Longhorns' Rodney Terry Named Sporting News Coach Of The Year

Rodney Terry might have added another reason to be named the Texas Longhorns' long-term coach.

Rodney Terry added another talking point to his case for being named the permanent Texas Longhorns men's basketball head coach. 

Terry was named the Sporting News Coach of the Year following his efforts on the Forty Acres in 2023. Terry led the Longhorns to a second-place finish in the Big 12 and a top-10 finish in the AP Poll with a 23-8 record. 

Terry, who took over for Chris Beard following his suspension in December, kept the Longhorns afloat through a dreaded Big 12 schedule in the early parts of the new calendar year. Following Beard's firing in early January, Terry retained the title for the remainder of the regular season. 

While games were close, the Longhorns found ways to close out late performances both at the Moody Center and on the road. Texas picked up five ranked wins in Big 12 play, including a 75-59 victory over No. 3 Kansas in the regular-season finale. The Longhorns also won eight of their last 13 games, including a massive road win over then-No. 7 Kansas State in early February. 

"I’ve got a really good staff that has a lot of experience; two guys that have been head coaches—they really helped in that transition as well," Terry said, via Sporting News. From that point on, we tried to really get the guys to buy into: We’re going to control what we can control, and we’re going to try to have the kind of season we thought we’d have from the start.”

Before he arrived in Austin, Terry served as head coach at Fresno State and UTEP. He led the Bulldogs to a 126-108 record from 2011-18, making it to the NCAA Tournament in 2016. At UTEP, Terry posted a 37-48 record from 2018-21. 

The Longhorns are 16-7 under Terry's watch and earned a first-round bye in the Big 12 Tournament starting Wednesday afternoon. Texas will have the chance to earn a No. 2 seed in the upcoming national tournament should it win the conference title on Saturday. 

The Longhorns will play the winner of No. 7-seed Oklahoma State and No. 10-seed Oklahoma on Thursday at 6 p.m. 

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