Jones Declares for NBA Draft, Will Not Hire An Agent

http://www.aggieathletics.com/pressRelease.php?PRID=12857

I would be VERY surprised if Joe was not wearing the Maroon & White next season. I would not sweat this out.....

In the link above Joe is quoted as saying "I just want to test the water and see how I can compete against the best players in the world."

One more year in College Station would do Joe a world of good.

[also - I started the season recap this week. My guess is that I will have it ready to go sometime early next week.]

-sb

Another quick note on Turgeon

First, I strongly encourage you guys to go watch the press conference and yell practice videos from today at http://www.aggieathletics.com/ - - you will undoubtedly be impressed with the way Coach Turgeon carries himself. The link to the videos are at the top of the page on the right side.

There are also a couple of quotes from Larry Brown, Danny Manning, and Roy Williams on aggieathletics that you might like....
http://www.aggieathletics.com/pressRelease.
php?SID=&PRID=12763

After I took the time to watch both of the videos from today I am completely sold. I have no doubt this was the right guy for the job.

I also have no doubt that everyone on the team will be back and I will even go as far as to say, at this point, I would be very surprised if any of the recruits besides Victor Dubovitskiy do not make their way on to campus.

I know this note is a total sunshine pump and that I have on my maroon tinted glasses, but I went from "on the fence" this morning to "completely sold" this afternoon.

I know one of the biggest questions you guys had about Turgeon is with regards to what WSU did last year, no doubt it was disappointing, but I am not familiar enough with their team and what happened last year to even begin to try and explain it.

I would however turn that question around and ask you guys "What about the year before that?" I do know this much, you do not typically backdoor you way into the sweet 16.

I would also look at the improvement he made in the win column each of his first 6 years on the job at WSU. That is not easy at any school, but especially at a mid-major school like Wichita State. I also think one of the most telling things about what Turgeon was able to do in Wichita was that their 10,000+ seat arena was completely sold out last year with season tickets and they had 700+ people on a waiting list.

This is an exciting time for Aggie Basketball and I hope you guys are all able to get on board.

Carry on.
-sb

A Quick Look at Coach Turgeon

Getting to know Mark Turgeon

OK Guys, I know most of you are probably asking all of the same questions this morning:

-Who is Mark Turgeon?
-Is this the only guy Byrne could find?
-What happened to Dixon, Floyd, or Kruger?
-etc. etc. etc.

First off I am not going to get wrapped up in what went on behind the scenes with Bill Byrne and the athletic department and what went into this decision.

There are a ton of rumors flying around out there about both Byrne and Gillispie and John Lopez appears to have poured gasoline on the fire with a very interesting take on it this morning on his blog at Chron.com.
http://blogs.chron.com/lopezblog/archives/
2007/04/behind_the_scen.html

Personally, I found Richard Justice’s piece on Friday to sum it up better than anyone else.
http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/
2007/04/good_riddance_b.html

OK – Back to Turgeon. I am not going to pretend that I am a journalist who can scoop a story nor am I going to pretend that I am a message-board hero that has “connections” or “Inside sources” or any of that good stuff. I am just a guy with a huge passion for Aggie Basketball and I love having these conversation and sharing that with you guys.

That being said – let me tell you what I have been able to piece together about Mark Turgeon.

He played his college basketball at Kansas from 1983 to 1987 under Larry Brown. In his playing days at Kansas, he was the first player in the history of KU basketball to ever play in the NCAA tournament for 4 consecutive seasons. In 1986 and 1987 he was elected as a team captain and the team in 1986 made it all the way to the Final Four.

In 1987 he took a job as an assistant on Brown’s staff where they went on to win the national championship that season. It should also be pointed out that the Jayhawks made it to the national championship game in 1991 under Williams while Turgeon was on the staff. He was an assistant under both Brown and Roy Williams at Kansas until 1992.

From 1992 until 1997 he was an assistant coach at Oregon for former KU assistant Jerry Green. Green and Turgeon helped turn around the Oregon program and led them to their first NCAA appearance in 34 years. Wile serving as the recruiting coordinator for Oregon he helped sign two top-100 kids during the 1996 season.

During the 1997-1998 season Turgeon served as an assistant on Larry Brown’s staff with the Phiadelphia 76ers in the NBA.

His first head coaching opportunity came in 1998 when he took over at Jacksonville State. His first season saw the Gamecocks go 8-18, but they improved to 17-11 in his second year during the 1999-2000 season.

After spending two years on the sidelines in Jacksonville he took over at Wichita State beginning with the 2000-2001 season.

In each of his first 6 years leading the Shockers he saw his team’s win totals improve over the previous season.

His 7th season at Wichita State saw them get off to a great start before falling flat while playing through their Missouri Valley conference slate but did see them post impressive road wins at then #6 LSU and #14 Syracuse.

The 2005-2006 season was far and away the most successful season in both Turgeon’s career as well as for the WSU program. That season they posted a 26-9 overall record and made a run all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament before falling to eventual Final Four team George Mason. In order to get to the Sweet 16, they knocked off #2 seed Tennessee in the 2nd round.

A couple of things that stand out from most everything you read about Turgeon talk about what a tireless worker he is and what a stand-up guy he is as well. He also has some impressive hardware to show off by having three Final Four rings and a National Championship ring as well.

Turgeon was a candidate for the KU job in 2003 when they hired Bill Self and was offered the OU job last season before turning down the offer from the Sooners.

My sense is that this is going to be a good hire. If he can hang on to his current guys and get DeAndre Jordan and the 2007-2008 recruiting class to campus in tact I think we could see the momentum built by Gillispie continue into the next few years. I hope this helps give you guys a little more insight into Coach Turgeon.

Turgeon Through the years:
Player
1983-1984 Kansas 22-10 NCAA Regional
1984-1985 Kansas 26-8 NCAA Regional
1985-1986 Kansas 35-4 NCAA Final Four
1986-1987 Kansas 25-11 NCAA Regional

Assistant Coach
1987-1988 Kansas 27-11 National Champions
1988-1989 Kansas 19-12
1989-1990 Kansas 30-5 NCAA Regional
1990-1991 Kansas 27-8 NCAA Runner-Up
1991-1992 Knasas 27-5 NCAA Regional
1992-1993 Oregon 10-20
1993-1994 Oregon 10-17
1994-1995 Oregon 19-9 NCAA First Round
1995-1996 Oregon 16-13
1996-1997 Oregon 17-11 NIT First Round
1997-1998 Philadelphia (NBA) 31-51

Head Coach
1998-1999 Jacksonville 8-18
1999-2000 Jacksonville 17-11
2000-2001 Wichita State 9-19
2001-2002 Wichita State 15-15
2002-2003 Wichita State 18-12 NIT
2003-2004 Wichita State 21-11 NIT
2004-2005 Wichita State 22-10 NIT 3rd Round
2005-2006 Wichita State 26-9 NCAA Sweet 16
2006-2007 Wichita State 17-14

Looks Like The Aggies May Have Their Guy....

Andy Katz on ESPN.com is reporting that Wichita State coach Mark Turgeon has been offered the job and may be announced as soon as Tuesday.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2830344

If Turgeon is in-fact going to be the next guy for the Aggies, do not freak out just yet - let's find out more about the guy and go from there. I know your initial impression is going to be that this is a very underwhelming hire, but we all said the same thing 3 years ago at this time.

I will have much more on Turgeon tomorrow morning.

I hope you all had a GREAT Easter!

Carry on.
-sb

Gillispie Departure

I am not going to say much on the subject right now because I am still pretty disappointed that he is leaving. I am going to apply the 24 hour rule and give myself a day or two to clear my head and then try to put out a rational note to you guys.

I know one of the most popular questions now becomes "Where do the Aggies turn from here?"

Andy Katz on ESPN.com had this to say:
"Now that Billy Gillispie has bolted to Kentucky, Texas A&M is a coveted job now that the Aggies have frenzied support. The names already being tossed about in College Station: Pitt's Jamie Dixon (who is now entrenched in the Steel City but did play in Texas at TCU), Oral Roberts' Scott Sutton and Nevada's Mark Fox."

I will add, as we said a couple weeks back, Gillispie, if nothing else, has proven that you can win basketball games in College Station. Bill Byrne has also proven that he knows how to hire successful coaches, just see Gillispie, Gary Blair, Pat Henry, and Rob Childress. All we can do at this point is trust that Bryne will go out and get someone else that will continue to build upon what Gillispie has started.

(Remember, Byrne did not hire Fran.....)

I hope you guys all have a great Easter!

Carry on.
-sb