Mark Turgeon Replacing Gary Williams At Maryland As Head Basketball Coach

The University of Maryland confirmed Monday that Texas A&M Aggies basketball coach Mark Turgeon will be the new head coach of the Terrapin basketball program, replacing Gary Williams.

Maryland made the official announcement on their athletics website:

He’ll take over a program that’s proved it can contend annually when it’s at its best, as Gary Williams did for a solid decade that included a national championship. His first order of business: retaining what he can of Williams’ final recruiting class, which includes at least two players who’ve said they plan to re-open their recruitment.

Testudo Times, our Maryland blog, has some doubts about Turgeon coming east, but thinks it will still happen:

ESPN’s Andy Katz reported earlier on Monday that Turgeon received a contract offer from Maryland, so the decision for him now is if he is comfortable giving up the Aggies to kick off the post-Gary Williams era in Maryland.

Saturday night, Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne slapped down rumors that Arizona coach Sean Miller would leave for the same position at Maryland by announcing that Miller would be staying in Tucson. Sunday brings Maryland’s two new targets: Butler coach Brad Stevens and Notre Dame coach Mike Brey.

SB Nation DC cites Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman and ESPN’s Andy Katz, both of whom have reported that Maryland’s focus is likely turning to Stevens.

We were awakened on Saturday morning by reports indicating Sean Miller was the next head coach at Maryland. A few hours later, though, conflicting reports emerged, saying Miller and Maryland planned to talk, had mutual interest, but no deal was done. And on Saturday night, the news came full-circle as Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne took to Twitter to fire back and squash the reports.

Byrne brought his snark with him, attempting to break his own news on his personal Twitter account Saturday night. It was a simple tweet, but he is, apparently, confident Miller will be staying at Arizona.

On Saturday morning, ESPN 980 reported that Sean Miller was expected to be announced as the next head coach of Maryland’s basketball program on Monday. Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman, however, reports that while Miller is interested in the position, the process is not yet that far along, and that the Arizona head coach has not yet met with Maryland. On Saturday afternoon, Goodman tweets:

Obviously, this is a developing story of great concern to Maryland and Arizona basketball fans alike. As of now, Maryland has not announced any decision to fill the vacancy left by longtime head coach Gary Williams. Stay tuned to this StoryStream for updates. And for more on these schools, check out SB Nation’s Maryland blog, Testudo Times, and our Arizona blog, Arizona Desert Swarm.

Gary Williams announced his retirement as Maryland’s basketball coach on Friday, and the school is apparently wasting no time in finding his successor. Washington, D.C.-area radio station ESPN 980 reports that Arizona coach Sean Miller will be the Terrapins’ next coach.

Miller, age 42, has been a head coach since 2004. He spent his first five seasons with Xavier, where he led the Musketeers to two Sweet Sixteen appearances and one Elite Eight berth. Miller was then hired by Arizona, where he turned around a struggling Wildcats program and reached the 2011 Elite Eight in only his second season.

Gary Williams formally announced his retirement as the Maryland basketball head coach in a news conference at the Comcast Center, attended by media and several hundred fans. Williams was moved to the verge of tears several times, and said he had contemplated the decision for a couple years before making it.

Williams said he was leaving because he wanted to try to do some other things, saying he felt healthy and was conscious of coaches who stay too long. He said that Jordan Williams’ departure had nothing to do with his decision, and that it was just time for him to try something else.

Gary Williams will formally announce his retirement as Maryland’s basketball coach in a press conference at 1 p.m. Friday. This press conference is unlike most press conferences in that it is open to the public. The event will take place in the Comcast Center and will be broadcasted on TerpsTV.

Williams made the news official in a press release on Thursday night. He will depart after 22 season at Maryland’s head coach, a ride that included 14 NCAA Tournament berths, seven Sweet 16 appearances, three ACC regular-season titles, two Final Four appearances and one national championship. Many big names have been linked to the Maryland opening, including Villanova’s Jay Wright, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey and several others.

And the early reports suggest Maryland is doing just that in the barely-underway search for Williams’ replacement. Testudo Times, SB Nation’s Maryland blog, took stock of the potential candidates, a list that includes Villanova’s Jay Williams, Butler’s Brad Stevens and Arizona’s Sean Miller.

Like I said, swinging out of their shoes. It’s an ambitious list, to be certain, but it may not be as unrealistic as it seems. Miller will reportedly listen, though it’s unclear if Wright interest is mutual between the Terps and Wright. And Stevens? Well, that one seems a tad bit unrealistic.

After the 2010-11 season, Brey was named the Coach of the Year by Sports Illustrated and CBSSports.com. He’s been with the Irish since 2000, posting a 238-120 record that includes seven tournament appearances but only one trip past the second round. At Delaware, he coached the team to two America East Conference titles.

One of the biggest knocks on Gary Williams, who retired abruptly on Thursday after 22 years in charged of the Terrapins, is that under his leadership, Maryland struggled to recruit locally. That’s a problem for plenty of major conference programs, but given the quality of D.C. and Baltimore talent of late, it’s been a neon problem.

Williams did earn the recruitment of Baltimore’s Nick Faust, and the coach’s departure will lead the four-star class of 2011 guard to re-open his recruitment. Class of 2012 wing Justin Anderson, who attends Durant’s old high school in northern Virginia, has also committed to Maryland. Whether those pick-ups would have led to a local recruiting renaissance for Williams will never be known.

Your most recent clue that bad blood remains was Yow’s claim that Williams had interfered in the Wolfpack coaching search, but this feud goes back far, far longer than that. The coach, in a Thursday telephone interview with the Washington Post’s John Feinstein:

The news of Gary Williams’ retirement from Maryland is less than an hour old and already the fallout has started. Two of the school’s top signees have announced they will reopen recruitment following Williams’ announcement on Thursday.

Both Sterling Gibbs and Nick Faust will reopen their recruitments, according to Adam Zagoria.

After an embarrassing 1990 DUI arrest, he posted two straight winning seasons in Maryland before soon beginning a run of tourney appearances that lasted over a decade and included the 2002 national championship, the only one in program history. Williams was responsible for six of the seven winningest seasons in Terps history. The two-time ACC Coach of the Year developed a particularly strong home court atmosphere, winning almost 82 percent of his home games.

The Terps have struggled (by their recent standards) since 2004, failing to make it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Shortly after the original report first surfaced on Thursday afternoon, it has been confirmed that Maryland head coach Gary Williams is retiring as the head coach of Maryland basketball. From SportsCenter’s Twitter account:

We still aren’t clear of Williams’ motives behind his unexpected decision to retire, but according to a statement released by the University of Maryland, he will stay within the program as an assistant to athletic director Kevin Anderson. The statement quotes Williams as stating:

Much of Ehsan’s experience on the Maryland staff was directly involved with recruiting and scouting. He also helped coordinate off-court activities like Williams’ summer camps. He’s a former UC-Davis starting point guard who graduated college only six years ago with an economics degree. As a senior, he proved to be a sharp free throw shooter, so all right!

Ehsan’s first two years in College Park were spent as a graduate assistant before he moved up to become assistant recruiting coordinator.

Earlier this week, Williams sort of gave his blessing to departing star Jordan Williams, who declared for the NBA Draft. Perhaps the younger Williams’ sudden decision to turn pro was an indication of his coach’s intentions, if the report is accurate.

Williams has been coaching at Maryland, his alma mater, since 1989, winning the 2002 national title and going 461-252, turning out six consensus All-Americans. The Terps won five regular season ACC titles in his time on the sidelines, plus one conference tournament championship.