Texas fires men's basketball coach Rodney Terry after exit in NCAA First Four – USA TODAY

Texas fired head men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry, four days after the Longhorns blew a 13-point lead against Xavier and were eliminated from March Madness in the First Four, the school announced Sunday.
Terry went 62-38 in his two-plus seasons with the school, making the tournament in each season. He was paid $3.002 million this year and has a buyout of approximately $5.4 million.
“This was a very difficult decision and one that we put a great deal of thought, consideration and discussion into as we evaluated where we are as a men’s basketball program,” Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte said in a statement. “My philosophy has always been to wait until the end of the season and review every facet of our program before making any final decisions, and we’ve been doing that since our heartbreaking First Four loss in the NCAA Tournament.”
Terry was an assistant on Chris Beard’s staff when, in January 2023, Beard was fired after a felony domestic violence arrest. Those charges were eventually dropped, and Ole Miss hired Beard as its coach two months later.
The school elevated Terry to interim status, and he led the Longhorns to the Big 12 conference tournament title and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where they lost in the Elite Eight.
He was rewarded with a five-year, $15.3 million contract to become the full-time coach, and in his first season, he went 21-13 with a second-round exit in the tournament.
This season, with dynamic guard and SEC freshman of the year Tre Johnson, Texas struggled with consistency in conference play, with three different three-game losing streaks, finishing with a 6-12 record in league play. But that was enough to get a No. 11 seed in the tournament because of seven Quad 1 victories and a NET ranking of 39.
In Wednesday night’s game against Xavier, an 86-80 loss, the Longhorns sprinted out to a 47-point first half, while shooting 59%. But in the final 20 minutes, Texas hit only 38% of its shots and didn’t hit a field goal in the last three minutes of the game.

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