New Maryland Head Coach: Mark Turgeon

[The Rick]

Per Jeff Goodman from FoxSports.com:

Maryland has hired Texas A&M's Mark Turgeon, source told FOXsports.com

Full story on FoxSports.com here.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Sounds like a good hire. Hopefully the athletic department will be able to express that better than they did with Edsall.

[The Rick]

In the above FoxSports article:

The former Kansas player is considered one of the most underrated coaches in America and is also known as one of the top X’s and O’s guys in the nation.

[The Rick]

Per Jon Rothstein of FoxSports:

Maryland gets an excellent basketball coach in Mark Turgeon. Whomever replaces him in College Station will inherit a terrific Aggies team.

[The Rick]

Kudos to Turgeon for assuring his players, staff & AD found out from him and not through the media. What an outstanding way of handling this.

[The Rick]

Per Brent Zwerneman via Twitter:

Turgeon: Ive accepted the maryland job. It was too good for me to pass on. #mysa

[The Rick]

Per Alex Kline from TheRecruitScoop via Twitter:

Talked with a few of the Maryland players tonight about the hiring of Mark Turgeon. They are surprised, but optimistic.

Not sure what to think of that comment.

Can't wait until Stoners' interviews tomorrow.

[gallden]

Wonder if we're keeping the two Gary recruits?

[Sports Guy]

I don't think anyone can look at this as a bad hire.

He is a good coach and did a good job in a tough basketball conference and he did it at a school that is all about football.

So, now he is coming to a school that mostly all about basketball.

[Sports Guy]

http://www.kbtx.com/sports/headlines/69797052.html

http://blog.chron.com/aggies/2009/01/the-perils-for-mark-turgeon-of-recruiting-from-coast-to-coast/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Turgeon

Turgeon was able to keep DeAndre Jordan at A&M after he was hired...That is important.

[The Rick]

Seth Davis's take:

Gotta hand it to Md AD Kevin Anderson. He went after big names, ended with good choice in Turgeon, and did it at warp speed. Impressive.

[The Rick]

http://www.kbtx.com/sports/headlines/69797052.html

http://blog.chron.com/aggies/2009/01/the-perils-for-mark-turgeon-of-recruiting-from-coast-to-coast/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Turgeon

Turgeon was able to keep DeAndre Jordan at A&M after he was hired...That is important.

Good point, should help us retain our recruits.

I love that Turgeon specifically mentioned to one of the A&M beat writers after his meeting with the players that he's so excited about all the great players in the MD area.

[The Rick]

Confirmation from the Washington Post:

Said former Maryland coach Lefty Driesell, who coached against Turgeon when Driesell was at Georgia State and Turgeon was at Jacksonville State: “He’s a great young man, a great person and an excellent coach. I coached against his teams at Jacksonville State; they were in our league. And I’ve seen his teams on TV.

“He’ll do a good job, I’m sure. He ran the pick-and-roll really well. And his teams played hard. I liked their offense, and they played good defense.

“He’s a good coach that would be an excellent choice, in my opinion. The Maryland people would really like him.”

[The Rick]

Press conference is at noon Wednesday to announce Turgeon.

[mweb]

I won't pretend to be that knowledgeable about him, but it does seem like a good hire. Still a bit of a let-down though, given that it seemed like Miller was in the bag and guys like Wright and Dixon were strongly interested in the job.