No. 11 seed Texas basketball’s trip in the 2025 edition of the NCAA Tournament was a short one. The Longhorns have to pack their bags and head home to Austin after suffering a painful 86-80 loss at the hands of the No. 11 seed Xavier Musketeers in the final game of the First Four round on Wednesday at the UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio.
Texas had a lead as big as 13 points in the first half and was holding a 10-point lead in the second half before Xavier came storming back to pull off a memorable March Madness comeback victory. Despite the sting of Texas’ loss, Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry praised Sean Miller’s team, particularly noting the performance of senior Xavier guard Marcus Foster.
“Give those guys a lot of credit,” Terry said after the contest (h/t Mike Petraglia of CLNS Media). ” They made 12 threes, he made four of them. He made some really big ones. … this had the feel of a Sweet 16 game tonight, really did. Not a First Four. It was like a heavyweight bout.” Texas coach Rodney Terry.
Foster played a tremendous role in Xavier’s come-from-behind triumph. He stretched Texas basketball’s defense with his accurate shooting from behind the arc, converting on four of his five attempts from deep on his way to finishing with a team-high 22 poionts. Additionally, Foster had eight rebounds and two assists. Meanwhile, senior forward Zach Freemantle produced 15 points, two boards and two assists.
Will Rodney Terry coach another game for Texas basketball?
Shortly after the conclusion of the Xavier-Texas game, news started to circulate that the Longhorns are expected to part ways with Terry, who took over the program’s coaching gig following Chris Beard’s firing in the middle of the 2022-23 season.
It appears that Terry’s seat is now at its hottest temperature. He would have cooled it down significantly with a win over Xavier and a deep run in the tourney, but a failure to lead Texas to the first round and the manner in which the Longhorns lost to Xavier surely don’t help Terry’s case to see at least one more season calling the shots for the SEC program.
Texas basketball concludes its 2024-25 season with a 19-16 overall record and a 6-12 slate in SEC play.
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