HookEm

When you are playing the top 3-point shooting team, 9 points feels close AF. I was having flashbacks of all the past failures.

Hell, I thought WE were in danger of losing to Colgate. That game was sooooo much closer than the final score. I kept waiting for the 3-point barrage to sink us (that would have come in years past).

Another thing I have been considering is how the head coaching job is evolving - and how Terry's particular skills might make him more successful somewhere like Texas in 2023 than he was 10 years ago in a different era. With the transfer portal and NIL, it is a completely different game today. Big-time programs will be filling their teams with lots of SUCCESSFUL transfer portal players. Most of these players were "the man" at their mid-major and are now moving up into bigger programs where they have to take lesser roles. A lot of them are also leaving because they are unhappy. As such, establishing a team culture is critical. A culture where the players bond quickly and are playing for each other. Player development will be important, but less so because many of these players will already be developed. The key will be developing the TEAM and working with the players to adjust their game accordingly. This was true to a lesser degree in years past with elite high school players. Previously a hard-ass coach like Beard was necessary to transition them from being kids to being men. Also player development was critical because many of the elite players had potential but were raw. I don't think that is the only way to win today. I think the challenge now will be to assess the landscape of good older players and see which ones fit the culture. Which ones will agree to coming off the bench like Rice? Which ones will accept going from being a 20 ppg scorer like Carr to being a defensive stopper / off ball combo guard? I.e. More of a Phil Jackson than a Greg Popovich type coach. Get already great players to play great together.

There was a lot of talk about our defensive regression under Terry - both by the numbers and by the "eye test". While I thought some of that was playing in the Big-12 blood bath, you could see that the effort wasn't QUITE there. Well, that has changed over the last 6 games. The defense is locked and loaded and absolutely clamping down teams. Carr and Timmy Allen in particular are playing great. Help defense has also been tremendous. Since the KU game in Austin: Penn State • Season: 72 pts, 46.3 FG%, 38.7 3P% • Vs. UT: 66 pts, 41.7 FG%, 28.6 3P% Colgate • Season: 78 pts, 51.1 FG%, 40.3 3P% • Vs. UT: 61 pts, 41.7 FG%, 28.6 3P% Kansas • Season: 75.4 pts, 46.8 FG%, 34.7 3P% • Vs. UT (Tourney): 56 pts, 41.4 FG%, 23.5 3P% • VS UT (Mar 4): 59 pts, 36.2 FG%, 31.8 3P% TCU • Season: 75.3 pts, 45.3 FG%, 31.0 3P% • Vs. UT (Tourney): 56 pts, 35.6 FG%, 41.1 3P% OSU • Season: 68.5 pts, 43.1 FG%, 31.4 3P% • Vs. UT (Tourney): 47 pts, 26.8 FG%, 14.3 3P%

This is just not true. As I posted in another thread, Terry's recruiting average his last 4 years at Fresno was 72. The previous 4 years averaged 142. He recruited significantly better there than anyone except Tarkanian, who landed them on probation. Also if you give him this staff at Fresno or UTEP, they would have been MUCH MUCH better. And while the staff followed Beard to UT, they also followed the $$$.

Just here to say that there is ZERO chance that Shaka would have beaten Penn State with the same squad that Terry just won with. As the game went on, at halftime and after every timeout, the team slowed the pace down and stubbornly, patiently fed the ball inside to Disu. We only ended up shooting 13 3-pointers vs. our usual 21. Penn State meanwhile shot 28. Shaka would have shot 30. He would have told the shooters to keep shooting until they broke the slump. The best way to break a shooting slump? Get to the free throw line and make a couple. And guess what, the only 3-pointer we made was by Rice RIGHT AFTER he got to the line and made a couple. Penn State was begging us to launch 3's by going to the zone late. Nope.

Are you sure you can re-sell your seats after the first game? I don't think you get 2 separate tickets for each game.

Does anybody have the ability to get 5-6 tickets together via UT? Taking a group to KC. If so, PM me.

Yes. 8/198 voters. Which you know because we have the other thread. I agree with your point though. And I agree that there aren't a lot of coaches that we would want and that we can get who are a clear upgrade at this point.

Man this team is awesome. I just can't get over how dominant Disu has become.

Also, SOMEBODY on the coaching staff deserves a ton of credit for the development work they have been putting in with Disu. That dude has gone from being a liability to a complete monster. And that development has happened AFTER Beard left the team.

That was a fun win. And I thought the coaching was great. Even though I have been saying Elite 8 or Final Four all year, I think I've seen enough. But I wouldn't announce anything yet. Let the players still think they are fighting for him. Don't take the foot off the gas.

Wait I thought their coach was some kind of genius???

Watching Arizona last night, and watching Ramey airball the final shot, brought back flashbacks of his horrid game vs. ACU that cost Shaka his job. In that game Ramey was 1-7 FG, 0-3 3PT, 4 TOs. And we lost by 1. I really liked Ramey by the time he was done at Texas, but man those early years were hot and cold.

Nice title change, lol.

Turns out you misread the intentions of this thread. I don't really care what people think CDC will do... or how he will respond to the various pressures that he is under. There are plenty of threads with speculation on what will happen. What I hoped to get from this thread is what it would take for the Longhorn FANBASE to get on board with hiring Terry. That is why I worded it... if YOU were CDC, what would it take for YOU to give him the job. Perhaps I could have worded it better. I personally have said from the start of his tenure that a Final Four run would earn him the job (or a Sweet 16 run if he wins the conference outright). Because that means he had a successful enough regular season to likely get a high seed. And then he did something with it. All while dealing with the huge mess that Beard left behind. So now, it isn't just that the tourney is deciding his fate. The tourney is the culmination of a season that has led us to this point. Others are free to view it differently.

This is just.... wow.... How could anyone think that having Beard still on staff would be LESS of a distraction than the talk about whether we should hire Terry full time? What we have right now is what you call a "good problem". We are only discussing Terry because he has exceeded everyone's expectations.

People keep saying that Terry sucked at Fresno, but that just isn't the case. First, Fresno is a loser of a basketball program. They have made 3 tournaments since 1985. One was with Terry. Another two by Jerry Tarkanian, but he also landed them on probation for committing NCAA violations. Terry got them to 20 wins in 4 of his last 5 years. And he also left a decent roster for his successor who won 23 games with Terry's players. Now they have fallen back to 11 wins. I have very serious doubts that Royal Ivey could do better than that at Fresno. As to recruiting, Fresno's median recruiting class was ranked 143 in the seven years prior to Terry. Terry's median class was ranked 83... and he also got them the 59th ranked class, by far their best class on record. I loved Chris Beard, but the reality is that he didn't have a LONG track record of success anywhere. Yes, he got Texas Tech to the National Title game. He was also 36-24 in his last two years there. He proved he is a turnaround magician, but I don't think he is stable enough to run a program for 20 years. Again, I think Terry needs to prove what he can do in March before I support hiring him full time.

We started the year ranked #12 in the pre-season AP poll. Terry ended up getting us up to #7 in the final AP poll. So he has already over-achieved what everyone outside of Austin thought about this team, and that was with Beard at the helm. If we get to a Sweet 16, we will have lived up to pre-season expectations in spite of a disastrous coaching turnover. If we get to the Elite 8, Terry will have exceeded the expectations the AP voters had for Beard this year.

A lot of people credited our two wins over KU to them "not trying" and "having nothing to play for". Well, now KU gets shipped out West to Las Vegas instead of playing a home game in Kansas City. And they get to play maybe the top #2 seed in UCLA in a game that will be overloaded with UCLA fans. And that is if they get escape the 8/9 winner between Arkansas and Illinois. And they also will have to beat UCONN. If they weren't trying, they probably should have been.

I would have added it to the other Rodney Terry thread if I could. I think the poll adds a lot to the conversation and provides some novel and surprising information. There are a few LOUD posters who are making it seem like only an idiot would support hiring RT regardless of what he does. In fact there is a pretty clear bell curve around the Elite 8 being the bar that needs to be crossed, which seems pretty reasonable to me.

Perhaps, but losing the conference tourney likely cost KU the overall #1 seed and a virtual home game in the Sweet 16.

Correct. The question is what it would take for YOU to support the hire.

The problem is, you can't just give him the job for the next year. You have to give him a 5-year contract or it will hamstring our recruiting. I think that is the central issue. Of course we have more money than anyone, so even a big buyout shouldn't be a problem.

Now that the regular season is over, I'm wondering what most fans think Rodney Terry needs to do to earn their support for hiring him full-time.