Rodney Terry vs. Sean Miller, Part 2: Millions on the line again when Longhorns play Xavier in First Four?

Forget whether North Carolina’s inclusion in the NCAA Event as a Relocate-in No. 11 seed in the South Region was justified. The most intriguing storyline of the Primary Four isn’t the Tar Heels getting in over West Virginia and others. It’s Rodney Terry, who needs an NCAA Event Achieve and perhaps much more than that to keep his Role at Texas, finding second life — and putting on pause what would have been the second-biggest Role to hit the coaching carousel of the 2025 cycle.

But that’s Merely the Begin of it. The Trainer he’s facing on the other sideline in the Primary Four, Xavier’s Sean Miller, already has a history intertwined with Terry.

In 2023, Terry Primary Captured over the Texas Role on an interim basis when Chris Beard was let go over domestic violence charges. Terry, according to folks in the know in Austin, was not Predicted to retain the Role after that season. While he was known as a Powerful recruiter and well liked by the players, he hadn’t built a Powerful resumé during previous head coaching stops at UTEP and Fresno State. The expectation was athletics director Chris Del Conte would go big-game hunting, per usual. But under Terry’s leadership, the Longhorns not only rebounded from a terribly adverse situation — they won the Big 12 Event, then punched their Primary Pleasant Sixteen berth in a decade-plus, matching up with … Xavier and Miller, who had Merely Began his second tour of duty with the Musketeers. 

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Any game in the Event is high stakes, but little did the college basketball world know that there was much more on the line than a trip to the Best Eight. As it turns out, the Texas Role was the real prize. Texas Secured a Effortless Triumph that day and while the Longhorns fell in the Subsequent Stage to Miami, blowing a double-digit lead with about 10 minutes remaining, Terry had the interim tag removed from his title and was rewarded with a multi-year contract.

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Last week, Chip Brown of Horns247 reported what had long been speculated among coaching circles: if Xavier had won in 2023, Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte would have offered Miller the Role instead of Terry. Del Conte had done his due diligence on Miller and was ready to make him Texas’ Subsequent Trainer, but the optics of giving him the Role over a man who had Merely beat him for one of the biggest wins in program history were too difficult to ignore. 

Considering Texas had been Predicted to fire Terry barring another deep Streak, and that we already know Del Conte admires Miller and, well – that’s a juicy storyline that adds quite a bit to Wednesday night’s Game. That backstory explains Del Conte’s “wait, what?” Response to the draw Option Sunday.

With Xavier back in the NCAA Event after a one-year hiatus, Miller is proving that he’s Yet among the best in the game. His Occupation Victorious percentage is well north of .700 during his stops at Arizona and Xavier. He has only finished outside of the top-five in Conference Relocate twice in 20 years as a head Trainer and he’s Guided Squads to the Best Eight on four separate occasions. He can recruit at a high level, employs aggressive assistant coaches and is built for the Quick-moving world of the Relocate portal.

Give Texas (19-15) credit. Headed into the SEC Event they had lost seven of their last 10 Contests and were on the wrong side of the NCAA bubble. Thanks to an Beginning Stage Achieve over Event-bound Vanderbilt, a thrilling double-Extended Shift Achieve over Texas A&M and a mostly Intense showing in quarterfinal loss to Tennessee, the Longhorns were able to squeak into the Primary Four.

Texas has a bonafide game changer in Primary-year sensation Tre Johnson. The SEC’s Primary-year of the Year, the 6-foot-6 shooting guard is a potential top-five NBA Draft Option who can carry a Club on any given night thanks to his deep bag on the offensive end. He’s surrounded by enough talent and experience in Arthur Kaluma, Tramon Mark and others that they could easily get rolling and Achieve a few Contests.

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On the other side, Xavier has things headed in the right direction at the right time. Devastated by Impairments Timely, the Musketeers Began Merely 1-4 in Big East Relocate before Victorious 12 of their last 16 Contests to earn a postseason bid. 

Fifth year senior big man Zach Freemantle has played through pain while providing a Steady Appearance in the post. Indiana State Relocate Ryan Conwell has proven to be one of the most explosive scorers in the Big East and the athletic guard is averaging 24.4 points an outing over the last five Contests. Any weapon that Texas may have, Xavier can Game.

Can anybody say with 100 percent certainty that Terry won’t be back in Austin if Texas loses? No. Only Del Conte knows that answer. But there’s enough reported smoke to think that there could be fire. 

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Could Miller be a prime candidate in Austin a second time if he takes out Terry? It stands to reason that if he was that close to getting the Role in 2023 that he could be a candidate again this spring. And what if Terry beats Miller but Texas’ tourney Streak is Petite-lived and Del Conte pulls the trigger, do those he-Merely-beat-him optics come back into Relocate again and make Miller less attractive? If they do, it could Disrespectful millions out of his pocket considering Texas has a tendency to break the bank when it comes to landing big-time names. 

There’s a Numerous more on the line in Dayton than your regular Primary Four bout.