Well La-de-frickin-da! Matthew McConaughey is well known for playing a plethora of different characters in movies over the years, whether it was Mark Hanna in “The Wolf Of Wall Street”, Richard Wershe Sr. in “White Boy Rick”, Ron Woodruff in “Dallas Buyers Club”, or even Dallas in “Magic Mike”, not to mention those corny Lincoln commercials where even Jim Carrey had to poke fun at during Saturday Night Live in 2014. Nonetheless, McConaughey added another title to his resume Saturday night, and that’s Assistant Coach of the Texas Longhorns Men’s Basketball team.
Well, alright, maybe not an official coach, but he was brought in before the Longhorns’ game against Oklahoma as a de facto assistant coach to give the squad a pre-game pep talk in the locker room, as he also counseling players during time-outs, not to mention that he practically sat on the Longhorns bench for most of the game.
Well, whatever McConaughey brought to the table on Saturday night worked, as the Longhorns defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 75-72, in what was a huge Big-12 showdown between the two schools. The boys in orange are now 11-7 on the season, and are currently 3-3 in the Big-12, which has them in sixth place.
“It kept the mood light for sure, but he has a strong message he gives to us every time he sees us,” Dylan Osetkowski told the Daily Texan. “He dared us to be who we are tonight. He dared us to play for each other tonight for 40 minutes.”
It is well known that McConaughey graduated from the University of Texas as a graduate in 1993, and last month the actor was named “minister of culture” for the Longhorns’ new basketball arena, which has been announced for the 2021 season.
“He did a great job,” said Texas head coach Shaka Smart about McConaughey’s effect on his players. “The interesting thing is during the game and the timeouts, and a couple times I peeked over at him, he looked a little nervous. So, I’m glad we could get this one for him and for all of us, but he was a big part of it in terms of energy.”
Smart also seemed to be very impressed with McConaughey’s attire for the game, saying “I would love to get one of those. He said he got it overseas. He has some connections I don’t have.”
It seems as if the Longhorn players really enjoyed the Hollywood actor’s company throughout the night, as at the end of the day, Texas picked up a thrilling victory over the rival Sooners. Personally, I’d probably immediately think of all those cringe worthy Lincoln commercials when seeing McConaughey trying to give me a pep talk, as I could only imagine his talk being similar to those commercials.
