How Texas stood firm after the shooting of Chris Beard
DES MOINES, Iowa– Sir’Jabari Rice concerned Texas like a lot of his colleagues, for the opportunity to win champions– Huge 12 and NCAA.He could not help but question, if just for a short moment, whether his dreams were destroyed on the morning of Dec. 12, when he received word that the coach he joined the Longhorns to play for, Chris Beard, had actually been jailed.
“It was a whole lot of feelings, a whole bunch of things going through your head,”stated Rice, the Longhorns’ second-leading scorer. “How the day was, how the regimen was, those things were knocked off.
“With things like that, either you want them or you don’t. We desired these things so bad. We desired them more than anything. When you’re in that position, you’re either going to fold or you’re not. We did a terrific job of not folding, looking past that and focusing on every day.”Editor’s Picks
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Texas went on to complete 2nd in the Big 12 regular season and won the conference competition with a 20-point victory over top-seeded Kansas.The Longhorns are still alive as the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Regional in the NCAA tournament for the most significant prize of all. After wins over Colgate and Penn State in the first 2 rounds, Texas will deal with Xavier in the Sugary Food 16 on Friday in Kansas City, Missouri.For this, Rice and his teammates provide credit to not only a talented roster that showed some steely resolve with the uncommon scenarios surrounding Beard, however also a 54-year-old Texas assistant who was a relaxing impact during a turbulent time.Rodney Terry was named interim coach and took control of under conditions far less than ideal.
Beard was jailed after his fiancé called 911 and told police Beard had actually strangled, bit and hit her during a conflict in his home.Beard was fired on Jan. 5 and in February charges against him were dropped.”It was a bumpy ride,”Texas forward Dylan Disu said. “Clearly there were a great deal of things that were unidentified at that time.
What would happen with the training scenario? Would [Beard] be back? Would he not be?” “When the leader at the head is someone who is calm and poised, it makes it that much easier for me as a point player to continue to be calm and
poised. It simply flows throughout the whole entire group. He does an excellent task of that.” Marcus Carr, the Longhorns ‘leading scorer Terry was charged with holding everything together. Terry remained in the 2nd season of his second stint as a Texas assistant, with head-coaching stops at Fresno State and UTEP
in between. Texas players are so comfortable in their relationships with Terry that they don’t refer to him as Coach, but by his initials.The Longhorns had a game at home versus Rice on the night Beard was suspended. During his first team meeting that day, Terry discussed far more than simply the game plan.” He sort of sat us down and said whatever we still desired was all ahead of us,” Disu stated.”We could still accomplish all of those objectives we had set prior to the season. It wasn’t easy. It was an adjustment.
Huge 12 play hadn’t even began yet. “Possibly outside the program the expectations for us had actually altered but inside the program, no. What happened with the training modification didn’t need to derail us and the things we wanted from our season. You could not actually tell if we had our
coach or we didn’t. RT took control of and let us understand how he desired things done. It was actually no various than how things were.”The Longhorns beat Rice that night, though they needed to go to overtime to do it. They won their very first 5 games under Terry, albeit versus lower competition.Still, the winning streak offered Texas an excellent start on its new journey. The Longhorns were reacting to Terry’s demeanor
, which is calmer and more soothing at a hard time than that of Beard.”There is a sense of calmness from RT,” forward Tim Allen said. “He embodies what we are and what we try to be every
day. Someone who has actually existed previously, never ever shakes at misfortune, someone who gets up and attempts to attack the day to be great. When I have actually got somebody like that in my corner I’ll do anything for them.
“these men are unique pic.twitter.com/RyWILiSV16!.?.!— Texas Men’s Basketball(@TexasMBB )March 20, 2023 Leading scorer Marcus Carr said,”When the leader at the head is somebody who is calm and poised, it makes it that a lot easier for me as a point player to continue to be calm and poised. It simply streams throughout the whole entire team. He does an excellent job of that.
Whether we remain in timeouts or small minutes, whenever it is, he does a pretty good job of keeping us calm and gathered.”Terry frequently utilizes animal expressions when he wants to get his team’s attention, such as,” Be where your feet are,”when he wants them in the minute, or”The hay’s in the barn,”when he wants them to know they’re as gotten ready for a game as he believes they can be.Beyond getting a message across, the sayings provide a lighter minute for the players as they expect the next one. “He’s got a lots of them,”Allen said.”He has
a great deal of comic relief moments and it’s good for us.” Terry went into the season with a broken heart after the death of his father, Calvin, a long-time high school coach in Texas. Terry devoted the season to his dad, who passed away in August, though he had no other way of understanding then how much his responsibilities would soon change.Being the Texas head coach, even as an interim basis, would fulfill his dad’s dream for Terry.
“He constantly saw me in a bigger light than even I saw myself,” Terry said.” He saw me doing the important things that I’m doing today at this level, even prior to I thought I might be at this level. He thought in me that much.” He said,’ You are a high-major coach. You are a man that can do precisely what those other people are doing and you should have one of those jobs.’… He always saw more in me in terms
of the larger picture and really instilled me to dream big.”making history pic.twitter.com/z4pI4vuy2W!.?.!— Texas Men’s Basketball (@TexasMBB
)March 20, 2023 Beard isn’t precisely forgotten as the Longhorns go after a national championship however he’s no longer a part of their everyday thoughts. His current hiring at the University of Mississippi got little reaction from many of the players.Most common of the responses came from forward Brock Cunningham, who stated an emotionless “Finest of luck to Beard and the University of Mississippi.”Their ideas have shifted to winning a nationwide title and whether Terry will be Beard’s long-term replacement. When it comes to winning a title, Penn State’s Seth Lundy endorsed the Longhorns as a genuine contender after the Nittany Lions were ousted by Texas in the second round Saturday.”Texas is a really excellent group,” Lundy said.”They have a truly excellent group of people. They have men that can shoot and guys that can make plays for themselves with their guards and I seem like they have the respectable bigs too. I think they can certainly make a run in this competition.”The Longhorns are aware Terry’s opportunity for being Beard’s replacement get better the much deeper they advance in the competition. They will not say that’s their inspiration for winning a national championship. A title has been their objective given that they started practice long in the past Beard was fired.But they understand that perhaps they wouldn’t be in position to win a national championship if Terry wasn’t the one selected to replace Beard on an interim basis.”I wouldn’t want to
play for any person else today, “Rice stated. “RT is the man. I thank God and I thank RT for you putting me in this position, us in this position, to be successful.”