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A&M's new basketball coach

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lonestar

lonestar

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I might be going out on a limb here, but A&M appears to be set to name their new coach tomorrow.  If I am wrong, then sorry.

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As a coach and a former collegiate player Head Coach Mark Turgeon has a lot to offer - a college career with three Final Four rings, a national championship ring, coaching experience in a Final Four, the NBA, and coaching lines that extend all the way to the beginning of the game.

All of that prior success has translated into triumph at Wichita State as Turgeon begins his seventh season at the helm of a returning NCAA Sweet 16 team that has reawakened the fervor and passion of Shocker fans and reminded the city of Wichita what basketball on the hill is supposed to be.

A Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship, a final Top 25 ranking, two NCAA Tournament wins, MVC Coach of the Year Award, Paul Miller’s AP honorable mention All-America honor and Valley Player of the Year honors just begin to explain the 2005-06 season.

Everyone associated with Shocker Athletics had seen it building since Turgeon arrived, but the nation was let in on the resurgence as WSU knocked off Seton Hall and Tennessee to reach the Sweet 16 before falling to Final Four participant George Mason in Washington, D.C.

Back-to-back-to-back 20-plus winning seasons, 21 overall wins in 2003-04, 22 in 2004-05 and 26 in 2005-06, marked the most since the late 1980s, while four-straight postseason appearances in (NIT in 2003, 2004, 2005 and NCAA in 2006) are the first for WSU since the mid-1960s.

As WSU’s fortunes have increased during Turgeon’s time as head coach, so have accolades as he has reached third on the WSU all-time coaching list with 111 wins.

In 2005-06, Mark Turgeon became the first Wichita State head coach to improve the Shockers in the win column five-straight seasons with 15, 18, 21, 22 and 26 wins. His three 20-win seasons tie him for the lead with Gene Smithson, who had three from 1979-86.

Shocker fans have responded to the success as WSU had 14-of-16 home games sell out in 2005-06 in Charles Koch Arena (10,478), which bests the 12 sellouts from the 1982-83 season. WSU’s average of 10,436 was the fourth-highest ever, while WSU’s average home attendance was 37th in NCAA Division I.

In 2004-05. WSU went 22-10 overall, finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference, and was ranked in the top 30 for nine weeks. The Shockers’ 9-0 start tied for the best in school history, while WSU won its first postseason game since 1989 with NIT home wins against Houston and Western Kentucky.

The Shockers in 2003-04 led the Missouri Valley Conference in seven statistical categories, led by a WSU free throw record 74 percent, which was ranked 20th in the NCAA, and a rebounding margin of 6.0, which was also the 21st-best in the NCAA. In addition, WSU’s defensive field goal percentage of 39 percent led the MVC, was 10th-best in the country and was the best at WSU in 45 years.

In 2003, the Shockers also went to postseason play for the first time since 1989 when it qualified for the 2003 NIT and travelled to Iowa State, while Turgeon also coached WSU to an upset of No. 12 Creighton. That feat marked the first time since the 1990-91 season for the Shockers to defeat a ranked team.

Turgeon, 41, came to WSU as its 25th basketball coach in March, 2000, from Jacksonville State, where he coached his team from an 8-18 record in 1998-99 to a 17-11 overall record in 1999-00. He also coached the Gamecocks to a 12-6 record and a tie for third-place in the Trans America Conference with Samford that year.

“I’m proud to be a Shocker, and it’s a happy day for Mark Turgeon and my family,” Turgeon said at his hiring. “I left Kansas eight years ago and I’ve been fighting my way back ever since.

“I love the State of Kansas and I love the enthusiasm it has for basketball.”

No stranger to large crowds and the passion of basketball fans in the state, he played collegiately at Kansas from 1984-87, dishing out assists with regularity during a brilliant four-year career for head coach Larry Brown.

A native of Topeka, Kan., Turgeon led Hayden High School (HHS) to back-to-back Class 4A state championships in 1982 and 1983, earning all-State Tournament team honors each year. A first-team all-State performer as a senior, he helped HHS to a 47-3 record during his career.

While at Kansas, Turgeon became the first player in Jayhawk history to ever play in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments. He was twice selected as team captain (1986 and ’87), was a Big Eight all-Academic performer (1986), a member of the 1986 team that made it to the Final Four and won the Big Eight Conference regular season and tournament championships, and was selected to the 1984 Big Eight all-Freshman team. During his career, Kansas posted a record of 108-33.

After graduating with a B.S. Degree in Personnel Administration in 1987, Turgeon remained with the Jayhawk program as an assistant to Larry Brown, helping Kansas to the 1988 National Championship. When Roy Williams took over the helm of the program in 1988, Turgeon remained on the staff, serving as head coach of the Junior Varsity team for four years, in addition to his regular assistant coaching duties. During his tenure as an assistant coach, Kansas won back-to-back Big Eight Conference Championships (1991 & 1992), was NCAA runner-up (1991) and captured the Big Eight Tournament (1992).

In April of 1992, Turgeon left Kansas to join newly appointed and former KU assistant Jerry Green as his top assistant at Oregon. Faced with a program that had not posted three consecutive winning seasons in the previous 20 years, Green and Turgeon wasted little time righting the ship.

During Turgeon’s five years as an assistant, the Ducks went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 34 years, played in the 1997 NIT, and helped Oregon to three consecutive winning seasons. Oregon’s 1995 recruiting class - with Turgeon serving as the recruiting coordinator- was ranked 35th best in the country, while he signed two of the Top 100 players in the country in 1996.

Green left for the head coaching position at the University of Tennessee in 1997, and Turgeon returned to work for Larry Brown as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers until becoming JSU’s fourth head coach in March, 1998.

Turgeon is married to the former Ann Fowler of Chicago, Ill., and they have a son, William Harris, a daughter, Ella, and a son, Le

I am not sure about this hire, but we will see.  Byrne talked to his friend Roy Williams (NC Coach) and this was the guy he was big on.  He was an assistant coach at Kansas under Williams.  Also, a big requirement for Byrne, as I said before is Texas ties.  This guy recruits Texas well, with 7 of the players currently on his roster being from Texas.

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lonestar

lonestar

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Mark Turgeon (born in Topeka, Kansas) is the head basketball coach of Wichita State University. As a college basketball player at the University of Kansas, Turgeon was known as a smart "coach on the floor" leader. That experience helped to groom him for his career as a head coach.

College career

In college at the University of Kansas, Turgeon was a reserve point guard on the 1986 Jayhawks team that went 35-4 and made it to the Final Four. A year after his graduation, he was an assistant coach on Larry Brown's staff for the 1988 National Championship team dubbed "Danny and the Miracles" due to the leadership of National Player of the Year Danny Manning. Turgeon remained on the Kansas staff when Roy Williams took over in 1989, coaching the junior varsity team.

While at Kansas, Turgeon became the first player in Jayhawk history to ever play in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments. He was twice selected as team captain (1986 and 1987), was a Big Eight all-Academic performer (1986), a member of the 1986 team that made it to the Final Four and won the Big Eight Conference regular season and tournament championships, and was selected to the 1984 Big Eight all-Freshman team. During his career, Kansas posted a record of 108-33.

Coaching career

Turgeon was later an assistant coach at University of Oregon and later the University of Tennessee, under former Kansas assistant Jerry Green, who was the head coach at each stop, then as an assistant under Larry Brown for the National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers.

Turgeon was hired for his first head coaching job at Jacksonville State in Alabama, but in 2000, he jumped back to his home state, taking over as the head coach of Wichita State.

In the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, Turgeon guided his 7th seeded Shocker team to the Sweet 16 after an upset of 2nd seeded Tennessee.

Mark Turgeon and the Shockers started the 2006-2007 season off winning on the road at George Mason, LSU, and Syracuse. They reached the AP top ten on December 4, 2006.

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