New Maryland basketball coach Mark Turgeon is different from outgoing head coach Gary Williams in many ways. Most notably, he preached a slow-paced style, in contrast to the pressing, up-tempo system that Williams loved. But the two men are also similar in one huge, huge way. Both are competitive freaks.
↵For Williams, that manifested itself in his sweaty clothing and his cursing at players on the bench. For Turgeon, that competitiveness once spilled over to his personal life. In 2006, Joe Posnanski, writing in the Kansas City Star, told the story of Turgeon and a honeymoon gone bad.
↵↵↵More than anything Turgeon was competitive beyond good sense. On his honeymoon, Mark's wife, Ann, beat him four out of six in backgammon. Mark did not talk to her at all during dinner. Repeat: This was on their honeymoon. And it was over backgammon.
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If you plugged the name "Williams" into this story instead of "Turgeon," it would still make sense. Yet another reason there's a lot to like about this hire.