Texas State basketball beats Troy for best win of the season<\/a><\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Breaking the mold<\/p>\n
When young coaches first get in the game, they need to find their niche, Antoine said. Without experience, most don\u2019t have much to offer from a schematic standpoint. So they show their worth in other ways. Antoine and Johnson each said that Black assistants tend to be hired in specific roles, and recruiting tends to be one of the fields into which they are pigeon-holed. Even if they excel, coaching is about much more than talking to players and creating relationships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson, 47, said Black people have no problems being hired for these specialized jobs. But being a head coach requires experience in many other facets, and breaking the mold of being seen as only a recruiter can be difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey can be in a situation where that is their primary,\u201d Antoine said. \u201cSo they\u2019re not able to develop their basketball game, an understanding of not just the X\u2019s and O\u2019s, but the ins and outs of how to run a program.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Texas State head coach Zenarae Antoine disputes a call with an official during the game against Troy at Strahan Arena on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026 in San Marcos, Texas.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Antoine, 51, said she began her journey working under Tom Collen, a women’s coach at Louisville and Arkansas. Collen had no qualms about giving her different kinds of responsibilities within the program, which Antoine said she appreciated.<\/p>\n
Whether it was helping to run plays, sitting in on marketing meetings or working on player development, Antoine said Collen trusted her and fostered growth, which prepared her for her role at Texas State. She has coached the Bobcats for 15 years and is the program’s all-time leader in coaching victories and was the 2023 Sun Belt coach of the year.<\/p>\n
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Much like her mentor, Antoine tries to prepare members of her staff so that when their time does come, they\u2019re just as ready for their opportunity as she was.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was one of the first coaches at the then-Power Five level who was very comfortable in turning over the reins \u2026 to a coach who was very capable, but who didn\u2019t necessarily look like him,\u201d Antoine said. \u201cOthers, and myself, included.\u201d<\/p>\n
Passing the torch<\/p>\n
Johnson isn’t Texas State\u2019s first Black men\u2019s basketball coach. That honor goes to Celester Collier, who Johnson said sits across from him at court level during games in Strahan Arena. Johnson recognizes that he wouldn\u2019t be where he is now without Collier, and he said he\u2019s \u201cblessed to be walking in his shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n
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When the Bobcats were transitioning to Division I competition in 1984, Collier was hired to lead the men\u2019s team. Harry Larrabee replaced Collier following the 1985-86 season, after Collier posted an overall record of 12-42 in two years. Collier didn\u2019t get a shot to play out his contract, an opportunity that was afforded to Johnson.<\/p>\n
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Texas State Bobcats head coach Terrence Johnson stands on the sidelines as Texas State men’s basketball takes on Troy at Strahan Arena in San Marcos Wednesday,Feb. 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Mikala Compton\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m representing this Bobcat community\u2026 but I\u2019m also representing him, and him paving the way as the first African American coach and me being the second.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of why Johnson advocates for other Black assistants who have come up with him to get a head coaching job. He mentioned Texas assistant Ulric Maligi, Kentucky assistant Alvin Brooks and Arkansas associate head coach Chin Coleman as men who are ready to take the next step in their careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Johnson sees each of them as deserving based on their merit, not their race. But as someone who has thrived because of the Black Americans who came before him, he said he feels an obligation to hopefully pass the torch onto the next generation. Black History Month is a time to remember and honor the past, but crafting a better future requires action, not just in February \u2014 the whole year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a responsibility to share that and keep it going,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI don\u2019t want it to be something that it\u2019s a ‘month,’ and it\u2019s just a month in words, not in action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas State Head Coach Terrence Johnson talks to his team as the Bobcats create to play the Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[56124,2692,1771,9330,27,29,28,9327,51458,1927,13548],"class_list":["post-175509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-black-history-month","tag-college-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-division-i","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-state-bobcats","tag-texas-state-bobcats-basketball","tag-texas-state-university","tag-women-s-college-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}