Golden: Tennessee's Rick Barnes exposed Rodney Terry's, Texas' problem areas
When the Texas Longhorns take their home court against Baylor on Monday night, interim head coach Rodney Terry will have had two nights' sleep to figure out what went wrong in Knoxville, Tenn.
It took a Longhorns coaching legend to give us a real look at what can be problematic for Terry's Longhorns in the second half of Big 12 play.
More:Texas shakes off technical difficulties at the Moody Center in a win over Oklahoma State
No. 10 Texas (17-4) never got going in an 82-71 loss at Tennessee and was systematically taken apart by a team that has the look of a Final Four contender. With former head coach Chris Beard no longer part of the proceedings, the Terry-led Horns have been one of the feel good stories of the season. They score in bunches, employ great chemistry and are the true embodiment of a team, even if there are imperfections.
Rick Barnes exposed those imperfections on one dominant afternoon of hoops.
Hickory spent 17 seasons on these 512 basketball streets and took Texas to the NCAAs 16 times, more than half of them with Terry as his most trusted assistant. After nine years working together, Barnes and Terry are like brothers. Three of their Texas teams were Final Four-talented, although only one (2003) made the sport’s biggest weekend.
Bohls, Golden:For a non-conference matchup, there's a lot on the line in Knoxville
They recruited national players of the year T.J. Ford and Kevin Durant while also signing eventual All-Americans P.J. Tucker, LaMarcus Aldridge and D.J. Augustin, to name a few.
For nearly a decade, Terry was one of Barnes’ most trusted confidants, so when Terry was named the interim coach after the university fired Beard, the first person he called was Barnes.
Barnes loves hoops, but he loves Terry even more. They connected through the sport and made some wonderful memories on the Forty Acres.
Basketball coaches love talking ball with basketball coaches, and in this case, Terry — aside from the X's and O's — needed some sound advice from his mentor.
Barnes told him to be himself and not try to reinvent the program Beard had established, but to slowly add pieces of his coaching personality to the mix.
The result was 10 wins in Terry’s first 12 games at the helm. But Saturday’s loss was a not-so-subtle reminder of the deficiencies Terry and his staff must overcome if the Horns are to emerge from the Big 12 beehive and make some real noise in the postseason.
Barnes’ eighth Tennessee team is his most complete, and the Longhorns found themselves in a Knoxville strait jacket for the better part of Saturday's game. The Vols reduced Texas guard Marcus Carr — the Longhorns' most dependable player — to a scoreless, foul-plagued, deferential spectator in the first half while his teammates mustered only 28 points.
Backcourt mate Tyrese Hunter, an Iowa State transfer and the reigning Big 12 freshman of the year, has unfortunately made more news for cramps and leg problems than he has for playmaking.
Neither put up enough numbers to give the Horns a chance to knock off the nation’s No. 4 team. Texas trailed from the 9-minute, 54-second mark of the first half to the end of the game.
Worse yet, Texas' lack of interior girth is a problem that isn’t going away. Volunteers post Olivier Nkamhoua is a 6-foot-9, 236-pound truck who found the Texas paint much to his liking. By the time he finished his 27-point, eight-rebound feast, the Vols (18-3) had taken an important step in their quest to be a No. 1 seed come the NCAAs.
“He played like an older player,” Terry told reporters. “He played like an experienced guy that was on a mission to be extremely physical in the game. We don’t really get out-toughed a lot of times. They really out-toughed and out-physicaled us tonight in this ballgame.”
In true Barnes fashion, he didn’t make too much of winning over his protégé, one year after a gut-wrenching 52-51 loss to the Longhorns in his first return to the Erwin Center.
“It’s not about being emotional and jacked up,” Barnes told reporters. “It’s about taking care of business and knowing that it’s hard to win games against the University of Texas.”
As for those Horns, the SEC-Big 12 challenges are now behind them, and they can can turn their sights toward the resurgent Bears, who have caught fire with six straight wins, including a blowout of Kansas and Saturday’s comeback triumph over No. 17 Arkansas despite missing 17 of 18 shots to end the first half.
How Texas bounces back with only one day in between games will tell us a lot about this team. They’re older, so the feeling is the Longhorns will respond with maturity and responsibility in front of what’s expected to be a sellout crowd at Moody Center.
While it isn’t a topic of huge conversation publicly, Terry has to know he’s coaching for his job. The Horns will have to make a sizable run in the NCAA Tournament for UT athletic director Chris Del Conte to turn the reins over to Terry for a period much longer than the rest of the 2023 season.
The administration likes making splash hires, and while Terry is a familiar face, he knows he must do great things to retain this gig.
The best teams always respond to a little piece of adversity with renewed vigor and intensity, especially when the next game is at the house. Expect Terry’s crew to do just that, after which I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts in a call to Knoxville.
And knowing Barnes, he'll answer on the first ring.
It’s what mentors do.
They pick up.
Monday's game
No. 17 Baylor (16-5) at No. 10 Texas (17-4), 8 p.m., ESPN, 104.9
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Poor first half, inside physicality expose Texas' problems for Big 12
