Sources: Texas fires Terry after falling in First 4

• Jeff Borzello Close Jeff Borzello ESPN Personnel Author Basketball recruiting insider. Signed up with ESPN in 2014. Graduate of University of Delaware.Mar 23, 2025, 01:44 PM ET Texas

• has actually notified men’s basketball head coach Rodney Terry he has actually been fired, sources

told ESPN.Terry led the Longhorns to the Elite Eight in 2023 after taking control of midseason for Chris Beard, then went to the NCAA tournament in each of the

past 2 seasons. Texas lost to Xavier 86-80 in the First 4 on Wednesday.This ends Terry’s 2nd stint in Austin after likewise spending nine seasons as an assistant coach under Rick Barnes from 2002-11, helping the Longhorns reach the 2003 Final Four.

He acted as the head coach at Fresno State from 2011-18, going to the NCAA competition in 2016, and then invested three seasons as the head coach at UTEP from 2018-21. Editor’s Picks Terry went back to Texas when Beard was

hired in 2021. He

took over as the program’s interim head coach in December 2022, when Beard was suspended and eventually fired a month later after a felony domestic violence arrest, a charge that was later dismissed. Terry assisted Texas to the Huge 12 competition championship and a 2-seed in the NCAA tournament, before making a go to the Elite Eight that year.Following the Longhorns’defeat to Miami in the regional final, Terry agreed to a five-year deal to become the school’s long-lasting head coach.Terry’s teams stopped working to get out of the very first weekend of the NCAA tournament in each of the previous 2 seasons.

Texas went 21-13 in 2023-24, earning a 7-seed. The Longhorns went 19-16 general and 6-12 in SEC play this season.Xavier’s Sean Miller is expected to be amongst the leading targets for Texas, sources told ESPN. Athletic director Chris Del Conte did extensive legwork on Miller before promoting Terry to the task in 2023. The search for Terry’s replacement is expected to unfold quickly. Del Conte has displayed in current searches in baseball, ladies’s basketball

and football that he has a prospect lined up to take the job before firing the coach. For example, he worked with Steve Sarkisian to be the school’s head football coach hours after firing Tom Herman in January 2021.