Bohls: No pressure, Texas, all that's on the line is the season and fate of the head coach

DES MOINES, Iowa — And now the real season begins.

With the lofty 2 seed comes pressure for Texas. Big-time pressure. Bite your nails back to the knuckle pressure. Holy Abilene Christian pressure.

Pressure on the team. Pressure on the coach. Pressure on the program.

Otherwise, not much on the line. But this is no time to get uptight. Texas played loose and confident in Kansas City, but it could be argued less was at stake since it was probably already assured a No. 2 seed.

For a school that hasn’t reached the Sweet 16 since 2008, time’s a-wasting. Before Texas' win over Virginia Tech in last year's first round, the Longhorns had gone 0-5 and 1-7 in NCAA play. Not since Rick Barnes’ crew got past No. 15 Austin Peay, No. 7 Miami and No. 3 Stanford to make the Elite Eight has Texas been nationally relevant in the postseason and had such a legitimate shot at its first men’s national championship.

“The seasons I’ve been at Texas, we’ve been pretty good,” interim and very, very intriguing coach Rodney Terry said with a little bit of sarcasm in the hallway of Wells Fargo Arena on Wednesday, the day before his Longhorns face 15th-seeded Colgate in the first round.

Actually real good although he and Barnes couldn’t seal the deal. The track record since, not so good. This time around, however, Texas has a bona fide shot at being the third straight Big 12 team to win it all. As Terry put it, “Last year we had a pretty good team, too. And we’re playing some of our best basketball right now. We just have to play as hard as we can play.”

And coach as hard as he can coach.

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Now there's a chance to revisit those heights enjoyed under Barnes — he and Terry spoke this week about some NCAA insights — but along with it comes pressure to perform.

It’s there, and it’s real. And this month figures to expose or confirm the validity of the Longhorns as a potential basketball power in a conference full of them. It’s not lost on them that Kansas, Baylor and Texas Tech all played for the national championship the last three seasons uninterrupted by the pandemic and the Jayhawks and Bears cut down the nets.

"We got our feet wet last year," said Texas forward Timmy Allen, who said he is 100% ready to go after his leg injury. "We always had big goals in mind, cutting down netys. We have one so far (at the Big 12 Tournament), and we're not looking to stop."

Change in coaches, change in direction

Chris Beard’s team snapped an eight-year drought by beating Virginia Tech in the first round last March and playing Purdue toe-to-toe until the Boilermakers made a hundred free throws and pulled away.

Texas has officially bid Beard adieu, and his former players weren’t exactly gushing with praise although they all wished the new Ole Miss coach well without elaboration. There has to be some residue of resentment over Beard unraveling in a domestic violence episode with his then-fiancee (which did not result in charges) and basically leaving his team at the altar.

Asked their reactions to Beard’s finding work, Marcus Carr and Brock Cunningham both said “best wishes,” and Allen chimed in with a very neutral “likewise.”

Who could blame them?

That said, they have worshipped at the altar of Rodney Terry’s Church of the Eternally Positive.

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When they tip against the best shooting team in America (true stat with Colgate's 40.8% 3-point norm) Thursday night, it will be dealing with some anxiety and stress because, well, lots of reasons. First and foremost, Abilene Christian didn’t happen all that long ago in the first round, and it was a 13th seed to Texas’ 4 in 2021.

“We won the Big 12 Tournament that year and then thought we couldn’t be touched,” said Cunningham, the lone Longhorn from the Shaka Smart era. “We are moving on to something bigger and trying to catch bigger fish.”

This time, Texas will have NCAA targets on its backs

The Longhorns will be the prey as NCAA neutral-site crowds almost always pull for the underdog, “especially when Texas is the higher seed,” Cunningham said.

Texas has emerged as the second-best team in the Big 12, second only — and barely — to Kansas. And the Longhorns dominated the 1 seeded Jayhawks twice over an eight-day span and were competitive in an 8-point loss at Allen Fieldhouse.

Now it’s time to take that Big 12 championship and four-game winning streak, play up to its talent, take out Colgate and assert itself as one of the best 10 teams in America and arguably the best team not given a 1 seed.

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Without question, Terry is facing the biggest week of his coaching life. The 54-year-old assistant, who took over the reins when Beard was fired in early January, has been universally hailed and embraced by his players, fans and  media as well as his accountant after Terry’s $250,000 raise in December.

But he may have to produce a Sweet 16 berth at a minimum if he wants to erase the interim tag from his head coaching title and maybe go even further to convince the administration of his chops. Texas has been not so much reluctant to promote him to head coach as it has been reserved and not wishing to rock a really steady boat.

Terry hopes to guide this ship into port

There’s nothing wrong with a team or a coach having to prove itself, but Terry is clearly proving his worth. Just remember the head coaching job isn’t a reward. It’s a daily reminder that the school has enough faith in him to give him the gig.

As noted basketball seer Jay Bilas said in this week’s “On Second Thought” podcast, “In my position, I don't feel like TV analysts should be stumping for people to get jobs because I have heard people do that. And I've heard people say, ‘Well, he's earned the job.’ And I love Rodney Terry. I think he's fantastic. I just don't think being an interim coach earns you the job. It is the job. The main thing is to get the right person for the future of the program. And if that's Rodney, great. If it's not, you have to go in a different direction.”

Bilas couched it in different terms as Texas leaves port for the next leg of its journey in a tournament that may not have a super team.

“This is not a perfect analogy, but if you're on a cruise ship and the captain gets sick, and the first mate has to take over and gets you back into the harbor, you don't just automatically make him the captain for the next voyage,” Bilas said. “But it doesn't preclude you from doing that, either.”

More: Kyndall Hunter says adios to Texas

Just as the school did with Bruce Berque, Texas waited until he led the men’s tennis national championship in 2019 before it gave him the job permanently after replacing Michael Center in mid-season. Curiously enough, both Berque and Terry beat Rice in their first competitions after assuming the top position, so ...

Chris Del Conte, Jay Hartzell and Kevin Eltife have to be certain in their minds that Terry is the guy, that he is capable of building a program on his own and taking Texas basketball forward into the SEC. Texas has checked in with Jay Wright, but he wasn’t interested. Luring a big name is far from a sure thing.

If the Longhorns make it to the Elite Eight or Final Four, I don’t see how the administration would deny him the job. Some think if he just guides his team to the Sweet 16, that should be enough to justify making him the guy.

The program appears to be in great shape. But there are no guarantees.

Six seniors will take the court in Des Moines, but that also means the new coach has to replace six valuable seniors, who won’t be back next season.

We presume sophomore point guard Tyrese Hunter returns. We don’t know about Dillon Mitchell, who has slipped from a potential lottery pick to out of the second round according to mock drafts.

Freshman gunner Arterio Morris has flashed signs of brilliance. Freshman Ron Holland, the 6-foot-8 McDonald’s All-American, and 6-foot-5 guard AJ Johnson appear firm in the Texas camp after signing with the Longhorns. Cunningham, of course, is never leaving.

Maybe Terry won’t either. March will tell all.

The pressure’s on.

Thursday's game

(2) Texas vs. (15) Colgate, 6:25 p.m., TBS, 104.9

Following the Horns

Our coverage team of Longhorns beat writer Thomas Jones and American-Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls arrived in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday. Follow their daily coverage on the Texas men at hookem.com. Longhorns beat writer Danny Davis and columnist Cedric Golden will cover the UT women as they open the NCAA Tournament this weekend at Moody Center.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: The pressure is definitely on for Texas as NCAA Tournament opens