Excited about the opportunity to start as the new Terrapin men’s basketball coach and weighed down by the emotional burdens of leaving his old players and making a cross-country move, Mark Turgeon stood at the podium inside Heritage Hall at Comcast Center yesterday with a smile and heavy heart.

The 46-year-old choked up when discussing the team he had left behind in College Station, Texas, and the coming difficulties of not being able to see his wife and three kids for much of the next three months.

He showed the confidence of a coach looking to reach the game’s highest level and exuded anticipation in leading one of the country’s most prestigious programs.

When Gary Williams suddenly retired last week, Athletics Director Kevin Anderson plunged into a wide-ranging search to find a worthy replacement for the dedicated, decades-long coach. Turgeon showed yesterday just how closely he resembles the former Terp and university legend.

“The reason I’m here is because of the great tradition and all of the things that this basketball program has accomplished over the years,” said Turgeon, who sported a tie of the closest shade to Maryland red he had. “It was going to take a great job for me to move. I’ve turned down a lot of jobs over the years, and it was going to take a special one to move my family, and Maryland’s a special place.”

His move almost didn’t happen. When news broke about Williams’ retirement May 5, Turgeon had a feeling he might have a chance of coming to College Park, so he told his wife, Ann, to think seriously about the move. But in the mountains of Pennsylvania, where his family was enjoying its summer vacation, he had no cell-phone reception and no way to reach anyone.

With his cousin’s cell phone in tow, he drove up and down the mountains trying to get in touch with someone — anyone — who had knowledge of the situation. By Sunday afternoon, he had finally received a call from Anderson.

Anderson quickly drove up to meet with the then-Texas A&M coach at a nearby hotel. Interviewing for the most high-profile job of his life, Turgeon wore the best he had in his suitcase — a pair of sweatpants and an Aggies shirt, which he later replaced with a Kansas City Chiefs sweatshirt.

The lack of professional attire didn’t matter. Anderson realized he had found his next coach, someone who resembled the man who had just retired.

After flying home to tell his former assistants and players about the most difficult decision he’d ever had to make, Turgeon accepted the offer to become the program’s eighth coach and arrived in College Park on Tuesday.

Before the media and some of the program’s biggest supporters at his introductory press conference yesterday, Turgeon praised the work Williams had done to make the Terps’ position one of the best in the country.

“He did it with class. He did it with dignity. He did it the right way,” Turgeon said. “And I like to think that I had a lot of the same qualities that Gary has. So it should be an easy transition for the players, the former players and for the fans as we go forward.”

“He’s a great man, a great leader and he wants everything that we stand for,” Anderson said of Turgeon. “It’s my pleasure to introduce the man who is not intimidated by anybody in college basketball.”

Likely making Turgeon’s decision easier was former mentor and current North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who plunked for the Terps’ vacancy in a way that surprised him.

“He was just adamant about this job,” Turgeon said. “He didn’t tell me to take it, but he said 25 times, ‘It’s one of the top 10 jobs in the country, and you deserve one of these jobs. You would be foolish not to take it.'”

With a quick wit and abundant enthusiasm, Turgeon impressed many of those in attendance yesterday, including university President Wallace Loh and several Terp coaches.

“If you look at Mark, you look at [football coach] Randy [Edsall] and Kevin Anderson, there is a common denominator,” Loh said. “Character, values and students first.”

“It’s a great hire,” men’s soccer coach Sasho Cirovski said. “He has the values and attitude to succeed here.”

Still, Turgeon has considerable work before him. He inherits a roster that failed to reach the postseason this year for the first time in 17 years and was devastated by the departure of forward Jordan Williams to the NBA Draft.

The Terps’ current players, who met individually with Turgeon yesterday, said they were ready to embrace their new coach.

“He seems like a great guy,” guard Pe’Shon Howard said. “I’m excited about the whole thing. I’m not going to lie, I thought he was going to be a little more intimidating. Everyone on the team responded well.”

But until Turgeon is allowed to begin practice with the team in August, he’ll focus on the program’s future. From the moment he stepped off his plane into the area Tuesday afternoon, Turgeon has hit the recruiting trail hard, calling every major high school and AAU coach he could and re-recruiting the players previously committed to the 2011 class.

“I was on the phone till midnight [Tuesday] night and woke up at 7 and was on the phone again,” Turgeon said. “I’ve played in Final Fours, I’ve coached in national championships, and that’s what I want to do as the head coach at Maryland. I don’t want to say that’s what it’s going to take to be successful here, but that’s what we plan on doing.”

Turgeon, who has won 24 games in each of the past four seasons and five of the past six, said he was ready to bring the Terps back to prominence the way Williams did when he first inherited a broken program more than two decades ago.

“Gary Williams was Maryland basketball,” Turgeon said. “And I hope 15 years from now, 20 years, however long this lasts, that you’re going to say Mark Turgeon was Maryland basketball.”

ceckard@umdbk.com