Longhorn Weekly with Texas Men's Basketball Coach Rodney Terry

The Texas men's basketball team looks to turn things arounf this weekend against Baylor

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello again, everybody, and welcometo another edition of Loghorn Weekly with head
coach Rodney Terry, coming your wayfrom Pluckers the West Campus location here in
Austin and presented by the Texas Lottery. Loghorns in the middle of playing a
couple of games at home, comingoff the road trip they had the road
trip to Cincinnati and West Virginia.Went one and one on the road trip
and dropped the heartbreaker last night toUCF by a score of seventy seven to

(00:24):
seventy one. It's always an annualquestion when the team goes through a little
dip in a difficult time about howthe mental state is, how the emotional
state is, and what you asa head coach and your staff do to
make sure the guys don't get downon themselves. Since it's a long long
way to go still in this season, what it really is is it I
mean, it's not a conference play, and you know, as you enter

(00:44):
into January, you know it's goingto be a grind. You know the
conference plays and grind is not easy, and you know you've got to data
stay the course and yet of ashort memory because you go for one really
good opponent, and then you've gotanohing, really good opponent in the next
game, So you know, youjust got to you gotta continue to work
in trust the process. You wentthrough two of your three longest road trips

(01:07):
of the season last week in Cincinnatiand West Virginia and the other one that's
where long comes up at the endof this month when you go to Provo
to play BYU and you had thetwo long road trips, the one in
Morgantown. Uh, you you know, got in early enough on Friday and
I went to work on that.But I'm also always interested in getting your

(01:30):
thoughts on how you get a teamto acclimate on the road when it's long
road trips and it can take itstoll on team, especially that even when
they've been going through a long semesterbreak and haven't gotten back into the routine
of going to school, which happenedthis week. That's right now, we're
excited about a new semester starting.We're excited about having our students back at
our games as well. Uh.They bring a lot of energy to the

(01:52):
game and make an incredible atmosphere forus. But likewise, on other campuses,
when we go to the other venues. There's students are back there as
well. Went to Cincinnati, there'sstudents were back on campus there, and
they had a pretty rally environment toplay in hostile environment, and I guys
handle that situation really well. Wewent over to Morgantown, and to your

(02:13):
point, we practiced earlier that dayand then when we got there, we
got a chance to, like alongtrips, it's really important to go to
their home court, and then we'vegot to move around a little bit.
We kind of got to shake itout a little bit and get moving again
and get acclimated to where we areand try to get familiar with the venue
about to play. Well, that'swhere I was going. Next is life
on the road when you go onthe road in like I said, two

(02:37):
games at home this week before yougo back on the road for two games
back on the road next week.And with this new Big twelve Conference scheduling,
with this expanded fourteen team league,you're kind of doing it in sets
two by two by two by twohome and road and at home and road,
And I guess you have to tryto get into a routine. But
I wanted to give you a chanceto give the fans a little bit of
an understanding about what that routine islike on the road, because you just

(02:59):
brought up good point. You havea three and a half hour flight and
when you're hitting headwinds, it becomesfour hour flight. As it was coming
back on Saturday night and when youhit the ground and you'd already had a
practice. But like you said,the whole thing with lacktic acid and getting
all that stuff out and getting theguys lose going and shooting even before you
have your Saturday shoot around, doingsomething on Friday, all part of this

(03:22):
road routine. Yeah, our staffhas a really good routine. I think
on the road. I think we'rereally close knit on the road. You
know, we get there and youknow, we check in office into the
hotel, and we immediately start ourpreparation, probably going over the practice.
We'll watch and tape, we'll youknow, put the game back, the
game plan back in our guys mindabout what we're about to embark you on

(03:43):
in terms of going over to practice, and then we'll go over and have
whoever a practice where we actually workon the offensive game plan, a defensive
game plan, and then we'll takethe guys out to a really good meal.
We always find a really good restaurantin town, and I think those
are some of the times that guyswill remember the most. They're gonna remember
lot of meaningful games and experiences ingames, but they remember that time that

(04:04):
they got a chance to go toa good restaurant. We take up the
phones and everybody's got to be ableto talk and communicate with one another without
having any electronic advice device there andstuff. So you know, we do
that, and then we come backthat night from the meal and we have
one more session when we go overthings in terms of what we have to

(04:25):
do the next day in terms ofour game plan, and then we really
try to work on our recovery withWarren and Corey. Guys get stretched a
little bit, some guys watch alittle bit more tape. But it's a
really good routine on the road interms of guys are closely connected and what
we're doing is it also a veryindividualistic thing with the recovery, Like some

(04:46):
guys will push a little more physicallyand they're fine. Other guys perhaps not
as much. And and there's theconstant I see this from the training and
medical staff. There's the constant replenishingof fluids and there's all of that going
on and making sure guys are eating. We were talking with the von Pryor
last week. You mentioned about eatingthe extra hamburger, putting on putting on
some more weight and that sort ofthing. Is it is that also part

(05:10):
of the science for for Warren Youngthe trainer, and for the and and
also for Corey Classenger, the UHstrength coach, and all of the training
and nutritional staff, is that it'sso individualized certain guys. There's general nutritional
and workout guidelines that everybody goes by, but then it gets to be an
individual thing based on a person's ownchemistry and biology. It's a collective effort

(05:32):
with our staff, you know,Warren and Corey and and UH and Salem
a nutricians, they all do agreat job really trying to instilling o guys
how important it is for them tolearn how to take care of their bodies.
Make sure they're eating the right things, make sure they stand hydrated,
make sure again that they're proactive interms of, you know, treatment of

(05:53):
any kind of injuries that they mayhave with something going on with their bodies.
But they really try to instill themhow important that is. It's a
professional habit. You want to oneday make this a professional career, you
have to learn to invest in yourbody. You didn't have King Shedrick available
for the Cincinnati game as he worksthrough some of the back issues, and
we saw it kind of get bangedup a little bit last night. He

(06:15):
was walking over really kind of bentover back to the bench. I think
the comment on the that I madeon the air was he looked like a
question mark as he walked back over. Because that's good that he took a
hard spill and and and came backover to the bench efforts. So this
gets into something we talked about insome prior games about how you strive for
having the most effective lineup on thefloor, not just to tip off with

(06:39):
starting lineups, but as you substitutethroughout the course of a game based on
what you have available to you.I think next man mentality. I think
every guy that addresses has to beready to play uh and they have to
be ready for that their opportunity tocome in and hopefully come in and make
a positive contribution to our team.You know, Kine's been balanced through some

(06:59):
injuries and he's been trying really hardeststay on the floor. One of those
guys have done a great job mendinghim up and giving him an opportunity to
be on the floor. And again, an injury that he's sustained, you
know, it's gonna be an injurythat takes a couple of weeks. It's
not gonna be one of those oneswhere you know tomorrow is gonna be,
you know, feeling a lot better. He's going to continue to work through
it and kind of played through alittle pain. You mentioned that if there

(07:23):
was a common thread in the twolosses, the one in West Virginia last
Saturday and then the one last nightagainst UCF, was connectivity, And you
said, sometimes that just gets brokenup, the connectivity in terms of your
team's communication on the floor or hittingor taking a better shot and not putting
up as quick as shot. Andthen in the case of last night,
obviously, and you brought it upright out of the gate, and you

(07:45):
also brought it up the news conference, rebounding. Rebounding is such a critical
part of college basketball, and forfolks of the well, they're rebounding him
as shot. But the offensive boardswere big for UCF. And the second
chance points were big because of therebounding. They were huge, the second
chance opportunities. I mean, youknow, we played well for a better
part of that game. Thirty minutesof the game. We played it about

(08:07):
as well as we played all year. We played really well against the really
elite level defense. You know,they had to change the defense up and
go zone. I mean, wescored forty four points in the first half,
was really good, you know,and we had nine assists. We
were moving the ball, but thesecond chance opportunities and then points off turnovers
were really the difference in the game. And when the teams are doing that,

(08:30):
obviously get your guys back on thedefensive and then all of a sudden
they're fighting them mentalitied about trying tomake it all up at once, and
that's something that you and the coachingto have to stay with them all and
you're not going to get everything backat once, And don't try to immediately
come down and launch a twenty fivefoot because that might not be the best
shot. Absolutely. I mean,you have to no time the situation,
and you have to understand the floorof the game, you know, and
a lot of times your guards incharge of managing your game for you and

(08:54):
you know, if we've come downa couple of possessions and we've had empty
possessions where we didn't score, weturned the ball over. Now we've got
to come down and we've got toearn a basket and we've got to really
execute what we're trying to get done. You know, last night they had
a change up defense. They wentzone, and you know, we played
well and we got a lot ofshots on our terms in terms of attacking
their zones, you know, andshots will take all day long in terms

(09:16):
of you know, shots in thepaint. We had shots for the permitive
with the right guys taking shots anduh uh again uh I think the second
chance points again went to the hugeyou know problem for us last night.
Okay, So now I guess folkswould say, how's everybody holding up mentally?
How's everybody holding up emotionally? Whenyou get them back today. You
described it to me as today beingmore of a cerebral kind of day.

(09:37):
Well, we're frustrated. You know, you gotta you gonna be frustrated losers.
I mean, no one, noone's happy when they lose. You
know, you want to you wantto hopefully come in and learn lessons through
wins and things of that nature there. But but again, you know it's
all point of the process. Andyou know, again I always my message
dry guys, we'll never get toohigh when you never get too low.
And you know, there are alot of successful people in life. They're

(09:58):
gonna go through fa years, they'regoing to go through adversity. Is how
you respond and how you react tofail you that is building character and it
also helps you learning to be asuccessful person in life. All right,
coming up on the program, obviouslywe've got a lot more to get to.
We'll talk about those big twelve conferencerays. We'll talk about the Baylor

(10:18):
Bears Saturday opponents as well. We'llvisit with one of the ambassadors of the
Corral might be a familiar face toyou. But up next we're gonna visit
with one of the outstanding young andupcoming stars for Texas. That's Chris Johnson.
Will join us next. This isLong Worn Weekly the head coach,
Rodney Terry, coming away for Pluckersthe West Campus location here in Austin.

(10:39):
Seen on the Longworn Network and haveheard across Texas on the Long Worn Radio
Network. We welcome you back hereto Long Worn Weekly here from Pluckers the
West Campus location here in Austin.We welcome you back to the program here
alongside head coach Rodney Terry On CraigWay and I always leave the introductions to

(11:01):
u RTI when it comes to ourspecial guest. Yeah, we've got Chris
Johnson. Everybody known the CJ.He's a freshman from Missouri, Texas.
Played at Elkins High School. Uh, played this last year at Mount Verd
Academy. I don't know what theycall it academy at Mount Verd High School.
Uh, but played at one ofthe top prop prep schools in the

(11:22):
country a senior year. Uh.But uh, we're excited about CJ.
CJ is a he's a big guard. Uh. He's a guy that can
play both spots. The thing Ilove about CJ and what he brings to
the table right now as a youngplayer, UH, is he's a very
vocal guy. You know, he'suh, you know, in young players,
a lot of times you don't haveguys that that, uh that are
guys that talk on the floor,communicated at a high level. He does

(11:46):
at a very high level and he'sa cerebral player. He's a guy that
understands basketball. He puts a lotof time in terms of trying to learn
basketball, and he's got a verybright future head. He's grown so much
in the short amount of time thathe's been with us. He's been challenged.
He's going against older guys every day. Yes, yes, sir,
all right, So I this yoursituation, CJ is is rather unique,

(12:09):
and I want to get the perspectiveof both of you about this, about
how for folks who don't know.Of course, like artist said, he's
from Missouri City, went to Fortmin alcons for three years, finished up
at my Vert Academy there in Florida, originally committed and signed with Kansas and
then kind of the way I've hadit described to me, change of heart

(12:31):
late spring to early summer. Takeus through that process when you went through
it and then had and then hadthe change of heart, so to speak.
And I'm interested in the communication andthe dialogue that happened afterwards. So
basically the whole picture was, Ijust wanted to have my family see me
play, oh, like I wantedthem to be at all my games,

(12:54):
Like cuz, let me stop Butso basically my last year in high school,
I went to Florida, like coachsaid, and my family really really
didn't get to see me play alot. And then I also was battling
through a lot of like mental mentaltroubles just being away from my family and
playing basketball and not like basketball notgoing the way that I thought it would

(13:18):
go. And at the end ofthe day, that's just that's just growing
pains. But I wanted my lastI wanted while I had an option to
to come back to Texas so myfamily could see all my games and be
there. When you went to MottVerd. When you went there, was
that strictly with the mindset up,this is going to help me improve as

(13:39):
a basketball player, because we knowhow good that academy is. You know,
Mitchell of course played there. Uhyou know, there's there's players all
across the country. It's played oneof the elite academies for high school basketball
in the country. Was that themotivation after three years playing in your hometown
area, for Ben Elkins to goout there, that's all it was.
I just wanted to get better.I felt like I already succeeded enough at

(14:03):
my hometown like, I didn't losethe district game in two years, so
I felt like I wanted another challenge, and that's what Marther gave me.
All right, So Archie, weflashed forward. He commits to and then
signs with Kansas, goes to Kansasand then has his change of heart.
What happened? Then he reaches outand reaches out to here and take us

(14:24):
through the process. Yeah, no, absolutely, I mean he had to
uh obviously put his name in thein the portal and make sure all that
was happening as well, and andit actually I had to get a release
from his nil from Kansas before wewere able to have any contact with him.
Chris had been on the radar fora long time. Chris wasn't someone
that we weren't aware of and someonewe were head and recruited and been around

(14:45):
with h So we were very familiarwith him and knew again you know what
he brought to the table for us. We had already signed a high school
kid as well at his position whoalso chose to go professional, to the
professional range. And so with thatbeing said, well, like you know,
CJ will make a great fit forus to come back in and start
recruiting again really heavily if he hasan interest in coming home and and being

(15:09):
close in proximity to his paints.Okay, so then you enrolled in the
second session of summer school, right, yes, all right, and and
take us through that process between whatyou were doing academically, they're enrolling in
the second session in summer school,and how it was leading up to what
you wanted to do basketball wise.I mean, I felt like it was
great. Katkat held me through alot of things. So just going to

(15:31):
her every day, getting a relationshipwith her, doing the things they got
to do off the court, anduh, just focusing on the court,
and I feel like everything was smooth. Yeah, that's that's always a special
relationship is and with the academic helppersonnel to help the young guys, especially
if they're coming in, say atmidterm or summer school. What's a big
part of the summer guys come inand obviously getting a chance to train,

(15:52):
getting a chance to try to learnour culture in terms of the way we
go about doing things every day,but they're also getting acclimated to the academic
situation as well in terms of theway things are or are put in place.
For them in terms of academic supportand really again just kind of really
you know, getting them prepared forwhat they're about to them walk on for
the phone. So when they comeback, you know, first Port August

(16:15):
and we start our semester, guysare already ready to go. They know
whether the academics support program is theyknow, you know, they're reporting in
with CAT once the week, youknow, and uh, and they're ready
to go. Devon last week toldus that that CAT really helped him as
well, and he said that theinfrastructure that's in place that that really helps
you guys academically, really helps easethe transition. Is that something that was

(16:40):
beneficial to you very bit, notjust CAT, but just the way that
the support structure is academically it taxesto help ease you into the process.
Starting in that second semester, thesecond summer session, most definitely, they
got a bunch of tutors up therein the academic center and it just was
dump a whole bunch of work onus. They let us, they let

(17:00):
us work at our own pace andthen shoot it. It was cool.
Archie. What did you see fromCJ in terms of his development starting from
that second semester of summer school,not just as a basketball player, but
say culturally, academically, socially,things like that, because that's always a
challenge for an eighteen year old comingout of high school or even out of

(17:23):
a private school academy environment to gointo a big university like this. Well,
they do one thing I alluded toin his introduction, how much he's
grown from the time that he's gottenthe campus to the time where he's at
right now. And that's in allaspects that's off the court, in terms
of applying himself from an academic standpointand understanding that you know, at the

(17:44):
University of Texas, you're going tohave to really get in and apply yourself
at a high level from an academicstandpoint, and you know, there's no
slippage off the court, because weexpect you to do things great on the
court as well. But we wanthim both. We want you to do
really well in the classroom. Wewant you to do really well on the
floor as well. And he gotacclimated to that, and he had a
couple of little drawing pains to getsome reminders on what that really looks like.

(18:07):
And it was all about but givehim credit. You know, he's
done a great job academically and he'slearned a lot of being a young player
playing with older players. All Right, we're gonna have more with Chris Johnson
joining us here as we continue fromPluckers the West Campus location here in Austin
with Long Morton Weekly with head coachRodney Terry here at Pluckers and presented by
the Texas Lottery. Continues in aopen We welcome you back here to Longharton

(18:32):
Weekly from here Pluckers the West Campuslocation here in Austin. Our special guests
CJ, Chris Johnson, freshman barMax Hastman's We had the highlight there on
him knocking down the shot. Howmuch have you learned from watching Max who's
been through what he's been through andtransferred in and now he's moving up the
ladder on all time career NCAA scoringlist. How much have you learned from

(18:53):
a guy like Max? Uh?You learn a lot, especially working out
with him a lot coming in inthe summer, you learn a lot just
the work ethic and how he goesabout his business. He's just real,
real business minded, like he getshis work in, he leaves does the
right things on and off the court, and it's just it's a real pleasure

(19:14):
to see and get the work withhim every day. And it is crazy
watching him play, Like even thegame that we did that we did lose
at West Virginia, Like I'm justin there watching him, like, like,
god, Lee, this is amazing. But Nah, he's a fun
player to watch him learn from.At thirty two points in that game,
did Max Asmison was a big CELFConference Newcomer of the Week. Okay,
so you kind of grew up inthe Greater Houston area and played at Fort

(19:37):
ben Alkins before he went to BombvertAcademy. This is something that's always kind
of interested me is the caliber ofopposition what you're seeing now. There's a
lot of great high school basketball ineach town. As we know, and
you said he hadn't dropped a districtgame when you were there. There's a
lot of great basketball there in theHouston area. I've always been interested in

(19:59):
the out of me life in termsof the basketball, because I know you
play some really elite programs, butthere's a lot of travel and there's a
lot of tournaments and things like that, and classics and things of that.
Nature that you perform in. Andwhat's the basketball style like in playing against
those types of schools. I say, it's really similar to college. I

(20:21):
mean we're we're on planes pretty muchevery weekend, every every three to four
days. And then it's it's abunch of details, like all the scouting
reports and all that stuff. SoI feel like ma Ver prepared me really
well, and it's just it's fungetting to play against the top players every
single every single game and playing withthem. Now, would it be safe

(20:41):
to say that high school life inFlorida was quite a bit different than high
school life in Houston, Oh?I was definitely what was definitely what was
the what were the biggest differences thatyou that you lived with there? Basically
I was born in there, soso I went from being in Houston,
you know what I'm saying, prettymuch could I had a car so I
could leave, you know what I'msaying, be on my own type of

(21:03):
time. But when I got toMont verd all all those things changed.
I was just I was in adorm pretty much twenty four to seven.
The other only other place I wentto was the gym. Was the gym
and to get to get food,So it really it helped me lock in.
I started say, did it helpprepare you for living away from home?
That it's like, even though you'reclose to home, you're one hundred

(21:25):
and seventy miles away from home.But did it did it help prepare you
for life away from home? Now? Most definitely, like my verb ma
verse dorms, they weren't the best, so I knew I could go to
any living situation and be perfectly fine. So, yeah, you wear the
number zero? Why? Uh?Personally, I just always liked it on

(21:47):
me, Like, I mean,I used to watch a lot of Russell
Westbrook when I was younger, likewhen he played with Oka. See.
But but like I'm trying to makea name for myself, so it's really
not all because of him. Ijust always wore the number zero. Really,
Yeah, I'm not just gonna sayit's because of him. But but
you like that big part? Yeah, I do like that number, Okay,
all right. Also, anybody knowsanything about long worn basketball knows what

(22:11):
the Greater Houston area means because ofTJ Ford as well. And I know
you've had a relationship with TJ witheverything he does down in the Greater Houston
area. What what what does hemean to you? He means a lot
to me. I mean he's he'slike a second father figure to me.
I mean ever since middle school,he's ben picked me up daily to take
me to the gym, make sureI was in the gym. I mean,
when my lights went on in thein the house, I go to

(22:33):
his house. He has lights,food fed me like TJ. TJ means
a lot to me, and I'mjust I'm trying to like grow his legacy
here, Like I just want tobe great just like he was great here.
When you talk to teammates, isthere one specific one that you lean
on for advice or do you getit collectively from all the guys you say
teammates teammates in Nolla, Texas.Is there any one teammate who you kind

(22:57):
of lean on for it likes,whether it be not just basketball but lay
the life. Yeah, I'll say, I'll say Brock Cunningham really real cool
dude, down to earth. Ican hit him whenever gives me, gives
me the straightforward answer, never sugarcoatsanything. So yeah, all right,
Hey, it's great to see you. I appreciate you coming back. Said
you appreciate you having all right,CJ with us, Chris Johnson coach Terry

(23:18):
me back with us coming up whenLong Gorton Weekly continues from here at Pluckers
the West Campus location, presented bythe Texas Lottery on the Longhorn Network and
the long Horn Radio Network. Fromwe welcome you back here the Longhorn Weekly
from Pluckers the West Campus location withcoach Rodney Terry CJ and impressive young man.
We've got to know him quite abit during the course of the season,

(23:40):
and I was, I don't guessI was shocked, but but uh
impressed that the guy that he kindof turns through for advice is Brock.
You know, no, that's that'sa pretty good one, right there,
Brock. And you know, wheELS's kind of taking him on his wing
a little bit. Has been tosue this dude's done a great job with
with and really spends time with themand really invested them with them as well.

(24:04):
Among the fan questions that we got, one of them wanted to know
about how your impressions put it thatway, and I know this question was
also put to Texas Women's head coachVick Schaeffer on a media availability earlier today
about your impressions of the scheduling andconference, because it's really unique. This

(24:26):
is really different with a fourteen teamleague. And you don't play everybody twice,
as we know. You play OklahomaState one time at home, you
don't play them in Stillwater, butyou do have a home and home in
West Virginia. You play one gameat Kansas but not at home. You
play Kansas State at home, butnot in Manhattan. You have a home
and home with Baylor, home andhome with Texas Tech, home and home
with TCU, home and home withHouston. You have one game out at

(24:49):
BYU, but you don't have themat home. You have a home and
home with Oklahoma. How about yourthoughts on the way that this schedule was
put together by the B twelve conferencehad to be a challenge for them,
I would imagine as well. No, I'm sure. I mean you you
bring in four new institutions into theBig twelve and uh, you know,
we don't have any stay in thescheduling, right you know, so you

(25:11):
know, you play the hand thatyou dealt and uh, and for us,
again, we try to we tryto take it one game at a
time. You know, but uhagain, you know, you couldn't complain
if you didn't get a chance togo to this venue or you had to
play this team twice. You justhad to you play the hand you had,
you dealt with and everything, youknow, and uh uh that's what
we've tried to do in it justtoo Yeah, And I guess the other

(25:33):
thing that comes up, because thiswill be something that we think about going
into the SEC next year, ishow it relates to and affects your non
conference schedule because you you, sinceyou've been back uh in town, even
when coach Bieer was here, youwere handling and working really hard on the
non conference scheduling part of it.And I know that, uh that's a

(25:56):
challenge. Eighteen game conference schedule weknow for sure next year in the SEC,
maybe going to twenty in the future, who knows. How does that
all affect what you need to doand what you need to get in your
non conference schedule? Well, currentlyeighteen and hopefully may stay eighteen and that
twenty because twenty knocks you out ofsome non conference games as well. So
you know, the eighteen is whatyou kind of you know, would like

(26:18):
to stay stay with, but again. It opens doors again. You know,
we will be in to play somebig twelve members as well if we
choose to in terms of you know, if those opponents and dates line up
for us in terms of being ableto do that. But uh, you
know it'll be it'll be a challengeingschedule as well in the SEC. Yeah,
and like you said it, whenit comes to playing say former conference

(26:40):
members as non conference opponents, that'smore about scheduling and how it words for
everybody's calendar, isn't it. Itreally does it? You know, Uh,
dates, opponents, tim and allthat comes into play. If you're
in a position to start a homeat home if you want, if you
like to do that, you know, potential neutral site game as well,
you know, but uh, alot of that just depends on you know,

(27:03):
what fits and works best for yourschedule. If you have twelve or
thirteen non conference games. What's theideal mix of say neutral site, high
profile games, road games if youhave those, and then the home winner
referred to frequently as by games arethe ones where teams come in for an
appearance fee and play. What's isthere a good balance on a mix that

(27:25):
you try to strive for there.Well, I think again it depends on
your roster management a little bit too, as you're putting the schedule together.
Our first year we played a nineto four model. You know, we
played four big Boy games and wehad nine by games. You know.
The next year we went to aneight five model, we played eight by
games, we had five big Boygames. You know. This past year

(27:45):
we went back to the nine tofour again, and so I think it
just varies. And you know,for us, we you know, at
Texas, we always want to tryto have a great non conference schedule.
We always want to try to havea great opponent that we bring time,
venue will We weren't able to wardthat this past year, but we will
have a really good home and awaybig Boy game at our place, and

(28:07):
that's something we stried to do everyseason well, and the Long Wruns also
strive to have a great home courtadvantage. The students have a lot to
do with that, and a bigsaying that we're going to visit with a
corral ambassad coming up with Long WornWeekly with head coach Rodney Terry from here
at Pluckers and presented by the TexasLottery, continues in a moment. Welcome
you back here too, Longhorn Weekly. Welcome back to the program here from

(28:30):
Pluckers the West Campus location here inAustin. And Dilamicha had a good game
look for you last night. Hedid. He played with a great bader
last night on both ends of thefloor, you know, really tried to
go out really hard, rebound theball well force that man rebounds as well.
But Tony played really good. Nowwe have always a krraal ambassador with
us this week. This hat isobviously not fine. This hat belongs to

(28:56):
Jack Maddox corral ambassador. Jack isbev O hat guy. So I'm more
thank you, thanks, I'm morethan happy to hand the hat back over
to either. He's a sophomore fromLeague City, just south of Houston,
majoring in premad biology. That's howyou could tell from the hat there.
And uh and Jack was home withus last year and uh, yeah,

(29:18):
it's it's a little bit of achallenge with the headset with the hat,
but I think you mastered pretty well. So remind everybody how you came up
with this idea and this particular hatand how it all worked right. Yeah,
so I don't even know where tobegin this story. There's kind of
many places I can begin, butI like to start out by saying that
I grew up kind of in adivided household. And when I mean that,

(29:41):
I mean my mom went to Aand m my dad went to UT,
and so early on I kind ofchose UT. And so senior year
of high school, actually I wentto the Texas OU game for football,
and that was the game that unfortunately, were up like twenty eight to seven.
Yeah, and then we lost,right, but I kind of busted
out. I'm gonna put this thatis probably good idea, but no,
so that we were up twenty eightseven, we lost, but I I

(30:03):
duct taped it to like just abaseball cap, okay. And by that
point I already kind of known Iwanted to come to UT, and so
I was like, when I comehere, I'm gonna kind of kick it
up a notch. And so freshmanyear, you know, first football game,
that's when the apron and the cowboyboots and the big cowboy hat came
out. And that's kind of ohokay now, and I don't want to
bury the lead here. Jack isa triplet, yes, yea, yeah,

(30:26):
your brother and sister both go toschool in a and they do.
They do. It makes intense gameday. I start saying, what is
next year going to be? Ohmy gosh, I don't know, but
we're about to drop some insane amountof money for good seeds at that game
because there is no way they mightbreak the family apart. Yeah, but
it's gonna be worth it. Sothey've seen you do this, right?

(30:48):
Oh what what's their take on allof it? Oh gosh, you should
have seen it. The first timeI posted pictures of it. They were
like, like, they know hima little bit crazy, okay, but
like, I don't think anyone wasexpecting that. My dad was like,
like he's the ut guy. He'slike, are you sure you want to
be doing this? Like this isnot a good idea. So then my
mom and my brother sister like,yeah, like you're gonna be the laughing

(31:10):
stock of campus, you know.But I just got like support at the
first game. Shout out to myfriends at that table right there. Yeah,
they put up with my craziness thatfirst game, and it kind of
just all boiled up from there.Artie, this is exactly what you're looking
for out of your your student fanbases. Oh absolutely, I mean and
again, you know, we're sohappy to have them back on campus right
now starting the semester, and theyjust bring a whole different energy to the

(31:33):
building. You know along one Nationdoes the great job supporters as well.
But having your students back again,always say that you get a chance to
make some some big time memories atbasketball games, at different you know,
activities on campus and you know beingin the in the Moody Center. Man,
you talk about the rest of yourlife. I know I asked you
this question last year because I askevery ambassador who steps up here this question,

(31:57):
and that is how much fun isit getting on the other team?
And have you ever crossed the lineon that where either someone from the other
team or one of the officials hassomething to say? These say, right,
I'm trying to think, I dohave my Let me think about what

(32:19):
I can say. Yeah, youcan share, Well, I'd say nothing
like too crazy. But my farmy favorite moment was we played Kansas last
year and I'd pulled an all nighterfor that game with some of the support
from the friends. But so dude, I got there like not no.
I think it was eight pm thenight before Okay, ten pm rolls around.

(32:42):
One of my friends brought food andthen I chowed down. I was
actually in lab I'm doing I wasdoing a lab course last year, and
so I was I won't get intothe two technicalities of the science or anything
like that, but we were Ihad it designs this timer online for like
a DNA sequence and then got thatsubmitted. Just shut my computer off and
then we were just you know,playing music all night, getting late.

(33:04):
It was actually really fun and peoplewere coming with coffee and by now I'm
like, I like probably six hoursof sleep, but I was just cracked
up on the on the caffeine.So it was really good. And then
game time came around, and Imean, of course, like you know,
that's when the party really starts.But that's what I was gonna want
to say something because I think hewas announcing working at and so I just

(33:27):
remember, so the head coach ofKansas was just like right there, right,
and I don't know what we weredoing. I did lack of sleep
or something, but the entire time, like we were just like look at
me, like look at me,you know, the entire time. And
so someone had just missed the freethrow they just cut to me and like
all my friends there and so fora sould like eight seconds to just look
at me, and I'm just like, look at my eyes and stuff like
that, and turned around and lookedat you. I don't think he looked

(33:50):
around, but the towel he waslike, Yeah, he was like I
want that at I want that hator something like that exactly. Yeah.
So I was like, the nexttime if he ever announces a game for
us, I'm like, I'm gonnatry to get him a bib ahead,
Okay, all right, So yeah, I think by the way, it's
the first time ever in the historyof this program, in all the years
that DNA was mentioned on this sopre med biology. How do you balance

(34:17):
it with everything that goes going tobe in in a bath? Right?
Yeah? No, I definitely likebe lying if I said it was easy,
it's death. It's time consuming.So I'll you know, I personally
like camping out for the games andgetting here super early. It's just it's
fun meeting new people and stuff likethat. But that you know, it's
I'll get there three four or fivehours early sometimes, so that just means
a lot less time for studying.So I have to be super balanced.

(34:40):
It's like my fun is going tothe games and waiting on line, and
then like the post game stuff wherewe go out, you know, with
my friends afterwards, get a mealor something like that. Or it's like
pulling an all nighter in the life, like Gonzaga last year for example,
right after that game, you know, rush the court, everyone's having fun.
I pulled an all nighter in thelibrary finishing presentation for my lab.

(35:00):
Actually, you know, it's it'sa tough balance, but it's definitely it's
definitely fun. You know, I'mkind of used to it. That's what
you like hear in from of yourstudents. Right then they can turn around
and pull it all minor in thelibrary afterwards with those life to have memories,
your great memories that you can actabout lifetime, you know, the
experiences that you have, Jack,I wanted to give you a chance,
like I do every week, togive our ambassador a chance to deliver your

(35:23):
message. So the importance of studentengagement in the corral, right, I
think I want to start by sayingour team makes a great point where like
these basketball games by far, Ithink out of my top five sports memories
at UT's basketball games, Kansas Gonzagafor sure, or two of the top
three. They're they're genuinely so muchfun because of the energy that the students

(35:46):
bring to those games and just it'sit's it's so hard to describe, but
I tell people when they're interests,like should I go to this basketball game
for the first time? Right theirnew freshmen or something like that, and
like it's hard to describe it,but you just go there, get lost
in the moment, and you'll besurprised about the memories you can make.
And of course, you know,like I love when the student sorry the

(36:07):
players, you know, hype usup and get us turn for those games.
Like it's it's generally a lot offunny. You know, you make
a difference which makes it better.Final thing here, when your time comes,
when you graduate down the road,will you pass the hat on the
summer? Right? This is definitelysomething I've thought. I do think it
would be really cool to pass thehot on. So I don't know how
I'd like to do that yet,but it's something that I want to do

(36:27):
for sure. We welcome you backto Longhort and weekly from here. Plucker's
the West Campus location here in Austinpresented by the Texas Lottery with head coach
Rodney Terry. It's good to havestudents like Jack around right to add to
the enthusiasm. Absolutely, Jack's thebest and he's there. He's a law
supporter and I know, I guessbeat off student's energy. We talked about

(36:52):
a lot of the change that hashappened with the Big Twelve Conference and with
college basketball in general. But onechange, one thing that is unchanged is
that the Baylor Bears are good againand that they continue to be competitive.
And coach Drew has another really goodteam that'll be coming into the Moody Center
on Saturday morning. This guy's builtan incredible program. He's done a fantastic

(37:13):
job over the years. And youknow, he's built a program that's been
able to sustain a high level ofsuccess year in and year out. And
you know, a staff does agreat job of recruiting really good players to
come in and fit their system,and uh uh does a great job coaching.
UH. You know, in thisday and age of the portal,
with things that are that are bothgained and lost through the portal, UH,

(37:35):
there's there's always that change that goeson, how about what you're saying.
You know, you lost an outstandinggarden and l. J. Kryer
went to Houston. But he's pickedup guys in the portal and he's got
young guys that make a big difference. No, absolutely brought in Dorning a
Bob over the years that have reallyagain, you know, kept those guys
at a very high level. You'rethrowing a young freshman like Jakobe Walters,
who we all recruited likewise, andwho's having a great freshman year as well,

(38:00):
and they've got a great trio ofguards. One thing that we also
knew about the coach Drew is that, uh they would they play that one
three one or they could play twothree zone. But they also have played
some man. When they won thenational championship, played a lot of a
man as well as are you seeingthem go with both mix both man and
zone. Well that year they hadMitchell and you know those goals and the

(38:20):
kind of ads. They are greatdefenders. I mean, they have really
good gords that could really defend,you know, but they will give you
a mixture, they'll change it upand they'll go with the tanem tenem zone
they're little bit two three zone thatthey'll play. It looks like a one
to three on one, but it'sreally a tandem two three and they do
a great job of really trying tochange the pace and take you out of
a rhythm of your offense. I'veheard you mentioned that guarding the perimeter is

(38:43):
always so important against teams that couldshoot the basketball, and I would imagine
against this team, and you're goingto see other really good shooting teams.
B Yu you mentioned is a teamthat will I think they've lost thirty something
three pointers the other night against IowaState. They are teams that could shoot
the three. This is a Baylorteam that can score for just about anywhere
on the floor. Well, youmentioned two of the better shooting teams in
the country. I mean Baylor's rightnow comes into this game. It's the

(39:06):
top shooting team in the country.Their guards, they do a great job
attacking the faint, creating scoring opportunitiesfor their perimitive players. You got Love
coming off the bench, who's areally good player, so leading scorer coming
off the bench. As they're sixman right now, so you know they've
got a trio of gords that canreally score. They've got some bigs that
crash the glass really hard. We'vegot to be able to try to,
you know, limit their second chanceopportunities as well. But they do a

(39:29):
great job attacking the paint and andlooking for guys that can shoot shoot the
basketball. How much how much ofa challenge is it then for your guards
not to give up that kind ofdribble penetration inside where their bigs become even
more of a factor. Well,we got to spring back in transition,
and we've got to get the ballstopped, and we've got to locate those
shooters. You can't give those guysyou know, uh, you know,

(39:51):
transition threes. You gotta be ableto take those baskets away and sit down
and try to try to go outreally hard. This is a heavy ball
stream team. There's gonna be alot a million ball strings said tomorrow on
Saturday afternoon in the game. Soour ball stream coverage is really big for
us as well. Is that crucialabout making sure not to go underscreens and
making sure you're in position to makethe right adjustment. Well, we don't

(40:14):
have any of the guys on theirroster that you can go under on ball
strings. I mean, older guysare capable shooters and guys that can get
downhill and retags, and so we'regoing to do a great job really kind
of you know, having a reallysolid package in terms of a ball sting
coverage defense. All right, we'llbe back to wrap up this week's edition
and Walmarton Weekly with coach Rodney Terryfor Pluckers the West Campus location and present

(40:37):
about the Texas laughter and we continuein a moment. We welcome you back
here to the long Orton Weekly withRodney Terry from here Pluckers the West Campus
location. I asked you before thegame if you could tell any kind of
an emotional barometer if it had goneup for folks, if the old Horton
I t as we know here bythe way, I found out that you

(40:58):
see it. People didn't even reallycall it it, so that it's it's
a much more Austen familiar term.But the uh. I asked you if
you could see any kind of emotionalbarometer from it, because he always has
kind of a low a low keyon. He said, no, I
think he's he's uh, he's he'llbe ready to go. And boy,
was he ever ready to go.He's been locked in, he's practiced really

(41:19):
well over the last couple of weeks, and you know, every time he
started for us, he's he's givenus a positive contribution, and so you
know, we're looking again to tryto get off to a great start,
and we thought it'd be a greatopportunity with him practicing aways practice and carried
himself over the over the last coupleof weeks, and we give him another
opportunity to get back in the lineup, and we definitely responded in positive way.
Would you say that one of thebiggest challenges he had when he came

(41:43):
in from UCF was picking up thedefensive intensity the way that you and the
coaches wanted to see from it.Well, I think he has a level
of urgency. You know, forsure on that end of the floor.
We knew coming in that he wasa guy that could shoot the basketball,
and you know, we were lookingfor shooting in another guy that could give
us some scoring, and he wasable to do that for us. You
mentioned that that term, the phraselevel of urgency, and we've talked about

(42:05):
different terms that you have had.Would it be safe to say not just
because it's back to back losses orone in three in conference play, it's
Baylor coming in and it's a reallygood opponent that that in it of itself
carries the level of urgency without evenlooking at what's going on with the record
and the conference standings and all thatkind of stuff. Sure, absolutely,
I think again it all gets downto the controller, boos. What you're

(42:29):
able to control. You control whatyou're able to control in terms of how
hard you play, how hard youcompete, the competitive spirit that you have,
and just being excited about the opportunity. How different is it for you
or is it that much different interms of what you need and what you
set out for your guys With aneleven am tip, that's different. It's

(42:50):
a home game, but still aneleven am tip. Well, we practice
every morning at nine o'clock, ninethirty one on the floor any so,
you know, mon, it isthe time that we have to come in
and have a lot of energy,have a lot of jews, and be
ready to compete. And you know, you always a lot of times you
practice the way you play, youknow, so if you come in and
you have great practice habits and youpractice really hard, you know, it's
about the same kind of time,and we'll be getting ready to prepare for

(43:12):
our game at eleven o'clock. AndI know, the other thing that you
really want to see out of yourguys is the fact that you want to
see a big crowd on Saturday andhow they respond to that when you when
they cut out to You're hope tosee everybody get out here Saturday morning.
We have had great crowds all year, you know, and now students are
back here. We're excited about havingthem back on campus because they bring them
a whole nother level of the energyin the building as well, and we'll

(43:35):
need all the support we can get. Well play the top ten team on
our home court, and we needyou on one nation. Well, look
forward to it. It's coming yourway Saturday morning. We'll be on the
air at ten thirty Saturday,