AUSTIN,AUSTIN, Texas — “These decisions are never easy, and I am an emotional person. But I don’t make decisions based on emotions.”
With a voice that trembled at times with emotion, Texas Longhorns athletics director Chris Del Conte introduced former associate head coach and former interim head coach Rodney Terry as the program’s 26th head coach after what school president Jay Hartzell described as a “very long job interview” he thanked Terry for making “easy.”
What both leaders made clear is that the elevation for the former longtime assistant to Rick Barnes ultimately wrapped around the spectrum from emotional to rational after Terry stepped in amidst the adversity of Chris Beard’s felony domestic violence arrest and held the team together to finish second in the Big 12 regular season before going on one of the most magical postseason runs in school history, winning the conference tournament and then advancing to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2008 before falling just short of the Final Four.