What we know about Texas men's basketball coach Rodney Terry

After months of serving as the University of Texas interim men's basketball coach, Rodney Terry was officially named head coach.

The deal came the day after Texas' 88-81 loss to Miami in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, the program's first since 2008.

Terry was named acting head coach after Texas' previous head men's basketball coach, Chris Beard, was arrested and charged with assault on a family member in December 2022.

Charges against Beard were dropped in February, and he was hired as the head coach for Mississippi early in March.

Here are three things to know about Texas' new head basketball coach:

Who is Rodney Terry?

Terry, who was hired as Texas' associate head coach under Beard, was named interim head coach when Texas fired Beard on Jan. 5.

Terry is in his second stint coaching the Longhorns. He was an assistant coach for Rick Barnes from 2002 until 2011.

He has served as a head coach previously at Fresno State (2011-18) and UTEP (2018-21). Beard hired him away from UTEP in 2021.

As a head coach, Terry is 163-156. He also compiled a 64-34 record as a Texas high school coach at Somerville (1993-95) and Angleton (1995-96). Before that, he was an assistant coach at Bowie High School in Austin. After a college playing career at St. Edward's University, his first coaching job was as a St. Edward's assistant coach from 1990-91. He left St. Edward's for Bowie High.

Texas' top recruiter

Terry had a four year stint at North Carolina-Wilmington from 1998-2002, helping the program to two NCAA Tournament trips. Barnes plucked Terry off the staff of North Carolina-Wilmington.

Terry established himself as a top recruiter while at Texas, helping land former Longhorns stars Kevin Durant, D.J. Augustin and Tristan Thompson. He was on staff for Texas' run to the 2003 Final Four as well as Elite Eight trips in the 2006 and 2008 NCAA Tournaments.

He was an assistant coach at Baylor University under Harry Miller for the 1996-97 season.

About Terry's contract

Terry has reached an agreement with Texas on a five-year, $15.3 million contract, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Terry’s salary is a significant pay raise from his current rate. He technically doubled his salary from $600,000 to $1.2 million when he was promoted on Dec. 12, but his new financial package amounts to the monthly equivalent of that larger amount when pro-rated, according to an open records request by the Statesman earlier this season.

Beard made $5.26 million a year in his final full season, which ranked fifth in the nation, according to a USA Today examination of coaches’ salaries after the 2021-22 season.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas' new head men's basketball coach Rodney Terry: 3 things to know