A disappointing first season in the SEC has led Texas to look for a new men’s basketball coach.
According to multiple reports, the Longhorns have fired Rodney Terry after nearly three seasons in charge. Terry took over as Texas’ head coach eight games into the 2022-23 season when Chris Beard was suspended and ultimately fired for a domestic violence accusation that ultimately resulted in dropped charges.
Texas scraped its way into the 2025 NCAA tournament as one of the last teams in the field. The Longhorns were a somewhat surprising inclusion in the field, but lost to Xavier on Wednesday night in the First Four.
The Longhorns fell 86-80 after leading by eight at halftime. Texas led by 10 with 13:04 to go, but Xavier chipped away at the lead and moved ahead with just over five minutes remaining.
Texas went 19-15 overall in 2024-25 and were 6-12 in the SEC. That came after a 21-13 season and a No. 7 seed in the 2024 NCAA tournament a year ago in their final season in the Big 12. Texas beat Colorado State in the first round of the tournament but then lost by four to Tennessee in the second round.
The Longhorns were 7-1 in 2022 when Terry took over as the interim coach and went on to finish second in the Big 12. After winning the Big 12 tournament title in dominating fashion over Kansas, the Longhorns were a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament before losing 88-81 to Miami in the Elite Eight.
That tournament run was enough to get Terry promoted to be the team’s permanent coach. But Texas couldn’t sustain that success, even though the school signed five-star prospect Tre Johnson ahead of the 2024-25 season. Johnson was the team’s leading scorer with nearly 20 points per game.
The decision to move on from Terry means Texas will pay a $5.4 million buyout as part of the five-year deal he signed after that Elite Eight run. Where will the Longhorns turn? Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports mentions Xavier’s Sean Miller as a candidate.
So did the Houston Chronicle on Sunday morning.
Texas still talking to Sean Miller’s people about the basketball job but nothing’s done. Chris Del Conte leaves “no stone unturned,” source tells Houston Chronicle, even considered St. John’s Rick Pitino, Illinois’ Brad Underwood and Alabama’s Nate Oats, those didn’t go anywhere.
— Kirk Bohls (@kbohls) March 23, 2025
A March 11 report in the Houston Chronicle mentioned the Atlanta Hawks’ Quin Snyder and Chicago Bulls’ Billy Donovan as possible candidates. Snyder coached at Missouri and Donovan won back-to-back national titles at Florida.
No matter where Texas looks for a coach, the Longhorns have the most attractive job opening of any school this offseason. Texas has more resources than nearly any other school, and has a massive recruiting base to pull from.
However, big success has been hard to come by over the last two decades. Texas hasn’t been back to the Final Four since 2003 and has lost on the first weekend of the tournament 13 times since then. That Elite Eight trip in 2023 was just the fourth time Texas had advanced to the Sweet 16 since that 2003 team led by T.J. Ford fell to eventual national champion Syracuse in the semifinals.
