Accolades are coming in from all over the country as the Terrapins have made a tremendous hire that gets better the more you learn about the new coach. This is what I love about Turgeon: Watch the press conference on the post below and you will see he understands what Basketball means at the University of Maryland. Thousands of people are discussing this past weekend, terptalk.com has never been as populated. Terrapin basketball rules the hoops talk in this state and DC. No not the Wizards, not the Hoyas, but Maryland hoops is everything. Turgeon is 97-40 at A&M with 4 straight NCAA performances and now he gets to recruit in the hottest bball area in the country–right in his backyard. I am sure Baltimore’s Nick Faust, Sterling Gibbs, and Montrose’s Justin Anderson will realize that only great things lie ahead for Maryland hoops.
Kevin Anderson’s comments:
“We’re thrilled to bring Mark to the University, where I’m sure he will continue to build on the great legacy and success of Maryland Basketball,” said Anderson. “In Mark, we have brought one of the outstanding young coaches in the country, and one who has a proven record of achievement on and off the court. We couldn’t be more excited.”
freddy from boca
from espn.com
By Eamonn Brennan
Given the high-profile names floated throughout this remarkably quick coaching search — a four-day masterclass in hiring efficiency by Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson — you might be willing to forgive Maryland fans if they react to tonight’s news with a collective: “Who?”
They shouldn’t. In the end, Anderson didn’t just move quickly. He didn’t just shoot for the splashy name. In landing Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon, Anderson did something vastly more important. He made a high-quality hire.
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AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File
Mark Turgeon may not be the sexy hire Maryland was looking for, but he has proven to be a winner.
Of course, it’s not as though Turgeon has been toiling in obscurity. The A&M coach has won everywhere he’s been, a run that began at Wichita State, where Turgeon took a program that had only two winning seasons in its previous 11 and turned it into one that still consistently competes for Missouri Valley titles. In 2007, Turgeon parlayed the Shockers’ success into a position at A&M, where he has guided a quietly solid program, stuck in the middle of football-obsessed Aggieland, to four straight NCAA tournament appearances.
Still, there’s no other way to put it: Turgeon does not qualify as a sexy hire.
He is not the young, charismatic coach coming off a brilliant mid-major run. He isn’t the energetic, proven winner lured away from another top program. He isn’t Brad Stevens or Shaka Smart or Jamie Dixon or Sean Miller, all of whom were eagerly bandied about by Maryland fans on message boards and comment sections in the wake of beloved coach Gary Williams’s retirement Thursday.
It’s fair to say those excited Terrapins fans, who spent the last week hearing their program described as a sleeping giant by every anonymous source in the country — not to mention followed as their AD met with Miller in Las Vegas Saturday — might have hoped for something a bit more, well, exciting.
By all the barometers we usually associate with that word, Turgeon doesn’t qualify. To date, he hasn’t regularly recruited blue-chip prospects; more often, his players are unheralded workers who develop throughout their multi-year careers. Texas A&M plays a slow, deliberate style. Turgeon’s press conference demeanor can be rather like his teams: quiet, sparse and even downright boring.
To be clear, those aren’t bugs or features. They’re just who Turgeon is.
The important thing here, the one that really matters, is this: At the bottom of it all, Maryland fans are like any other. They want to win basketball games. Mark Turgeon wins basketball games, and he does so at places with far fewer institutional advantages than Maryland. It’s really just that simple.
And so a new era begins in College Park — not with a bang, necessarily, but certainly not with a whimper. Maryland fans be forgiven if they need a moment to get to know Turgeon, but the more they see of him, the more they’ll grow to appreciate the coach’s clinical solidity and drama-free approach. They’ll appreciate Anderson’s efforts in making this hire.
More than anything else, though, they’ll appreciate the wins. The rest is only so much noise.
TEX A & M PLAYS A SLOW, DELIBERATE STYLE. I’m sure the fans will love to that. But let’s give him a chance. If the Kansas job should become available in the next few years Turgeon will throw his hat in the ring for that job. otherwise he’s probably going to be at Maryland as long as he wants, providing he wins of course.
· 11/12/2019
bevo from west palm beach
I think it is a great day for md BB. Turgeon plays man to man D and has excellent repore with his players. He will fit right in where Gary left off. Go Terps.
· 11/12/2019
BRWils
Gibbs and Faust should keep in mind that Turgeon is a guard at heart, just like Williams. Also, he runs a guard oriented offense and not the Flex, so, it should help to highlight their play, if they have the goods. Losing Jordan Williams is a much bigger concern for me than switching from Gary to Turgeon.
· 11/12/2019