Men's basketball lags behind other members of Texas' elite athletic department

Throughout the last few weeks, discourse around Texas athletics has all been coordinated in attacks toward one topic: the state of the Texas men’s basketball team.

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When athletic director Chris Del Conte took the stage for his annual town hall, multiple fans highlighted the inferior record and performances that head coach Rodney Terry‘s Texas men’s basketball team had shown throughout the 2024-25 season. Terry’s loss to Xavier in the NCAA Tournament’s play-in game did him no favors, either.

Terry’s Longhorns were a bottom of the barrel team in the Southeastern Conference. Texas finished the regular season as the No. 13 squad out of 16 in SEC standings, with losses to two of the three teams behind them. Texas’ season was filled with many what if’s and plenty of low points. Texas’ loss to South Carolina was the Gamecocks’ first win in conference play, and one of only two they would secure. Worse, the loss to Oklahoma was the first for the program in four years and first ever to Sooners head coach Porter Moser.

So as questions of Terry’s hot seat continue to loom, a multitude of major factors need to be addressed to understand the validity of a potential firing. How does Terry compare to past head coaches at Texas? What are the expectations for Texas men’s basketball? Did he have enough resources?

But the one question that keeps returning is, how does he compare to the rest of the athletic department?

Texas’ athletic department is nothing short of elite in every sense of the word. The Longhorns won the last Learfield Directors’ Cup, given to the most successful college athletics program, and won two of the three before that. Texas is, by all means, the best athletic program in the nation, but are there any teams like men’s basketball that are in a concerning spot?

Texas has 17-21 (depending on how you define the track and field rosters) scholarship teams and the majority of them are elite. CDC has done a great job of making the Longhorns non-revenue sports (swimming and diving, Rowing, etc.) into true powerhouses. Of the 11 programs that you could claim being a step behind in terms of widespread popularity, six have won a natty in the last four years, another two were runner-ups last year, and men’s tennis currently boasts a No. 1 ranking.

What Del Conte will need to look is his revenue or close-to-profit-turning sports that umbrella six total programs: football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball.

Many Texas fans only pay attention to these six (or fewer teams) when it’s all said and done. These sports are the ones that will make the school money and attract fans, but will also be the toughest to compete in because of the investment of other athletic programs.

Here’s how those coaches compare to Terry:

Of the five of the sports that aren’t men’s basketball, Texas really couldn’t be doing better. Volleyball’s resume speaks for itself with two championships in the last three seasons, and football, softball and women’s basketball are all proving that they are one of the two to four best programs in each of their sports. It’ll always be hard to be better than Ohio State in football, Oklahoma in softball and South Carolina in women’s basketball, but Texas’ teams and staffs are trying to take the crowns from those programs.

Even baseball, a sport where Texas has a brand new coach, is in a far better spot. Our very own RT Young recently wrote a great piece about where men’s basketball and baseball have gone in the last few years. Baseball can’t be called an elite program right now, but they playing at a high level. Texas is 8th in the nation and a top-five SEC team heading into conference play.

This is all in head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s first year, and things are only going to get better with his elite recruiting. Terry, in his second full season, is barely a top-50 team in the nation.

It is important to wonder how much of the team’s struggles are Terry’s fault. The roster build was bad from the start. The NIL fund isn’t perfect, and Texas athletics generally cares a little less about Texas men’s basketball than football and baseball. But even that doesn’t explain the failure to meet lofty program expectations.

In a survey run by CBS before the men’s college basketball season, three percent of the 100-plus coaches they talked to believed that Texas not only had good NIL money, but elite money. Three percent isn’t the most notable figure, but more coaches believed in Texas’ NIL funds than ones for Florida or Ole Miss. Texas likely isn’t a top-10 team money wise, but top 25 in terms of funding is very likely.

Texas men’s basketball, even with Del Conte’s edict, should be a program hovering around the top 20-30 in the nation. Theoretically, they are a top 25 team in NIL money in the sport (believe it or not), and historically are in that same area as a program. Much of that obviously has to do with efforts Tom Penders and Rick Barnes put into elevating Texas men’s basketball. All that said, there should be no world in which a team that has Tre Johnson isn’t able to make a run in the tournament.

Terry got thrust into a hard position and wasn’t given every blessing needed to make a natty winner, but falling spectacularly short with the program’s best player since Kevin Durant is an easy reason to expect change in Austin. The Longhorns aren’t going to spend big if they need to hire a new coach, but Texas must be in a spot to compete in the SEC from here on out. Auburn can do it. Alabama can do it. Tennessee can do it. The Aggies are trying.

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If not, the rest of this athletic department is going to lap them, and it will be a stain on an otherwise elite fabric of programs, teams and coaches.