Typically, a trip to the NCAA Tournament ensures that a coach will at the very least be retained for the following season. But on Sunday, the Texas Longhorns made a surprising decision regarding their head coach, Rodney Terry.
Terry has been the head coach of the Longhorns for the last three seasons, most notably leading the Longhorns to the Elite Eight in 2023, his first year at the program.
Since then, the program has been on a slight decline in trajectory. Last season, the Longhorns were defeated in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. And this season, Texas didn’t make it past the First Four game, falling to Xavier.
The loss to Xavier was seemingly all that brasses at Texas needed to see from Terry, announcing that Terry has been fired on Sunday, according to ESPN college basketball insider Jeff Borzello.
BREAKING: Texas has informed head coach Rodney Terry he’s been fired, sources told ESPN. Terry led the Longhorns to the Elite Eight in 2023 and made NCAA tournament appearances in each of the last two seasons. pic.twitter.com/fJ3UsiDCIt
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) March 23, 2025
Considering Terry made the NCAA Tournament in every year that he coached at the program, this move on paper could certainly be seen as a bit premature.
Maybe Texas simply didn’t like the direction that the program was going under Terry. Or maybe this was simply a reaction to another brief run in the NCAA Tournament.
Either way, it will be interesting to see what direction Texas ends up going moving forward, and perhaps if Terry is able to find another high-level Division-1 coaching job for the upcoming 2025-25 college basketball season.
