Vanderbilt Basketball Hires Former SEC Head Coach as Assistant
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NASHVILLE—-Vanderbilt has hired Rodney Terry as an assistant coach, per reports.
Terry spent the 2025-26 season as a scout for the New Orleans Pelicans as well as an analyst for ESPN that provided color commentary on college basketball games–particularly SEC games. He was on the sidelines for multiple Vanderbilt games at Memorial Gymnasium throughout the season.
Before his time out of the game Terry served as head coach at the University of Texas, where he led the Longhorns to an Elite Eight appearance and the 2023 Big 12 Tournament title before being let go after the 2024-25 season. All three seasons that Terry spent at Texas resulted in the Longhorns reaching the NCAA Tournament and taking on a spot in the AP Top 25 at some point.
Terry was named the interim head coach for the Longhorns during the 2022-2023 season as a result of the firing of now-Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard. As a result of the season that Terry and the Longhorns put together after Beard's departure, he was awarded the full-time head coaching job.
His coaching career also includes 11 seasons as a head coach at UTEP and Fresno State, where he guided the Bulldogs to the 2016 Mountain West Championship and NCAA Tournament berth. Terry's teams won 20+ games four times in his 11 seasons at midmajors.
Terry's record as Texas' head coach was 62-37. His record as a head coach as a whole is 225-193 and came in the midst of a number of seasons as a highly-regarded assistant under now-Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes at Texas. Barnes and Terry coached Kevin Durant, Tristan Thompson, and D.J. Augustin together before Terry departed for Fresno State in 2011.
Terry is set to replace former Vanderbilt assistant coach Jon Cremins, who left the program in order to take the head coaching job at Georgia State.
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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