Texas basketball, Rick Barnes reunite in March Madness after Tennessee, Horns win NCAA opener
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After a Friday shooting session at Spectrum Arena, Texas head coach Rodney Terry tried his best to downplay Saturday’s second-round meeting with Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament despite the strong ties between the two coaching staffs.
Sure, Terry and two members of his staff — assistant coach Frank Haith and general manager Chris Ogden — served on Rick Barnes’ staff at Texas in the 2000s, when the current Tennessee coach turned the Longhorns into a national power. And, yes, Barnes retains a strong friendship with Terry and his other assistants at Texas that transcends basketball.
But Terry insisted none of that will matter when No. 7 Texas (21-12) faces No. 2 Tennessee (25-8) Saturday night. The winner will advance to next week's Sweet 16 in Detroit.
“It's not going to be about us,” Terry said. “Rick's not going to score one basket; I'm not going to score one basket. It's going to be about the players on the floor. And it's going to be about our guys.
“You know, I love my team. I know he (Barnes) loves his team. I know again Coach and myself both take a lot of pride in being a players’ program. So it's never about us. It's about our guys.”
But Dylan Disu, Texas’ graduate forward who earned All-Big 12 honors this season, only grinned when asked about Terry’s emotions entering the game.
“He hasn’t really said anything about it, but it's always going to be that extra motivation,” Disu said. “You respect someone and have a friendship with someone, and you want to compete harder when you play them, you know? They may not say it, but both (Terry) and coach Barnes definitely want to win this game just as much as we do.”
More: Texas basketball vs. Tennessee prediction: Who has edge in 2024 NCAA Tournament second round?
Rick Barnes: a lasting legacy at Texas
Even though Barnes left Austin under some pressure nine years ago, his imprint remains on the program’s record books as well as on the current coaching staff. During his time at Texas, Barnes became UT's all-time leader in wins and compiled a record of 582-402. He led the Longhorns to 16 NCAA Tournament berths and the program's only Final Four of the modern era in 2003.
But more important, he nurtured the careers of young coaches such as Ogden, Haith and Terry, who first joined Texas as an assistant in June 2002. All three have been a head coach at some point of their careers. That makes Saturday’s game particularly difficult, Barnes said after his team trounced Saint Peter’s 83-49 Thursday.
“It is tough when you are playing against guys that have helped (and) been a part of my career for a long time," Barnes said. "Rodney, Coach Haith, Chris Ogden, so many guys there helped us while I was there and were a big part of our success there. I've got dear friends that will be friends until the day I die. The time I had there was special because, really, there's a lot of people there that touched my life.
"It's always tough when you (play each other), because we all are close," Barnes continued. "We stay in touch with each other. We talk throughout the year. Those guys probably know me as well as anybody, and they know how I think. I think, if you ask both of us, would we rather be playing someone else, the answer would be yes.”
Terry shares similar emotions. This won’t be the first time that Barnes has coached against Texas, since Tennessee and Texas met in the Big 12/SEC Challenge in 2022 and 2023; Tennessee won 82-71 in Knoxville in 2023 after the Longhorns won 52-51 in Austin in 2022.
But Saturday’s game will be the first time Barnes has met Texas with a season on the line, and it will be the first time he’s faced off with Terry serving as the Longhorns' head coach.
“We're all family, and we love Coach dearly,” Terry said. “And he gave us all great opportunities. But we also know when the game starts, you know, he's super competitive, and we're super competitive. Obviously, we both want to win at an incredible level.”
More: Brock Cunningham becomes Texas' career wins leader after opening NCAA Tournament victory
Rodney Terry: Texas program still has a Barnes look
The similarities between the programs go deeper than school colors and acronyms. Both Barnes and Terry preach a hard-nosed style of play, which was on display Thursday when Tennessee held Saint Peter’s to 29.1% shooting and Texas limited Colorado State to 29.3% shooting in a 56-44 win.
“Both teams, they have a physical mindset and want to play a physical style of basketball,” Terry said. “They do a great job defensively of keeping you out of the paint and really putting a lot of pressure on you to handle taking care of the basketball. We try to do the same thing.”
Doing the same thing apparently extends to practice, based on a story Terry told about a recent visit from an NBA scout.
“He watched our practice, and the guy was, like, ‘Man, anyone ever tell you that you have a lot of mannerisms of Rick Barnes?’ ” Terry said with a laugh. “He said, ‘You have a lot of mannerisms of what he does and how he does things in terms of how he goes about his business.’ You know, we worked together for almost 10 years. That's a long time to be with someone and be around him. We all learned a lot from Coach, and we enjoyed our time with him.”
Barnes said no one applied those lessons with more purpose than Terry.
"You talk about a guy that's living his dream; his dream job was always to be the head coach at the University of Texas," Barnes said. "(Terry) came in and worked extremely hard, a very detailed person. He's going to dot the i's, cross the t's, and he's intense. He's a guy that's going to talk a lot about his teams being tough, hard-nosed."
Saturday's second-round game
No. 7 Texas (21-12) vs. No. 2 Tennessee (25-8), 7 p.m., Spectrum Center, Charlotte, N.C., CBS, 1300
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball, Rick Barnes reunite in round two of March Madness
