Mark Turgeon's name might not have been the highest profile name that Maryland pursued in its coaching search to replace the recently retired Gary Williams, but by all accounts the Terps are getting an excellent coach that is a fierce competitor all the same. Turgeon has a career win/loss record of 250-158 and was 97-39 during his four seasons at Texas A&M. Those Aggie teams never won fewer than 24 games in a season with Turgeon on the bench, but can he carry that success over to the ACC?
Turgeon is described as a tenacious and driven coach with the desire to build a program. He will get that opportunity as Maryland just lost arguably their best player, Jordan Williams to the NBA draft. The D.C. area is a talent producing area in recruiting and Turgeon showed a great knack of building quality big men while at A&M. He was a good recruiter in the mid-west and how quickly he can build connections along the summer league circuit out East will determine whether or not he is successful at Maryland.
Recruiting is key especially in a conference that is shared by two perennial National Title contenders in Duke and North Carolina. Maryland is currently in worse shape than the A&M team that Turgeon took over in 2007 but with a little luck and lot of hard work, he can get the program headed back towards the top of the ACC.