Just more than two weeks ago during Terrapins men’s basketball media day, Mark Turgeon stood at a podium in front of a scrum of reporters. Two questions into the coach’s news conference, an inevitable inquiry arose.
Do you feel any pressure to make the NCAA tournament?
It’s an achievement that’s eluded Turgeon in each of his first three seasons in College Park.
It’s also the annual expectation of the team’s loyal fan base, one established by Gary Williams, who led the Terps to 14 tournament appearances in 17 seasons from 1994 to 2010. During that span, the Hall of Famer coached in seven Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights and two Final Fours. He also claimed the program’s only national title.
Those are big shoes to fill. There’s no denying that.
So after three years of coming up empty, including last season, when the Terps finished 17-15 and missed postseason play altogether, how heavy is the weight on Turgeon’s shoulders?
“I feel zero pressure,” he said.
Seriously?
That was far from the response I was expecting. And it’s not the response Terps fans deserve.
In all fairness, Turgeon admitted later in his answer that making the NCAA tournament is “our goal every year.”
That’s all fine and dandy. But feeling “zero pressure” to achieve that goal and give the majority of this university’s students their first March Madness experience is unacceptable for the coach of a program with the legacy and history of the Terps.
Under Williams, particularly the middle years of his tenure, this team was a perennial threat to make noise in the NCAA tournament. Qualifying became an afterthought.
It wasn’t a question of making it to the Big Dance. It was a question of how far the Terps would go.
Listen, I’m not saying fans should expect Turgeon to run the program at a similar level to that of Williams in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s going to take more than three years to return to that kind of prominence, especially given the events of this past offseason, when five rotation players transferred from this university.
But it’s vital for those kinds of expectations to exist among team members. And that starts with Turgeon.
“I feel pressure every year to get the most out of my team,” Turgeon said. “And in most years, we do that. So that will be the same thing we do this year; we do the best we can.”
Where’s the conviction? When did doing “the best we can” become an adequate proposition from the men’s basketball coach at this university?
I don’t think Turgeon should have stood there making grand claims or setting unreasonable objectives. There’s too much to lose and not enough to gain. Not to mention, words only go so far, and the real progress will come on the court after the Terps open their season Nov. 14 against Wagner.
But plain and simple, this is a basketball school. And Turgeon’s response should have mirrored that sentiment by sturdily reassuring the public without a shadow of a doubt that he intends to take the steps necessary to return this program to what it once was: a legitimate player in the national collegiate landscape.
By comparison, here is how Williams answered a question about the pressure of heightened expectations at the Terps’ 2009 media day.
“I always want expectations. … I’d like to be ranked No. 1 in the country going into the season because that gives you an enormous amount of clout going out there on the court,” he said. “That’s why you come to this level.”
Those words oozed confidence and swagger. Williams didn’t discount the pressure. He didn’t shrug it off as nonexistent. He embraced it.
Don’t get me wrong: Williams and Turgeon are different coaches. More importantly, they’re different people with different personalities.
But if the Terps fail to qualify for the NCAA tournament this season, yet another senior class will graduate without the experience many previous students took for granted.
So a sense of urgency would be nice, Mark.
