'Like My Own Son': Longhorns' Rodney Terry Holds Special Bond with Xavier Star Souley Boum
KANSAS CITY, MO - From lesser-known beginnings as a high school assistant to leading the Texas Longhorns to their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2008, interim coach Rodney Terry has had quite the journey, especially when factoring in the current season.
But as Terry has emphasized all season, everything happens for a reason. And in Friday's meeting with the No. 3 seed Xavier Musketeers at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, he'll be coaching against a player that he admitted was "one of his favorites to coach" while he was head coach of the UTEP Miners in El Paso, Texas from 2018-21.
Xavier guard Souley Boum, the Musketeers' leading scorer (16.5) this season, is currently in his fifth collegiate year, but spent three seasons at UTEP under Terry. Incredibly, their two separate journeys have now led them here, to the biggest moment of their basketball lives.
Through all the emotions that Friday's game will bring, Terry reflected Thursday on the time he spent with Boum at UTEP, though it's hardly altering his fiery competitiveness with a spot in the Elite 8 on the line,
"Just a fierce competitor, great kid. Love him like my own son," Terry said of Boum. "We'll be major competitors come Friday night, though. He wants to win. I want to win."
Boum has been one of the most consistent scoring guards in the country over the past fives season. He's never averaged fewer than 10.9 points in a single season, which included a career-best 19.8 points per game in his final go-round with the Miners last year.
Boum led UTEP in scoring (18.8) in his last season with Terry in 2020-21 and understands how surreal the moment is.
"It's crazy because it just shows you how everything comes full circle," Boum said Thursday. "I'm about to play against my old coach. I played for him for three years. We have a great relationship. I know he cares about me. I care about him.
"Just the fact that we're about to play against each other now is just crazy. Stuff like this, it rarely happens. So I'm just trying to soak it all in, appreciate everything about it. I'm just going to try to do my best to give him some fits tomorrow."
Terry admitted that Boum's win-first mentality and similarly-strong competitiveness allowed him to take the reigns as a talented ball-dominant scoring guard with the Miners.
But under Terry, Boum learned how to be a true point guard, and the results clearly show. This season, he's averaging a career-best 4.3 assists, an impressive mark considering his second-highest single-season assist average was 2.9 in the 2021-22 campaign.
While chuckling at the memories, Terry indirectly took a bit of the credit for this.
"He was a guy that was wired to score," Terry said. "He was a guy that came in that we played a lot at the two. I made him play a little bit at the point, and he wasn't really happy playing at the point because he didn't get to keep the ball in his hands as much as he wanted to."
It would be cruel punishment for Terry to see the former star guard he helped develop potentially send the Longhorns home. At the end of the day though, it's Boum's own drive that has the Musketeers - much like Texas - playing in one of the biggest games in program history.
"He was a guy that was all about trying to win," Terry said. "Souley is so focused on winning sometimes to a fault. He's like, 'Just give me the ball. Let me go do it. I'll show you, Coach. We'll get it done.'"
The Longhorns will have no problems deciding who to focus their defensive attention on, as Boum is the engine that makes Xavier run. But maybe Terry has some tricks up his sleeve to help spoil the March Madness dream for Boum and the Musketeers while potentially sending Texas to the Elite Eight in the process.
Texas and Xavier tip-off at 8:45 p.m. CT on Friday.
You can follow Zach Dimmitt on Twitter at @ZachDimmitt7
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