Basketball
Texas Longhorns head men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry may not be long for Austin.
According to reports from the Houston Chronicle’s Kirk Bohls, Texas Longhorns athletic director Chris Del Conte would prefer to make a change from Terry and find a new coach to lead the program into the future.
One reason being, that Del Conte believes that Terry is not an ‘alpha coach’. That said, the money it would take to replace Terry could stave Del Conte’s hand for a little bit longer.
“The belief is athletic director Chris Del Conte would prefer to make a change,” Bohls said. “Terry has shown so far that he’s not an alpha coach and that Texas may not want to part with the $20 million or more that it would take to fire and hire coaching staffs and pay buyouts.”
Terry, who took over for Chris Beard In 2022 as the interim head coach, winning the Big 12 Tournament title and leading Texas to the Elite Eight with three wins in the NCAA Tournament that season.
The next season, Terry’s Longhorns went 21-13 and 9-9 in Big 12 play, making it to the Round of 32 in March Madness. However, this season, the Horns have fallen well short of their preseason expectations, and have collapsed down the stretch of the regular season, leading to questions surrounding the head coach’s future from many.
And according to Bohls, Del Conte already has at least three names that he is looking at to potentially replace Terry – Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder, Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan, and Arkansas Razorbacks coach John Calipari.
“I can confirm that CDC is more than a little enamored with NBA coaches Quin Snyder and Billy Donovan as well as Arkansas’ John Calipari and would be happy with any of them to replace Terry,” Bohls said. “Snyder makes $8 million a year, and Donovan $6 million, and a source said neither has a buyout. Calipari makes $7 million a year with a $6 million buyout. If CDC decides to keep Terry, he might try to hire one of those NBA coaches or Calipari next spring, although Calipari’s contract apparently has a non-compete clause disallowing him from going to another SEC school.”
All three of those coaches certainly fit the ‘alpha coach’ mentality that Del Conte is supposedly looking for, and have a wealth of experience and success behind them to make a splash.
Snyder had a wealth of success at Missouri, leading the Tigers to four-straight tournament berths from the 1999-2000 to the 2001-2022 seasons, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2001-2002.
Donovan was the head coach of Florida for nearly 20 years, winning back-to-back national titles in 2006 and 2007, making four Final Four appearances, winning four SEC Tournaments and six regular season SEC titles before heading off to the NBA.
As for Calipari, he has spent the last 26 seasons in the college game, winning a championship with Kentucky in 2012, and making six Final Fours. He also has a total of 31 conference regular season and tournament titles under his belt.
As for how realistic any of those names actually are, is another story entirely.
As Bohl’s notes the buyouts and costs to replace Terry and his staff are one thing, compounded with the money it would take to get Snyder, Calipari or Donovan out of their contracts, not to mention the potential non-compete clause in Calipari’s deal with the Razorbacks.
Either way, it appears that the Longhorns, barring a magical run in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments, are in legitimate danger of losing their head coach.
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