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While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:
AUSTIN — It’s hard to report with absolute clarity about the future of men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry because the team still has a very faint chance of making the NCAA Tournament, and some close to the program are trying to rally support to retain Terry. The belief is athletic director Chris Del Conte would prefer to make a change, Terry has shown so far that he’s not an alpha coach and that Texas may not want to part with the $20 million or more that it would take to fire and hire coaching staffs and pay buyouts. I can confirm that CDC is more than a little enamored with NBA coaches Quin Snyder and Billy Donovan as well as Arkansas’ John Calipari and would be happy with any of them to replace Terry. Snyder makes $8 million a year, and Donovan $6 million, and a source said neither has a buyout. Calipari makes $7 million a year with a $6 million buyout. If CDC decides to keep Terry, he might try to hire one of those NBA coaches or Calipari next spring although Calipari’s contract apparently has a non-compete clause disallowing him from going to another SEC school. McNeese State’s Will Wade remains a viable candidate and might be interested in the vacancy at North Carolina State, which just fired Kevin Keatts a year after he took the Wolfpack to the Final Four. Wade is a proven winner, but he has baggage in his firing from LSU for paying players revealed in an FBI investigation and wouldn’t be that big of a splash hire. I know CDC admires Nate Oats, but why would he leave Alabama where he’s thriving? … Drake’s Ben McCollum, 43, is one helluva coach who has won four Division II national titles and 395 games and is the right age, but is he a big enough name? Indiana’s kicking his tires. … Incredibly, Texas remains barely in the hunt for an NCAA Tournament at-large berth as one of the last three teams out, according to Joe Lunardi, but I think it would have to win a minimum of two games against Vanderbilt and Texas A&M and maybe even a third game to have a shot. Remember, any win in the SEC Tournament would pad Texas Quad 1 win total from 5-9.
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Texas guard Tre Johnson (20) celebrates a win over Kentucky during an NCAA college basketball game in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephen Spillman)
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If Texas doesn’t make the NCAA, don’t blame Tre Johnson. The argument can be made that the two best basketball players to ever put on a Longhorn uniform are Kevin Durant and Johnson, with apologies to T.J. Ford, Slater Martin, LaMarcus Aldridge, D.J. Augustin, Johnnie Moore and whoever else you want to nominate. It’s a shame that Durant won just one NCAA Tournament game (and played in only two) and Johnson will likely never play in one. Maybe Johnson’s the biggest reason the selection committee would even give Texas the benefit of the doubt. Johnson held himself accountable for his 0-for-14 game against Oklahoma. Asked why he came to the press conference, he said, “Because I was told to.” That deserves a shoutout for Texas basketball SID Scott McConnell, who doesn’t coddle the players. “Everybody else played up to that role and played like they were supposed to. I was the only missing factor there,” Johnson said. “So if I’m playing good and I’m able to get them going, we’re going to be a hard team to stop.”
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is seen after an incomplete pass by quarterback Quinn Ewers on third down during the first half of the SEC Championship college football game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, in Atlanta.
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We finally got a chance to visit with Steve Sarkisian for the first time in two months after he’s made the rounds of national shows. … Wide receiver Ryan Niblett, a redshirt sophomore, has moved to cornerback. … CJ Baxter shouldn’t be ruled out to be ready for the season-opener Aug. 30 against Ohio State. Sark just doesn’t want to rush it. … Wideout DeAndre Moore Jr., the best returning receiver, won’t be a full participant in spring drills, but Sark didn’t elaborate. … Sark said he didn’t cancel the spring game, as Nebraska did, because he feared other programs’ tampering with his roster. “People are going to tamper with our players, whether we like it or not. We’re not having a spring game because I got 27 new faces on my roster that I need to take time to develop. We’ve got three returning starters on offense, and we’re only returning six starters on defense. But that doesn’t take into account” other players like wide receiver Ryan Wingo and offensive tackle Trevor Goosby making a few starts or center Cole Hudson, a part-time starter. He adds others like safety Derek Williams has been a starter as has edge rusher Colin Simmons, and transfers like Travis Shaw, Hero Kanu, Cole Brevard and Brad Spence started at their schools. … He said he “could argue that 15 or 16 guys (not just the 14) that maybe should have been invited” to the NFL Combine.” … The Athletic’s Steward Mandel lists his top 25 college football coaches going into 2025 and ranks Sarkisian fourth after being 11th a year ago. He questions his own rating slightly because Sark “has had only two seasons in which his teams have finished better than No. 20. Many coaches below him have produced more. Ultimately, I think of where his program is now and where it had been in the previous decade, and my confidence that Texas is going to win a national title in the next three years has me ranking him this high.” We agree with him at No. 4 but think he has Lincoln Riley too high at 13th (11 losses the last two years) and West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez at 17th and Deion Sanders at 18th after only one really good 9-4 season. SMU’s Rhett Lashlee is too low at 22nd. And I think Mike Gundy should be on that list.
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With a 13-1 start, Texas is off to its best baseball start since 2005, which just so happens is the year of the school’s most recent College World Series title. The Longhorns are one out shy of starting 14-0 and closing in on the 16-game winning streak of 2023. I’ll never forget covering the 1977 team that started the year with a national-record 34-game win streak and the 1982 team that won 33 straight. Rice pitcher Allan Ramirez struck out 12, walked 11 and threw 232 pitches — yes, I counted every one of them — in the Owls’ 4-3, 14-inning upset of Texas to snap the 34-game streak. I wrote that Ramirez’s arm would “soon be an artifact at the Smithsonian.” Owls coach Doug Osburn said he “never thought about taking him out.” … Texas is the only SEC team with at least three pitchers with ERAs below 2.00. Jared Spencer and Luke Harrison have allowed five earned runs in 38⅔ innings. … Love the move of Ethan Mendoza to leadoff hitter. He’s not only getting on base often, he’s the team co-leader with four home runs. … Jim Schlossnagle may be leery of starting a freshman in an SEC series, but rookie lefty Dylan Volantis may make him rethink that concern. … Max Grubbs has been terrific in relief. … Jason Flores showed off nicely. “I think his ability to move it right and left,” Texas catcher Rylan Galvan said when asked about Flores’ repertoire. “He’s got that hard sinker that’s really good, and when you compound that with a good cutter and a slider that he’s been working on, it’s pretty tough for hitters to have that fastball on your mind that’s running into you.”
I’m really not sure if Texas or Oklahoma belongs in the NCAA Tournament. Both finished 6-12 in SEC play. … I think Texas baseball will finish in the top four in the SEC. … I think left tackle Trevor Goosby will be an All-SEC pick next season. … I think Cooper Flagg could stay at Duke another year and make more money than he would in the NBA. … I think P.J. Tucker will play forever. … I don’t think Texas will play in the NIT if it doesn’t get into the NCAA. … I don’t think Bill Self will go out on a season like this. … I think Vic Schaefer will be ticked off beyond belief that his Longhorn women fell from No. 1 to No. 5.
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South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley calls to her players during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Texas in Austin, Texas, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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Notice how the South Carolina coach had her players guard the heck out of Madison Booker and Texas’ two centers, Taylor Jones and Kyla Oldacre. Staley is the Bill Belichick of women’s basketball. She takes away what her opponent does best and makes you play left-handed. … I can’t help but wonder if this second lopsided loss to South Carolina will leave some scar tissue moving forward into the NCAA Tournament. The defending national champions clobbered Texas 64-45, beating the Horns handily for the second time this season. … UTSA received a vote in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time in school history. The Roadrunners, coached by former Longhorn women’s head coach Karen Aston and led by AAC Player of the Year Jordyn Jenkins, finished the regular season with a school-record 26 wins, including a 17-1 mark in the American Athletic Conference. Would be interesting if the selection committee might try to match up the Roadrunners with the Longhorns.
Condolences to the family of Al Matthews, who died at age 77 Sunday from double pneumonia after battling dementia. The man excelled as an athlete and a person and worked as a car salesman for Lexus and Cadillac dealerships in Austin. Matthews was recognized as the first Black to be an assistant football coach at Texas when he tutored receivers in the springs of 1972 and 1973 and in bowl practices under Darrell Royal during his NFL offseasons. The Austin High grad, who excelled at Texas A&I as an NAIA All-American and later coached the Maroons, was a second-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers and intercepted 13 passes and recovered seven fumbles over eight NFL seasons. “I was not the fastest or the biggest guy, but I was smart,” the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Matthews once said. “I tried to play smart football and work hard to get the most out of my ability.” Matthews was regarded as a punishing hitter and a tough competitor who excelled against the run. “He was on our board of directors with the Greater Austin chapter of the National Football Foundation,” said Austin lawyer Pat Kelly, who played wide receiver for the Longhorns when Matthews was on the coaching staff during the Packers’ offseason. “He was a DB and helped us out a lot. He helped us with our pass patterns. Jim Moore and I were split ends who got down in a three-point stance. When Al asked us why, we said we’ve always done it that way. Coach Royal wanted us to fire out kind of out of a sprinter’s stance. Jimmy and I were very close. We alternated every other play and joked that we were play-carrier-inners. We carried in the plays from the sideline. I also remembered a time when a reporter interviewed us and asked which one of us was smarter, and Jimmy said ‘I is.’”
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While wondering whatever happened to Dooley Prince, the outfielder on Texas’ All-Name Team from Sulphur, La., who had season-ending knee injury in the spring of 2005 before the Longhorns won their most recent natty. … I caught up with last week’s target, former Longhorn linebacker Ty Allert from Houston Northbrook. He lives in Lexington with his wife, Merry, his high school sweetheart. They have four boys, but their oldest, Hunter, died 17 years ago in a 4-wheeler accident. Allert works with former Texas center Gene (“Gene, the Coke Machine) Chilton at Timber Wolf land clearing for road construction, oil and gas pipelines and wind and solar projects, which Chilton started about 10 years ago. Allert’s son Chase married Chilton’s daughter and ‘gave Gene and I two burnt orange-haired grandsons so you might have a chance to write about them in a Texas uniform one day.’
Finally rented “Gladiator 2.” Felt like a so-so knockoff of the original “Gladiator” movie, which I loved. Just didn’t have the same gravitas as the first movie. Didn’t love Denzel Washington’s quirky character, but he was rumored to make $20 million for the role. My wife and I toured the Coliseum, which is much smaller than it’s portrayed. There were actual rhinos during these gladiator fights. Sadly, there will be a “Gladiator 3.” Gave it five ducks.
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Buzz Williams says goodbye to six seniors and will not be at Texas A&M next season.
