Diamond in the rough: Brendan Terry gives Redhawks transfer portal triumph

Brendan Terry is a textbook example of how much a transfer can heavily impact a men’s college basketball program within just a few months.

Known for his rebounding, the 6-foot-7 junior arrived at Southeast Missouri State after carving a name for himself at the junior college level, averaging seven rebounds and seven points as a sophomore for Pensacola State College in Florida.

On Saturday, as coach Brad Korn’s squad pulled off their most emphatic victory of the 2024-25 season, Terry continued to take his game to another notch after finishing with a career-high 20 points and a team-high six rebounds. Perhaps the most critical stat line, however, was Terry’s superb foul shooting, as the California native sunk 10 of 11 free throws.

That is one area of his game Korn found most impressive about Terry's progression as a Division 1 newcomer.

“The thing I'll give Brendan, and even David Idada, is that I don't give enough credit for both of those guys staying after every practice and shooting,” Korn said. “We started this thing back in June, so if you start adding up all those days, it's going to start to take its effect. And that's what you'd love to see about your team and individuals, ‘Are they slowly improving? Are they getting 1% better each day?’ With Brendan, when we recruited him, I told him he had to be a better free-throw shooter. So, we were honest with him in that recruiting process, especially someone with the skill set down around the blocks who is going to be fouled. I give him a ton of credit for staying after practices and working on what is a weakness. If you can turn your weaknesses into strengths come February, it could make you a really dangerous player.”

Which is exactly what Terry is evolving into.

The opening tip off between SEMO's Brendan Terry and Tennessee State's Carlous Williams on Saturday, Feb. 1, at the Show Me Center.Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com

In a wire-to-wire game such as SEMO’s 89-87 overtime victory over Tennessee State on Saturday, every basket mattered. While senior Teddy Washington Jr. hit the game-winning jumper with two seconds left and junior Rob Martin scored a team-high 22 points, Terry’s impact at the foul line and in the paint was equally as important.

“For me, the beginning of the season was just, ‘Focus, focus, focus,’ and knocking free throws down,” Terry said. “I remember one time, I jokingly went to go play some chess right after practice, and then he (Korn) said, ‘BT, where you at? Fifty free throws next practice.’ Then it was just free throws, free throws, free throws. So, I’ve slowly just been building up on that. It's big when you see it coming during your game.”

It's not like Terry, who also is a renowned chess player, still can't fill out the stat sheet in the points department. Before his career night against Tennessee State, he put up a then-career-high 19 points at Western Illinois on Jan. 25, shooting 58.3% (7 of 12) from the floor, including 5 of 7 from the foul line.

In fact, Terry averaged 12 points and 4.2 rebounds per game in the month of January. It's just that, unlike at Pensacola State College, he doesn't have to be the bona fide scorer for the Redhawks, with Martin, Washington Jr., BJ Ward, and several others being able to fill that role on any given night.

But still, that’s not preventing Terry from further emerging as one of those catalysts.

“Our whole big thing has been, ‘Stack days, stack days and get everything going,’” Terry said. “I feel like that's just been the story of our season: we started a little down and then we just keep building momentum all the way up.

“When you go to the (conference) tournament, you’ve got to win three or four games in a row. So, if you can't do it in the regular season, you can't do it then. I feel like it's big because when we do it here, it's definitely writing on the wall to do it later in the season.”

SEMO forward Brendan Terry bounce passes the ball to an open teammate against Tennessee State on Saturday, Feb. 1, at the Show Me Center.Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com

Like most JUCO products, transferring up into high-level college basketball takes some getting used to. While he says his time at Pensacola under veteran head coach Pete Pena was incredibly valuable in terms of both maturation and development, the different intricacies and speed of the game at the DI level have been huge eye-openers.

“It was really just getting used to the pace of the game and just playing Division 1 basketball,” Terry said. “I really got my feeling in after the first few games. Just post moves started coming easier, like when to spin, when to fake spin, when time up a jumper — all of that just became a lot easier over time. When you got three great point point guards in Teddy, Rob and BJ, they make the game a lot easier, too. Now I can do a little bit of what I want to do, and then keep building up the momentum just like that.”

That said, don’t be shocked if Terry’s star continues to shine brighter in the latter part of the season and beyond. Through 23 games, he ranks third on the team with 10.4 points per game and second with four rebounds per game. His 55 made free throws are a team-high, as well.

“BT is a dog, man,” Martin said. “When BT is locked in, nobody can mess with him. I just tell him to keep going and keep level-headed and just stay focused, and everything else will take care of itself. If that's me finding him, him doing post-ups, or just doing a little more work, I feel like that's what has helped BT be successful this year and over the last couple of months.”