel like we’re in a good place from a physical standpoint.

Drawing on experiences, the thing that I try to echo to our guys, we’re guaranteed 40 minutes. You can’t waste 20 minutes this time of year. You’ve got to play as hard as you can play from start to finish, and we have an incredible challenge with a really, really good Xavier team that’s well coached, and we have a lot of respect for.

So that’s been our focus. We’ve had a really good prep week for a really good opponent.”