Roster rebuilt, coach Rodney Terry looking forward to new season for Texas men's basketball

After almost three decades coaching college basketball, Rodney Terry doesn’t need any reminders about his sport’s grueling schedule.

But he received one anyway this summer, which he spent crisscrossing the country while rebuilding a Texas roster rocked by graduation, transfers and decommitments.

In other words, Terry joined his peers in the portal era. That means long days, lots of travel and nary a real vacation. And the ever-ebullient Terry wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It's what you signed up for, and you do it with a smile on your face,” said Terry, who’s about to enter his first full season as the Texas head coach. “It's a great life. I mean, you are living the dream. If you have a passion for something you do, you're never really working, and that's the way I feel every day.”

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Managing a new era of college basketball

Terry, 55, spent a decade as a head coach at Fresno State and Texas-El Paso before joining former Texas coach Chris Beard as an assistant for the 2021-22 season. He took over on an interim basis after Texas officials suspended and eventually fired Beard following an arrest on a domestic violence charge. After leading the Longhorns to a spot in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament, Texas officials removed the interim tag from Terry’s job while handing him a 5-year, $15.3-million contract.

Even though it’s only been two years since Terry served as a head coach, this offseason marked his first since the portal and increased professional options created a seismic shift in men’s college basketball. Sure, Texas had a key player (guard Arterio Morris) transfer — to Big 12 rival Kansas, of all teams — and its two recruits for the 2024 class (Ron Holland and AJ Johnson) decommit to pursue professional opportunities.

But that’s life in this era of college basketball, Terry said. Adapt or be pushed aside.

“You go from one season to another trying to put another roster together in terms of guys that complement one another,” he said. “It's like putting a puzzle together. You have to find the right fit in terms of the guys you bring in your program.

“The one thing you're fighting with — with the one-year roster, which we'll be embracing every year — is time. You're trying to make up as much time up as you can. You're trying to get guys in the summer to spend as much time with one another to get to know each other off the court and on the court building some chemistry.”

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Slow start to offseason, fast finish

Any chemistry seemed questionable midway through the spring. Guard Tyrese Hunter and forward Dillon Mitchell had both declared for the NBA draft after starting for Texas during its run to the Big 12 Tournament title and a spot in the Elite Eight, and it seemed blue-chip programs across the country were snatching up prized transfers every day.

Texas remained quiet on the market for much of the spring, but Terry was making lots of noise behind the scenes while recruiting transfers with the passion once reserved for those five-star high school players. And when certain targeted transfers signed with another program, Terry would shrug and move on while following the advice he often gives to his players.

“We always talk to our team about never getting too high, never getting too low,” he said. “It’s about finding the right fit.”

Terry’s patience paid off, and the pieces began to fit. Forward Kadin Shedrick arrived from Virginia, and the team signed high-scoring guard Max Abmas from Oral Roberts. Guard Chendall Weaver transferred from Texas-Arlington, along with forward Ze’Rik Onyema from Texas-El Paso.

Even better, Hunter and Mitchell withdrew their names from the NBA draft to return to Texas. Along with fellow returners Dylan Disu and Brock Cunningham, that tandem gives the team four players from last year’s rotation, which should help conduct some of the chemistry from the magical run in 2022-23 to this season.

Terry and his staff continued its work deep into the summer, signing graduate transfer Ithiel Horton from Central Florida and wooing freshmen recruits Chris Johnson and Devon Pryor from Kansas and LSU, respectively.

By August, Terry had his players. Whatever anxiety the Texas coaching staff had midway through spring had long faded away.

“There was never really a panic mode,” Terry said. “You have an opportunity to go out and sell something to a young man in terms of an opportunity. And any time that we have been able to sell an opportunity to a youngster, we’ve been able to get really good players.”

That’s expected at Texas, said Terry, a former assistant to Rick Barnes in the 2000s who maintains tight relationships with Longhorn luminaries such as TJ Ford, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant.

“This may sound arrogant, but I'm really not arrogant: In regard to Texas, we’ve never not had good players or not been able to get good players at Texas. We've always got good players.”

Key upcoming dates

Sept. 25: First day of practice

Oct. 17: Orange-White scrimmage, Gregory Gymnasium

Oct. 30: Free exhibition game against St. Edward’s, Moody Center

Nov. 6: Season opener vs. Incarnate Word, Moody Center

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Rodney Terry ready for new season for Texas men's basketball team