By CJ Moore
Mar 12, 2023
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The next practice after Texas allowed 116 points on its home floor to Kansas State back on Jan. 2, interim coach Rodney Terry started things off with a charge drill, and he went straight to the front of the line.
Terry stuck his chest in front of senior guard Sir’Jabari Rice and told him to hit him.
If I can take a charge, he told the players, you can take a charge.
Terry jumped back to his feet and then told Rice to knock him over again and then one more time to hammer home the point.
“It wasn’t no fluff charge either,” assistant coach Chris Ogden said.
“Jabari got me pretty good,” Terry admitted.
“He’s always talking about we need to be more physical,” Rice said. “I wanted to see if he was actually about it, and he actually is.”
“I’ve seen coaches do the little gimmicky sh— before, and everyone kind of laughs,” assistant coach Bob Donewald Jr. said. “No, he was dead serious. He stepped in and took it and looked at the guys like, ‘No, this is what we’re doing.’”
Next up were loose ball drills. Again, Terry was at the front of the line.
If I can dive on a loose ball and dive on the floor, it can be your friend. First to the floor!
“It kind of galvanized them, because they looked around like, he’s not playing,” Donewald said. “He set the tone with it.”
“That practice was a big turning point in our year,” senior forward Timmy Allen said.
Terry wanted his players to “get lost in doing the uncomfortable things.” They had adopted a mindset that they could simply flip the switch and outscore whoever they wanted when that approach basically felt foolproof. It worked against Gonzaga. It worked on one of the most emotional days of their season in an overtime win against Rice, but …
“In this league, you can’t get into a pickup game,” Terry said. “You’re gonna have to able to put your will on someone in terms of being able to sit down and get stops. No one’s gonna outscore anyone in this league and win a championship.”
For two days, the Longhorns basically practiced without basketballs. It was back to basics, reemphasizing what mattered on the defensive end. The players made a pact that went on the whiteboard: they were going to play defense and lock down their assignments.
“Everybody couldn’t just point fingers at one person; we all gave up points,” sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter said. “Ever since we wrote those things down, we’ve stuck to them.”
And four days after the embarrassing defensive performance against the Wildcats, Texas traveled to Oklahoma State and won 56-46.
Texas has had the fifth-best defense in college basketball since that KSU loss, according to BartTorvik.com, and its dominance reached another level this week in Kansas City.
First, another ugly win over Oklahoma State, which had its lowest efficiency output in three seasons in that early-January game and surpassed it on Thursday.
On Friday, TCU had one of its worst offensive games all year in a 66-60 win for the Longhorns.
Then on Saturday, Texas spanked Big 12 superpower Kansas for the second time in eight days, 76-56, to win the Big 12 tournament.
It was the kind of performance that allows a program to dream. The Big 12 has produced the last two national champions and the runner-up in the previous title game.
Is Texas next?
The Longhorns belong in the conversation in what appears to be a wide open NCAA Tournament. Kansas, which will be one of the favorites, had the excuse of playing without wing Kevin McCullar — out with back spasms — and coach Bill Self, who was hospitalized on Wednesday. But no one can really compete in the excuse game with Texas.
Texas, too, was without an important piece this week — Allen sat out with a leg injury — and then, of course, there’s the whole Chris Beard thing.
It was one of the defining days of this season for the Longhorns when they woke up to images of Beard’s mugshot on their televisions and then had to play Rice that night. When the Horns needed overtime to win, it was kind of easy to write them off. Their coach who had built what looked like a title contender was likely finished.
But the players themselves had done nothing wrong. The talent was all still there. The games were still on television. Every reason they came to Texas — minus Beard — was still in place. Terry was the perfect leader at that moment and for this roster, which is ultra-experienced. They have four players utilizing the extra COVID-19 year and two other normal fourth-year seniors.
The Longhorns didn’t need a taskmaster. They just needed a calming influence, and that’s Terry. So much so that he sounds like a coaching cliché.
“RT is an everyday guy,” Donewald said.
“There’s no highs and no lows,” Rice said, “and he’s not scared to coach the best players.”
Terry has allowed the Longhorns to play with freedom on the offensive end, so long as they guard on the other end. The confidence of guys who didn’t always have it — like Big 12 Tournament MVP Dylan Disu — has flourished. Offensively, their attack is simple but hard to deal with because they are so balanced that defenses cannot just lock in on one or two guys.
“We can play a lot of different ways,” Ogden said. “We can go small. We can go big. We can just play a lot of different ways and win a lot of different styles.”
If a starter or two or three are off, Terry has options off the bench. Christian Bishop, Rice and freshman Arterio Morris are all talented enough to start at most high-major programs. Then Brock Cunningham is the ultimate glue guy who any coach would love to have in his rotation.
Kansas, who could end up the top overall seed when the bracket is announced on Sunday, is an example of a team that needs its health and to stay out of foul trouble because it’s trouble when it gets to its bench.
The Texas narrative could follow KU’s title-winning team from a year ago. The turning point for those Jayhawks was a blowout loss at home to Kentucky. It was at the Big 12 tournament where KU hit another gear, sixth man Remy Martin emerging as a flamethrower off the bench.
Maybe this week was when Texas will point to the moment Disu realized what he could become. Those Jayhawks could also win ugly, able to totally take opponents out of what they wanted to do offensively. They were always locked into scouting reports.
Terry sees his team peaking on the floor and in its preparation. Before Saturday’s game back at the hotel, they walked through the game plan in a hotel ballroom. The players were down in a stance, talking through every action. “Probably our best walk-through of the season,” Terry said. “I knew there was no pep talk needed to start this game.”
The Longhorns executed the plan perfectly, focused on taking away “the others” for Kansas and not worrying too much about star Jalen Wilson. In particular, Texas knew it needed to keep point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. out of the paint and wear him down. Harris had been terrific in Kansas City, looking as comfortable as he ever had on the offensive end. Always in control. Never in a hurry. But against Texas, he continually got caught in the air without a plan and ended up with four turnovers.
The Longhorns looked nothing like the team that allowed Kansas State’s point guard to roast them for 36 points and nine assists.
Now they enter the NCAA Tournament playing as well as any team in the country. With confetti at their feet on Saturday, they enjoyed the celebration but this didn’t feel like an endpoint.
“Feels good,” Marcus Carr told a staffer during the celebration, “but I want another one.”
They want it for themselves, and they want it for their coach.
The 54-year-old man has known exactly what they needed at the right moments in time. But he did make one mistake.
When he dove on the loose ball back in January, he landed right on top of it.
“I never let the guys know this,” he said, a big smile on his face, “but for two months, my ribs were sore.”
And it was worth it.
(Photo of the Texas Longhorns celebrating after winning the Big 12 Championship game: William Purnell / USA Today)
Mar 12, 2023
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The next practice after Texas allowed 116 points on its home floor to Kansas State back on Jan. 2, interim coach Rodney Terry started things off with a charge drill, and he went straight to the front of the line.
Terry stuck his chest in front of senior guard Sir’Jabari Rice and told him to hit him.
If I can take a charge, he told the players, you can take a charge.
Terry jumped back to his feet and then told Rice to knock him over again and then one more time to hammer home the point.
“It wasn’t no fluff charge either,” assistant coach Chris Ogden said.
“Jabari got me pretty good,” Terry admitted.
“He’s always talking about we need to be more physical,” Rice said. “I wanted to see if he was actually about it, and he actually is.”
“I’ve seen coaches do the little gimmicky sh— before, and everyone kind of laughs,” assistant coach Bob Donewald Jr. said. “No, he was dead serious. He stepped in and took it and looked at the guys like, ‘No, this is what we’re doing.’”
Next up were loose ball drills. Again, Terry was at the front of the line.
If I can dive on a loose ball and dive on the floor, it can be your friend. First to the floor!
“It kind of galvanized them, because they looked around like, he’s not playing,” Donewald said. “He set the tone with it.”
“That practice was a big turning point in our year,” senior forward Timmy Allen said.
Terry wanted his players to “get lost in doing the uncomfortable things.” They had adopted a mindset that they could simply flip the switch and outscore whoever they wanted when that approach basically felt foolproof. It worked against Gonzaga. It worked on one of the most emotional days of their season in an overtime win against Rice, but …
“In this league, you can’t get into a pickup game,” Terry said. “You’re gonna have to able to put your will on someone in terms of being able to sit down and get stops. No one’s gonna outscore anyone in this league and win a championship.”
For two days, the Longhorns basically practiced without basketballs. It was back to basics, reemphasizing what mattered on the defensive end. The players made a pact that went on the whiteboard: they were going to play defense and lock down their assignments.
“Everybody couldn’t just point fingers at one person; we all gave up points,” sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter said. “Ever since we wrote those things down, we’ve stuck to them.”
And four days after the embarrassing defensive performance against the Wildcats, Texas traveled to Oklahoma State and won 56-46.
Texas has had the fifth-best defense in college basketball since that KSU loss, according to BartTorvik.com, and its dominance reached another level this week in Kansas City.
First, another ugly win over Oklahoma State, which had its lowest efficiency output in three seasons in that early-January game and surpassed it on Thursday.
On Friday, TCU had one of its worst offensive games all year in a 66-60 win for the Longhorns.
Then on Saturday, Texas spanked Big 12 superpower Kansas for the second time in eight days, 76-56, to win the Big 12 tournament.
It was the kind of performance that allows a program to dream. The Big 12 has produced the last two national champions and the runner-up in the previous title game.
Is Texas next?
The Longhorns belong in the conversation in what appears to be a wide open NCAA Tournament. Kansas, which will be one of the favorites, had the excuse of playing without wing Kevin McCullar — out with back spasms — and coach Bill Self, who was hospitalized on Wednesday. But no one can really compete in the excuse game with Texas.
Texas, too, was without an important piece this week — Allen sat out with a leg injury — and then, of course, there’s the whole Chris Beard thing.
It was one of the defining days of this season for the Longhorns when they woke up to images of Beard’s mugshot on their televisions and then had to play Rice that night. When the Horns needed overtime to win, it was kind of easy to write them off. Their coach who had built what looked like a title contender was likely finished.
But the players themselves had done nothing wrong. The talent was all still there. The games were still on television. Every reason they came to Texas — minus Beard — was still in place. Terry was the perfect leader at that moment and for this roster, which is ultra-experienced. They have four players utilizing the extra COVID-19 year and two other normal fourth-year seniors.
The Longhorns didn’t need a taskmaster. They just needed a calming influence, and that’s Terry. So much so that he sounds like a coaching cliché.
“RT is an everyday guy,” Donewald said.
“There’s no highs and no lows,” Rice said, “and he’s not scared to coach the best players.”
Terry has allowed the Longhorns to play with freedom on the offensive end, so long as they guard on the other end. The confidence of guys who didn’t always have it — like Big 12 Tournament MVP Dylan Disu — has flourished. Offensively, their attack is simple but hard to deal with because they are so balanced that defenses cannot just lock in on one or two guys.
“We can play a lot of different ways,” Ogden said. “We can go small. We can go big. We can just play a lot of different ways and win a lot of different styles.”
If a starter or two or three are off, Terry has options off the bench. Christian Bishop, Rice and freshman Arterio Morris are all talented enough to start at most high-major programs. Then Brock Cunningham is the ultimate glue guy who any coach would love to have in his rotation.
Kansas, who could end up the top overall seed when the bracket is announced on Sunday, is an example of a team that needs its health and to stay out of foul trouble because it’s trouble when it gets to its bench.
The Texas narrative could follow KU’s title-winning team from a year ago. The turning point for those Jayhawks was a blowout loss at home to Kentucky. It was at the Big 12 tournament where KU hit another gear, sixth man Remy Martin emerging as a flamethrower off the bench.
Maybe this week was when Texas will point to the moment Disu realized what he could become. Those Jayhawks could also win ugly, able to totally take opponents out of what they wanted to do offensively. They were always locked into scouting reports.
Terry sees his team peaking on the floor and in its preparation. Before Saturday’s game back at the hotel, they walked through the game plan in a hotel ballroom. The players were down in a stance, talking through every action. “Probably our best walk-through of the season,” Terry said. “I knew there was no pep talk needed to start this game.”
The Longhorns executed the plan perfectly, focused on taking away “the others” for Kansas and not worrying too much about star Jalen Wilson. In particular, Texas knew it needed to keep point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. out of the paint and wear him down. Harris had been terrific in Kansas City, looking as comfortable as he ever had on the offensive end. Always in control. Never in a hurry. But against Texas, he continually got caught in the air without a plan and ended up with four turnovers.
The Longhorns looked nothing like the team that allowed Kansas State’s point guard to roast them for 36 points and nine assists.
Now they enter the NCAA Tournament playing as well as any team in the country. With confetti at their feet on Saturday, they enjoyed the celebration but this didn’t feel like an endpoint.
“Feels good,” Marcus Carr told a staffer during the celebration, “but I want another one.”
They want it for themselves, and they want it for their coach.
The 54-year-old man has known exactly what they needed at the right moments in time. But he did make one mistake.
When he dove on the loose ball back in January, he landed right on top of it.
“I never let the guys know this,” he said, a big smile on his face, “but for two months, my ribs were sore.”
And it was worth it.
(Photo of the Texas Longhorns celebrating after winning the Big 12 Championship game: William Purnell / USA Today)
