Looks like it's all but official right now. It was reported that he was offered the job and will likely accept by the end of the day.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/05...ll-accept.html
Good luck to him if true. Sucks for us.
Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon has recieved an offer to succeed Gary Williams as Maryland's next basketball coach. A source with knowledge of the situation believes he will accept.
An A&M spokesman said as of 4 p.m. he could not confirm one way or the other. Turgeon is 97-40 in four seasons with the Aggies. Williams abruptly retired last week after 22 seasons with the Terps.
Turgeon's name was the latest to surface, following reported runs by athletic director Kevin Anderson at Arizona's Sean Miller, Notre Dame's Mike Brey and Butler's Brad Stevens.
Aggies athletic director Bill Byrne returned to his office midmorning, but Turgeon did not after apparently returning from "a short family vacation" Sunday night, according to an A&M source. He did not return phone or text messages Monday.
Turgeon signed a contract extension and received a raise from A&M last spring after Oregon expressed interest in him. In a lengthy interview shortly after, he noted how much he enjoyed living in College Station and felt at home within the university family. He has, however, expressed recent frustration with the lack of consistency in attendance at home games.
As someone who just went through Miller to Maryland rumors as certainty, just wait until the presser.
However, I have heard Turgeon was in their top-10 list, so it makes sense.
He's a good young coach. Get a quality elder assistant (like what Lavin did at St. John's with Keady) and he'll have success.
Just don't see how he'd reject an offer like that. Especially after the rumors that he was in Maryland today. He will likely talk to the team tonight and make it official. Not sure where A&M goes from here. Probably hire within (Scott Spinelli) unless he follows Turgeon.
Possibly. Texas has just as much talent as the Maryland/DC area, and while Kansas and Texas are tough beats, they typically aren't Duke and North Carolina tough beats. A&M has been better and gone farther in the tournament more recently than has Maryland.
I think he probably goes, but as a fan of a team whose coach is from the east, had the same sales pitch and decided against it, these reports can be premature, if not very inaccurate.
Hope you are right. Actually seeing reports now that he is in College Station and not in the DC area.
Sorry, man. Looks official now.
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Hearing buzz about Buzz Williams to likely hire for A&M, assuming A&M ponies up for the buyout.
I have heard that around a couple places. Would be a great hire , he was an assistant at A&M for a couple years. Doubt it happens though.
I'd like that.
As long as we can find someone to replace him on such short notice I won't be very disappointed in Turgeon leaving. He wasn't really the greatest recruiter and my brain almost melted when I had to watch our offense last year. It seemed like our go-to scheme involved Dash Harris (who can't shoot 2's, 3's, free throws, or layups) dribbling out the shot clock and jacking up a bad 3 (he probably hit them at around a 9% clip -seriously).
I've heard good things about Buzz, but honestly I haven't watched his teams much. Anyone here who's seen him coach have an opinion on his offensive/defensive coaching abilities, and his recruiting skills for that matter?
Well he was an assistant under Gillespie so he runs a lot of the same schemes. Preaches great man to man defense a lot like Gillespie and Turge and a very fundamentally sound coach. He is a very hard nosed tough coach and it seems to rub off on his players.
He played a very short rotation at Marquette this past season (like 6 or 7 players). I have also seen where Marquette ranked 95th in the country in tempo although they did average about 8 more points per game then the Aggies this season. Overall they seemed to struggle offensively and settle for a lot of bad shots (especially the game against Xavier in the tourney).
Overall I think his style pretty much fits exactly what we have been doing for the past 8 years without much change. (Great defense, Questionable-Mediocre Offense)
Bringing in better recruits would obviously help the offense though, something Turge hasn't really been able to do until Branch this next year.
Overall if we can somehow land Buzz I would actually be happy about this whole situation, sadly though, I don't see that happening. Other candidates that have been mentioned so far by Luicci are current Assistant Coach Scott Spinelli and Memphis head coach Josh Pastner.
Buzz isn't going to come, he would cost too much. I think we go the mid-major route again, although I have no idea who it would be. I'm for anyone not named Doc Sadler. Byrne has done a good job finding quality bball coaches, so I'll trust his judgement. Just hoping we don't lose our recruits.
TexAgs seems to be nutting on Josh Pastner from Memphis, but I don't see him coming despite his Houston ties.
Pastner has already said he isn't interested. With Buzz having the huge buyout clause in his contract he is most likely out also. Tad Boyle seems like the most reasonable candidate and I would be fine with that. Doc Sadler.
I don't expect Pastner to leave Memphis until he gets a bunch of experience or Arizona comes calling. There are other programs he'd leave for, but like Arizona, they all require much more proof of success, both in recruiting and coaching. My guess is he's there for the next 5 seasons minimum, and if he's only leaving for Arizona, he may be there a while longer.
I think Pastner is pretty close to passing the recruiting test at the rate he's going. Yeah he needs a bigger body of work coaching, but with an extremely inexperienced and low IQ'ed team he came close to upsetting Arizona in the 1st round. I was even beginning to warm up to the idea of him coming here when it looked like Miller was gone. Memphis will be back to losing 0-1 conference USA games every year pretty soon like they did under Cal.
Pastner will only leave for an Arizona or Texas head coaching gig.
other names being volleyed around include Colorado’s Tad Boyle, Nebraska’s Doc Sadler, UTEP’s Tim Floyd, and even former New Mexico and St. John’s head coach and now ESPN game analyst Fran Fraschilla
Tim Floyd would be a great hire.
Billy Kennedy (the coach of Murray State) has reportedly been contacted by A&M. According to this Buck Harvey article he has ties to the Spurs as a former scout and coached at A&M before. He looks like a very good candidate to me.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/c...ns-1376398.php
Kennedy fits the mold of past Byrne hires and I think he would be a good get. Knows the area, very good talent evaluator, has NBA connections, and has proven he can win. It won't be the big splash most people are hoping for, but a solid choice at a very reasonable price.
I'm concerned his lack of name recognition won't be enough to keep our recruits, but we weren't getting a big name unless it was a reclamation project i.e. Pearl or Floyd.
According to this website (though you can't get the full article unless you're an insider), Jamal Branch sent a text message saying that both he and Jordan Green were still coming to Texas A&M. Those are the only two incoming recruits I'm aware of right now, so hopefully we're good there.
Also, according to the guy who runs that website, A&M is actually considering 3 coaches: Billy Kennedy from Murray State, Tommy Amaker from Harvard, and Ben Jacobson from Northern Iowa. I'll admit I know nothing about them except for that one positive article I read about Kennedy; who is the best of the three (as a coach and a recruiter)?
I saw Branch and Green reaffirm their commitments which is great news. Branch is sorely needed to keep Dash from seeing playing time.
A big key would be the hiring of Bryan High coach John Reese as an assistant. He has all the Texas HS ties as well as the AAU connections that would be needed should we bring an out of state person in.
Personally, I don't want any part of Amaker. To me he's a good recruiter and a sub-par coach. Kennedy and Jacobson would be low cost options that could pay off big, similar to BCG and Turgeon. They make the most sense considering Byrne's past hiring history.
I had heard this possibility mentioned when Buzz was the original target, but it sounds like a good idea for whomever we end up hiring as the head coach. Apparently he's one of the most respected high school coaches in the state, and the fact that his son is one of the best players in next year's class doesn't hurt either (though I don't know if he'll necessarily come here if his dad does).
WTH? Liucci (texags.com) is apparently reporting that Jeff Van Gundy is a potential candidate for the job.
I don't know if he's drunk or what, but I wish this whole search was over already. I've wasted too much time over the course of just a few days trying to follow it.
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