Q&A with Maryland coach Mark Turgeon
A frenetic start to Mark Turgeon's Maryland tenure doesn't appear close to slowing down.
The Terps men’s basketball coach was introduced as Gary Williams’ successor May 11. Since then, the former Texas A&M and Wichita State coach successfully re-recruited City shooting guard Nick Faust, hired an all-star coaching staff, reached out to local high school and AAU coaches, and finally hit the road recruiting for July’s open evaluation period.
Turgeon, who could give up to six scholarships for the 2012 class, has just one recruit for 2011 in Faust. Seton Hall Prep (N.J.) point guard Sterling Gibbs and St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy (Wis.) forward Martin Breunig asked out of their letters of intent to Maryland and ended up signing with Texas and Washington, respectively.
Turgeon spoke to The Baltimore Sun recently about the Terps’ 2011 recruiting class, his coaching staff, goals for the upcoming season and more.
Everything moved pretty fast with Gary Williams retiring and you getting the job. It was late in the process for 2011, so what was your first move in recruiting?
Well for 2011, we didn’t know what was out there. We had three commitments signed, and unfortunately lost two of them. So we just wanted to make sure we kept Nick. We looked around. We needed size, needed help inside. We looked around the country, junior college, and there wasn’t a lot there. We looked around overseas, looked at transfers, and nothing really popped up in our direction, so we just kind of settled on the nine guys we’ve got on scholarship. We’ll coach them up the best we can, and we’re working pretty hard on [2012] recruiting right now.
Were you familiar with the guys that had signed? What was the process like in terms of who you wanted to pursue?
Well the only one I had seen play was Nick [Faust]. I really liked him a lot. I thought he was going to be a heck of a college player. He’s the one I knew we had to keep in the fold. The other two (Gibbs and Breunig) I had never seen. I was able to pull stuff on the computer, watch a little bit. But it was one of those things when they opened up their recruiting, I wasn’t going to stop them from trying to do something else. The one guy I had to keep was Nick, and in the end we did that.
Was Faust a guy on your radar even before you got to Maryland?
I just saw him on the road last summer. I saw him at different camps. I was really impressed with him and his ability. He can do a lot of things on the floor. I thought he had tremendous upside. I didn’t recruit him at A&M, but I was aware of him. I was friends with Bino [Ranson], so I followed Nick when they were really looking at him hard and trying to get him. I was well aware of him.
Were there some nervous moments there trying to re-recruit him?
Oh yeah. It was a rough 48 or 72 hours. I felt pretty good after my first conversation with the mom and even the dad after they asked for the release. Everything was going to work out – we just had to go through the process. For them as a family, they felt like it was something they had to do. I felt pretty solid about it. Shortly after we granted them the release, [he recommitted].
How does he factor into your plans this season?
I don’t know enough about the team. I think he can really play. I thought our guard play is the strongest part of our team coming into this season, pretty obviously. I have high hopes for Nick. He can help us a lot this year. How much depends on how he’s able to transition to the program, his individual work and how coachable he is, that kind of stuff.
A lot of analysts have said this is a coaching staff built to recruit. Was that your intent in composing the group of Bino Ranson, Dalonte Hill and Scott Spinelli?
Well obviously Scott Spinelli was with me [at Texas A&M] and I have a lot of confidence in him as a recruiter and a coach. So that was a no-brainer. He was going to come with me if he didn’t get the A&M job, which we tried to get him. Bino is a guy I’ve known for a long time. He obviously has great connections here, especially in the Baltimore area. So he’s a guy that I felt really comfortable with. Dalonte is just a guy that I thought of when I got the job. I knew Dalonte. We were in the same league, but we never talked at great length. But I knew about his ties to the D.C. area. So it all worked out. Those were the three guys that I wanted, and to be able to get all of them says a lot about Maryland basketball and how badly people wanted to be a part of it. So it’s a good staff. We’ll see. Just like when you’re building a recruiting class, you shouldn’t judge it until the playing days are over. I don’t think you can judge a staff until we’ve been here a few years and do some things. Hopefully we’ll do a lot of great things together.
Have you had to change your recruiting approach at all from A&M to Maryland?
Not really. I still have my same approach. I have guys here who really like to recruit. We’re in an area with [good] players and [we] have connections all around the United States – maybe not so much the West Coast. But in the Midwest and the East Coast we have really good connections, and a few on the West Coast. But I still have my same philosophy: get the best players you can with good character, guys who fit into what we want to do. You just work hard and develop as many relationships as you can. Hopefully that’ll help you bring in good players.
You can’t comment on 2012 recruits, but generally speaking, is recruiting going well for that class?
Yeah. We’ve been well received since we’ve been here. I know we’ve only been on the job a couple months. I was hoping that we’d have a few more results right now. We’ve been hitting it really hard. We’ve been grinding. I know we need to add several pieces in the 2012 class, so we’ll see. It’s too early to tell. There’s a lot of hard work ahead of us. Hopefully we’ll catch a few breaks and get some really good players.
For this season, is everything a clean slate? What are your expectations?
Well I want to get guys who practice hard and play hard every day, play the right way and play together, defensively and offensively. That’s important to me. They’ll be getting in a system that’ll be different than what they’re used to and what they’ve done in the past. Getting comfortable with the system, all that’s important to me. Every year my expectation is to get the most I can out of the young group of men I’m coaching. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that with this team, have them mesh well together and get a lot out of this group. I do know our guard play is going to be pretty strong. We have some guys that have proved themselves. Sean Mosley, Pe’Shon [Howard] and Terrell [Stoglin] have proven themselves at this level. Some other young guys would love to prove themselves. We’re just going to go and try to get as much as we can out of this group. Where it leads us, I don’t know. I’ll be able to judge a lot better once we start practicing.
Baltimore Sun photo of Mark Turgeon by Kim Hairston / May 11, 2011
Comments
Curious. Saw a potential match up with Kentucky in NJ. Seems like under Gary, when the NCAA lost on cutting down these preseason tournies to 2 every 4 yrs, Gary really focused on them to get his quality opponents, and there is logic behind that. but as a season ticket holder, outside the ACC, seeing UMD play a top team at home was nil since the early 2000's, unless it came through the Big 10 Challenge. Will Turgeon change that a little and try taking on some more decent teams in home and homes? It was nice when we would be on the road for one home for one each season, instead of all these neutral court tournies.
Posted by: Fan from Fredneck | July 19, 2011 8:42 AM
I think this team can be exciting and fun to watch. Teams would have to match up to them more then MD matching to them. A team thats stays together plays together will be sucessful together. Nick will be a match up problem and a future PG in the NBA. Georgia Tech had a team like this and won the ACC. They had Dennis Scott, Brian Oliver and Hill so it can be done.
Posted by: Coach Hall | July 19, 2011 9:20 AM
Will be interesting to see how much mileage they can get from what at times will probably look like a four-guard line-up. Regardless of how much playing time Faust get it won't be surprisign to see a couple of 6'4" - 6'6" players on the floor together in the frontcourt -- from among Faust, Paulson, and Parker -- leaving Padgett, Weijs, and Pankey as the only true big men on the boards.
Although Turgeon cannot say much about 2012 recruiting, I wonder how they are spinning the number of openings to potential recruits? For instance, are they selling all those kids in Houston on the idea of coming up to DC and getting lots of playing time together for four years? How much is having a clean slate and six scholarships to give a positive situation for recruiting?
Posted by: Shas | July 19, 2011 10:36 AM
This year I think this will be Padgett breakout year. Pankey was a top rebounder in High School and played for a Hall Of Fame coach at Saint Anthony. Weijs got some good experience last year. We will be alright on the boards. Sleeper this year is Mychal Parker.
Posted by: Coach Hall | July 19, 2011 11:01 AM
not to make coach turgeon's job seem easy, because its definitely not…
but maryland has a great selling point for recruits.
the 2012 team will have NO starting center, an open spot at power forward, rotation time at small forward. almost all positions with the potential to start and plenty of rotation time to establish yourself.
guys like clear, ibeh and mcgary would have an incredible amount of fun with that. guys like moto or layman would come in knowing there's room for them with padgett soon to graduate and palsson just two years from the same as a junior.
Posted by: space | July 19, 2011 12:07 PM
Coach Hall:
re Padgett breakout - he'll certainly have the opportunity to play, but the average fan needs to recognize that MD is undersized, inexperienced and outmanned in the paint. With JW in the middle, Padgett would be able to focus on the 'little things'. Now, he brings the most experience and tools of MD's 3 bigs. I'm looking for effort and aggressiveness from him. I won't (and hope others won't) ride the guy if he's playing hard but not outplaying other quality ACC front lines.
Posted by: terpdawg | July 19, 2011 2:42 PM
the loss of the hall of fame coach also means a new system, new method, new approach.
if there is a breakout it has to be this season.
i'me giving the terps the benefit of the doubt just based on the new energy alone. looking for strong showings from pankey, padgett, weijs & parker.
Posted by: space | July 19, 2011 3:32 PM
break out year for padgett? love to see it though he's small to play power forward. not athletic..has only a drop step move to the basket. doesn't dribble the ball well..doesn't jump well. has never exhibited an outside shot. pankey is coming off broken bones which didn't heal properly so he needed surgery. was a project to start with. weijjs is about 50 pounds too light with about 20 min experience from last year. hope they all have career years but it could be a very long year.
Posted by: freddy from boca | July 19, 2011 4:10 PM
On offense the KEY will be Stoglin pushing the ball down the court so we're NOT forced into half court offense w/o 'bigs' in the middle. Ideally Stoglin can score in transition and ONLY when stopped pull the ball out & run the clock. On defense hopefully we can press & force some turnovers taking pressure off our weak & inexperienced frontline. Bottom line, we can only get better - except for 09 when Grevis put us on his back, we've been dreadful!! I'm really excited with Turgeon as we're talking to 5-star recruits (hopefully landing 1 or 2) that were never in the picture with GW.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 19, 2011 4:19 PM
On top of what's already been written, for the Terps to have any semblance of respectability this coming season, they're going to need to find consistent shooting from outside, and the most likely candidates to achieve that are Faust, Paulson and Stoglin, all of whom can hit the jumper pretty well.
Posted by: Ken Francis | July 19, 2011 5:55 PM
I'm looking forward to a new system and a fresh start for all our players.
Loved GW and all he did during his tremendous career at MD, but his system rarely if ever changed/adjusted and his players either fit in it or didnt. When the peices fit it was a thing to behold; when they didnt it was like trying to fit a square peg in around hole (like a 6'4 HS 2 forced to play as an undersized 4) You have to adjust the system to your players strengths when their talents dont fit a particular system.
Also (hopefully) looking forward to players not being immediately pulled from games when they make a mistake, bench players getting more floor time and experience in early OOC games (dont see this as a problem with only 9 schollie players - everyone on the roster is going to be needed and play), and the phrase "must not be playing becauase he's in coaches doghouse" disappear.
While this upcoming season will be a challenge, excited about the Turge and happy to see he and his staff working hard in every regard to return Maryland MBB to its previous stature as a top men's college basketball program.
Posted by: Terps06 | July 20, 2011 7:16 AM
Suggest you commentators stay focused on the New Coach and leave those gratutious comments about his predecessor out of the equation. Otherwise, you are needlessly opening yourself up the reality Mark, at least at this incipient stage of his maturation, no Gary in at least one critical respect-- for all of Mark's supposed X's and O's acumen, there will be those moments on the bench where I can guarantee you with almost metaphysical certitude he will leave you scratching your head asking "why did he do THAT"? Just hope the short-term consequences aren't too dire-- other than gettng one of those infamous smirks out of Coach K while he is picking Mark's neck clean at some critical juncture in a game....
Posted by: Old Timer | July 20, 2011 7:53 AM
I think we will regret of letting Breunig go. Just look who the last MVP of NBA came from.
Posted by: CHL | July 20, 2011 10:39 AM
Coach Hall. I can't say who will have a break out year. Hard to say when I haven't seen any of these guys practice and have no idea what the new system will generate. But I'll tell you the guy who they NEED to be the sleeper/breakout player. And that's Ashton Pankey. His reputation is that of a very active player on the glass at both ends and a very good shot blocker. That's exactly what they need to survive the season. WIth all those guards, they need someone who will be at the rim with put-backs, and they need someone who will make teams think twice about driving the lane, because god knows they don't have anyone of size to clog the middle. Odd as it sounds, I think Pankey could be a big factor in what kind of season they have. Which is scary since he hasn't really played since his junior year of high school, and wasn't taller than 6' until it was about time to go to high school. That's how fragile this season looks.
Posted by: Shas | July 20, 2011 6:45 PM
Shas I think you hit that right on the nose. Pankey will be that energy guy we need and all he need is to grab rebounds, block shots and finish his layups. PS make his foul shots. Padgett show me alot of ability and I think those 2 with Weis we will be ok. The main word is confidence. Also I need Mosley to be the go to man and a 20 10 guy. Press and run and be the highest scoring team in the ACC you will have to out score the Terps to win...
Posted by: Coach Hall | July 20, 2011 10:25 PM
Hey Matt .. Nice Q&A. I have to agree with some earlier posters that MD is going to fill it up offensively this year but D is going to be a big problem. Nice story unfolding with "Hawk" but really hope we can nail down Shaq and/or McGary (that would really stamp legitimacy on the program) very soon.. Happy Friday!!
Posted by: steveinboston | July 22, 2011 5:43 AM