Mark Turgeon

Mark Leo Turgeon (born February 5, 1965) is an American college basketball coach.

Turgeon played basketball at Hayden High School, helping the team post a 47-3 record and capture two consecutive Class 4A state championships in 1982 and 1983.

Turgeon earned All-State Tournament team honors in both of those years.

Although only 5 feet 10 inches out of high school, Turgeon earned a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Kansas under coach Larry Brown.

Turgeon played in four straight NCAA tournaments, becoming the first KU player to do so.

He was a reserve point guard for the 1985–86 Jayhawk team that won the Big Eight Conference regular season and tournament title and also advanced to the Final Four in the 1986 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

The team finished that season 35–4 overall.

Turgeon was a team captain for both the 1986 and 1987 squads, was a member of the Big Eight All-Freshmen Team in 1984, and was also a Big Eight All-Academic Performer in 1986.

Fans called him "The Surgeon" because, in addition to the phrase rhyming with his surname, he had the ability to "carve up defenses."

After his freshman year, Brown told Turgeon that he would likely never play in the NBA and should consider becoming a coach after college.

Turgeon agreed, and Brown soon began asking his advice during games and practices, inquiring "What would you do here?"

Turgeon remembers that he never got the answer right; Brown always sighed, rolled his eyes, and did something differently.

After graduating from Hayden High School, Turgeon attended The University of Kansas, where he earned a bachelor's degree in personnel administration in 1987.

He is married to Ann Fowler, whom he met at KU, and together they have three children.

After Turgeon earned a degree from the University of Kansas in 1987, he immediately took a position as an assistant to his former coach, Larry Brown.

In his first year of coaching, he helped the team win a national championship in the 1988 NCAA tournament.

That team has been 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 after Brown left for the San Antonio Spurs in 1989.

He also served as the head coach of the junior varsity team.

During this time, Kansas won back-to-back Big Eight Conference championships in 1991 and 1992, and also captured the conference tournament championship in 1992.

Following the 1992 season, Turgeon left Kansas to become the top assistant to recently hired University of Oregon head coach Jerry Green, who had also been an assistant at Kansas.

Turgeon also served as the team's recruiting coordinator in 1995, and recruited a class that ranked 35th nationally.

The following year, he signed two of the top 100 prospects in the country.

During his five years as an assistant at Oregon, the Ducks were invited to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 34 years, earned a spot in the 1997 NIT, and had three consecutive winning seasons for the first time in two decades.

Turgeon briefly left college coaching in 1997.

When head coach Jerry Green left Oregon to coach at the University of Tennessee, Turgeon again chose to work for his former coach, Larry Brown, becoming an assistant for the National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers for a year.

Turgeon served as the head men's basketball coach at Jacksonville State University from 1998 to 2000, Wichita State University from 2000 to 2007, Texas A&M University from 2007 to 2011, and University of Maryland, College Park from 2011 to 2021.

Turgeon was born and raised as one of five children in Topeka, Kansas.

Turgeon accepted his first head coaching position in 1998 with Jacksonville State University in Alabama.

After the 1999–2000 season, Turgeon returned to his home state as head coach of the Wichita State Shockers, a team which had had only two winning seasons in the previous 11 years.

In his first season with the Shockers, the team lost their first 11 games before winning 9 of their last 17 for a 9–19 record.

Of their losses, two came in overtime and four others were decided by fewer than four points.

They improved the following season to 15 wins and 15 losses, the most wins the team had had in a season in four years.

For the next three seasons, the team steadily improved, earning a berth in the National Invitation Tournament for each of the 2003, 2004, and 2005 seasons.

During the 2006 season, the Shockers continued to improve, winning the Missouri Valley Conference for the first time since 1983.

The team earned a trip to the 2006 NCAA tournament, the program's first since 1988.

The Shockers defeated 10th-seed Seton Hall by 20 points in their first round game and upset 2nd-seed Tennessee to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in 25 years.

The Shockers were then defeated by the eventual Final Four participant George Mason, 63-55.

The following season, his team improved to 17-11, 12-6 in conference, with a 3rd place conference finish.

In his first year as head coach, the team accumulated an 8-18 record, finishing tied for 10th in the Trans America Conference.