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March Madness: This is the most random Final Four we’ve ever seen
USA TODAY Sports Paul Myerberg gives his first impressions of a wild looking Final Four.
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Texas is removing the interim tag from men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry and giving him the job permanently. The Longhorns and Terry have reached an agreement on a five-year, $15.3 million contract, a person with knowledge of the situation told the Austin American-Statesman.
Terry stepped into the lead role after after Chris Beard was arrested for a felony assault charge of assaulting a family member on Dec. 12. Beard was fired on Jan. 5.
After Terry took over, the Longhorns finished second in the Big 12 standings and then go on to win the league’s conference tournament. They earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and were eliminated in the Midwest Regional final Sunday.
“It was player-driven,” Terry told reporters after his team’s 88-81 loss to Miami. “The best teams to coach are player-driven teams. We were along for the ride in terms of trying to put the guys in the right position every day and every game.”
RELATED: Texas faces tough decision on future of interim coach Rodney Terry | Opinion
Multiple players vouched for Terry to become the full-time coach. Graduate transfer Jabari Rice mentioned how Terry was instrumental as an assistant with the Longhorns from 2002-11.
“Give RT the job,” Rice said during postgame interviews in the loc. “What are you waiting for? Give him the job. I don’t understand why he doesn’t have it yet. Like, who are you considering? The last time Texas was in the Elite Eight and the Final Four, RT was part of the team. We’re back here and he is the head of the snake. Sometimes I just don’t know what goes through people’s heads like that.”
Terry has a 185-164 record in his coaching career. His tenure includes stops at Fresno State and Texas-El Paso before re-joining as a Longhorns’ assistant in 2021.
A native of Angleton, Texas, on the coastal plains south of Houston, Terry has deep roots in Austin as well as the state of Texas. He played collegiate basketball at St. Edward’s University in South Austin before beginning his coaching career as an assistant at Austin’s Bowie High School under legendary prep coach Celester Collier.
After three seasons as a head coach at the high-school level in Somerville, Texas, and his hometown of Angleton, Terry made the move up to the college ranks as an assistant at Baylor. He then spent two seasons as an assistant coach at North Carolina-Wilmington before returning to Austin as an assistant at Texas under Barnes.
Terry’s salary is a significant pay raise from his current rate. Terry technically doubled his salary from $600,000 to $1.2 million when he was promoted on Dec. 12, but his new financial package amounts to the monthly equivalent of that larger amount when pro-rated, according to an open records request by the Statesman earlier this season.
Contributing: Austin American Statesman
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