Mussatto: How Porter Moser and Rodney Terry's Big 12 battles precede OU-Texas basketball
Porter Moser and Rodney Terry battled each other in the Big 12 before they became head coaches at OU and Texas.
From 1996-98, when both coaches, now 55, were in their late 20s, they criss-crossed on the recruiting trail. Moser was an assistant at Texas A&M under his mentor, the late Tony Barone. Terry was a Baylor assistant under head coach Harry Miller.
“We both were assistants, hustling, trying to recruit some of the same players,” Moser said Monday. “... I really respect his energy, who he is as a man, his personality. He’s always been an extremely hard worker.”
Terry, in his first full season at Texas after taking over in December 2022 following Chris Beard’s dismissal, is 2-0 against Moser in the Red River Rivalry. A win for the Sooners on Tuesday night would be OU’s first against Texas in Moser’s tenure (0-4). A win would also keep the Sooners in the top-half of the Big 12 standings, adding legitimacy to what’s so far been a Year 3 breakthrough for Moser in Norman.
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Porter Moser has Sooners primed to return to March Madness
Moser, who led Loyola Chicago to the Final Four in 2018 and the Sweet 16 in 2021, has the Sooners tracking toward their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2020-21 — Lon Kruger’s last year at OU.
Terry, meanwhile, led the Longhorns to the Elite Eight last season. Texas rewarded Terry by removing his interim tag and giving him a five-year contract to be the Horns’ head coach.
“I love guys that get shots,” Moser said. “He surpassed everybody’s expectations of a hard situation last year and got the chance, well deserved.”
The Longhorns, just outside of the AP Top 25, are led by Oral Roberts transfer Max Abmas, a darling of the 2021 Big Dance, when Abmas led the No. 15 seed Golden Eagles to the Sweet 16.
Abmas, a 6-foot guard with unlimited range, is averaging a team-high 17.7 points per game for the Longhorns. He’s shooting 41% from 3-point range on nearly eight attempts per game.
Texas is coming off of a big win against Baylor, but that followed a disappointing loss to UCF. Some Knights players flashed the Horns Down hand gesture after the game, which prompted Terry to go on a postgame rant, calling the Knights’ actions “classless.”
I mean, come on.
Terry, to his credit, apologized a few days later.
Moser wanted no part of the silly controversy when asked about it Monday.
“I don’t really want to get dragged into it,” Moser said. “For us, we’re excited about this game tomorrow.”
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Rodney Terry's journey to becoming Texas head coach
Terry is in his 12th season as a head coach, having previously held the top job at Fresno State and UTEP. Moser is in Year 20 as a head coach. Following stops at Arkansas-Little Rock and Illinois State, Moser made his name at Loyola Chicago.
Coaches’ career arcs are a series of choose-your-own-adventure decisions with random events blocking certain paths while clearing others.
The adventures of Moser and Terry led them from being ambitious Big 12 assistants to coaching their own squads on opposite sides of the Red River Rivalry.
“One thing I love about Rodney is Rodney’s the same guy,” Moser said. “He’s the same guy 30 years later. He’s the same guy as he was at UTEP, he’s the same guy as he was as an assistant at North Carolina-Wilmington as he is the head coach at Texas.”
Moser was asked if he remembered which players he and Terry fought over back in the late 90’s at Texas A&M and Baylor.
“Oh, man,” Moser said after a pause. “I’d love to tell the stories of the ones I got and he didn’t.”
Terry, I’m sure, could tell the others.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
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OU vs. Texas
TIPOFF: 6 p.m. Tuesday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman (ESPN)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU basketball's Porter Moser has Big 12 history with UT's Rodney Terry
