Jay Bilas blasts system after Rodney Terry firing at Texas
03/23/2025 05:08 PM
Texas basketball made a quick fire and quick hire on Sunday, according to multiple reports. The team officially parted ways with head coach Rodney Terry, before reportedly quickly moving on to hire Sean Miller from Xavier. Terry’s firing was a move that got blasted by college basketball analyst Jay Bilas.
“So, what does Texas do now? Hire a sitting head coach, under contract…affecting a fellow member school's program. When it's a player, that's what coaches and administrators call "tampering" or "poaching." Funny how nobody is calling for "guardrails." Those are just for players,” Bilas said on X, formerly Twitter.
Ironically, Terry’s last game coaching Texas was against Xavier. The two schools met in the First Four round of this year’s NCAA tournament. Xavier won that game, before going on to lose in the next round against Illinois.
Terry leaves Texas after taking over from Chris Beard at the start of the 2022-2023 season. Terry led the Longhorns that year to the Elite Eight. In three seasons, he always made an NCAA tournament appearance at the school.
Terry also helped the school in its transition from the Big 12 to the SEC conference this season. Texas basketball was the 14th and final SEC team to reach March Madness.
Miller’s hiring at Texas is reported by the Austin American-Statesman, although the school has yet to make an official announcement Sunday. He leaves Xavier after two separate stints at the school and close to 200 total wins there.
Miller also coached at Arizona, and went to three Elite Eights with the Wildcats.
Rodney Terry will likely get another chance to be a head coach
Terry has taken two different programs to the NCAA tournament. Before coaching Texas, he was an assistant there under Beard. He also was the head coach at Fresno State and UTEP. He led the Bulldogs of Fresno State to March Madness in 2016.
Terry is more than likely to get another shot at coaching. He was named the Sporting News Coach of the Year in 2023. That season, Terry led the Longhorns to a Big 12 tournament conference championship.
"I am so appreciative to have served The University of Texas and our men's basketball program for 13 seasons,” Terry said in a statement, per Sports Illustrated. “It was a dream of mine to be the head coach of the Longhorns, and I've been able to live that dream. I want to thank all of our coaches and current and former players who not only helped us win a lot of games, but more importantly represented this great university in a first-class manner.”
There are several power 4 schools still looking for coaches this offseason, including Xavier and West Virginia. Terry is likely to be coaching somewhere next season if he wants to.
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