New Coach Search

[BaltimoreTerp]

Will probably take a day (hopefully not 2) after the hire goes official to compile, but I some good interviews lined up.

Will have analysis on the hire, and looking at recruiting as well.

As we would expect from you

[The Rick]

Billy Liucci from College Station:

RT @billyliucci: Turgeon in Maryland this morning, back in College Station this afternoon. Wasn't at Reed and I'm hearing he is 'really wrestling' w/decision

Great, here we go again.

[The Rick]

Will probably take a day (hopefully not 2) after the hire goes official to compile, but I some good interviews lined up.

Will have analysis on the hire, and looking at recruiting as well.

Looking forward to it, especially the info on the recruiting. That's THE key component as to if we will take a step forward, IMO.

[JohnD]

You're right. No one ever goes to games at Maryland when the teams are good.

I think you are starting to cross over from being right to overreacting to every little thing here. Of course, you did the same thing during the football search, and didn't react well when I said as such, so it will be interesting to see what happens with this.

Maryland didn't sell out all its games this past season, and that was with an first-team all conference center. Seriously, I was at the Virginia game and it was dismal. And that's against a rival. Do you think next year's team, which most everyone expects to be a lot worse (there's no size) is going to be better in terms of attendance? Especially with the way this has gone down?

[The Rick]

More from Billy Liucci:

Turgeon meeting with Aggie assistants at 7:45...this whole thing will wrap up quickly

[The Rick]

Brent Zwrenerman:

Turgeon is now here and entered the meeting room with his staff #mysa

[BaltimoreTerp]

Maryland didn't sell out all its games this past season, and that was with an first-team all conference center. Seriously, I was at the Virginia game and it was dismal. And that's against a rival. Do you think next year's team, which most everyone expects to be a lot worse (there's no size) is going to be better in terms of attendance? Especially with the way this has gone down?

The key words are "most everyone expects to be a lot worse". What if, under a new coach, they aren't?

And this is about more than this season. This is about the following season and the long-term. They could probably hire Bobby Knight and sell out the Comcast Center this season, but that wouldn't be smart going forward.

[The Rick]

Billy Liucci:

Hearing the Maryland offer is $2.5 mil/yr...lots of coin being thrown Turge's way

Players now arriving at Reed...team meeting taking place in a few

[The Rick]

Stoner, what are your thoughts on Turgeon.

[JohnD]

For that much money, Turgeon better walk into that meeting with the Testudo mascot on top of his head.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Pretty amazing year for MD really. New AD, long-time coaches replaced in the leading revenue sports.

The fan-base had candidates identified in both sports for sometime before the openings were official. You would have thought how the football search was handled, that some changes would have existed with the basketball hire. I have no problem with Miller saying no. What I do have a problem with, is that even though MD said he was 'A candidate,' not 'The candidate' - once you got on a plane and flew out there... the expectation from the fan-base was that he was the number 1 option.

It really should not have been too hard for KA to release statements before that meeting took place, saying MD would be having multiple interviews with interested candidates. Since that was not stated, MD needed to get that contract done. The idea that Wright, Dixon etc all backed off from being considered because they were not the seen as 'lead' option publicly is understandable and sucks.

And it's made worse because it sounds like Anderson screwed up the interview itself which may have caused Miller to decline. So I agree with John and others that he isn't coming out of this looking good in the short-term.

Of course, if in the next three years the teams in question win their respective ACC Championships no one will remember how this went down. So we'll know then if the PR problems still resulted in smart, successful hires.

[JohnD]

The key words are "most everyone expects to be a lot worse". What if, under a new coach, they aren't?

And this is about more than this season. This is about the following season and the long-term. They could probably hire Bobby Knight and sell out the Comcast Center this season, but that wouldn't be smart going forward.

You tell me who is going to establish an inside presence and then I'll consider your "what if." Right now Hawk Palsson is the best returning "big man." And he's 6-6 playing an undersized 4. C'mon, son.

[JohnD]

Turgeon, truthfully, sounds like a good hire. But you can't sell anyone from Texas A&M basketball as a blockbuster here. Expectations are super high for basketball. We tolerated a little less from Gary because of who he was and what he did. Many of us didn't forget. We were willing to let it slide. But those days are over. Expectations are raised and excuses aren't going to be tolerated.

KA raised the expectations himself with the football search. I've come around on Edsall. But this basketball team needs to figure out a way to win without much in the way of talent, outside of Stoglin, Howard, and the freshmen.

[BaltimoreTerp]

You tell me who is going to establish an inside presence and then I'll consider your "what if." Right now Hawk Palsson is the best returning "big man." And he's 6-6 playing an undersized 4. C'mon, son.

That's why it's a "what if", pops

[The Rick]

Turgeon, truthfully, sounds like a good hire. But you can't sell anyone from Texas A&M basketball as a blockbuster here. Expectations are super high for basketball. We tolerated a little less from Gary because of who he was and what he did. Many of us didn't forget. We were willing to let it slide. But those days are over. Expectations are raised and excuses aren't going to be tolerated.

KA raised the expectations himself with the football search. I've come around on Edsall. But this basketball team needs to figure out a way to win without much in the way of talent, outside of Stoglin, Howard, and the freshmen.

At the end of the day, it's not about a block buster. Block buster's feel good and all, but they don't guarantee results, just like a non block buster doesn't guarantee poor results. Bottom line, as I mentioned earlier, KA needed to do a much better job managing fans expectations. That is where he fell short here. Turgeon is a quality hire.