It's one day later, but it sure seems like Mark Turgeon is focusing more on how difficult it was to leave Texas A&M than how excited he is to being the new Maryland basketball coach. Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post called the interview he did with Texas A&M media folks Monday night the "saddest 'I got a better job' interview in the history of the world." You could defend that by saying he was talking to people he was leaving and therefore it was only natural to be melancholy.
But then how do you explain his appearance on the Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio earlier Tuesday, which began with him bemoaning the immediacy of social media affecting the privacy of his decision and continued with him saying this (emphasis mine)?
"It was a tough day yesterday. I was at Maryland, I was at Texas A&M, I was at Maryland, I was at Texas A&M and back and forth. The hardest part, whenever you leave, is saying goodbye to your players, for many reasons. One, they chose to come to that University, because it's a great University, but also because of you. At A&M, we had a lot of success and won a lot of games because of them. But I had a chance to get involved at a great job like Maryland."
OK, so we're all square then, right?
"It was a tough part of the day. Telling your family, telling the kids, it's really emotional and tough too. Then, you get the wife involved. It's an emotional time. Each day, as we go on, it'll get a little easier."
Each day, as we go on, it'll get a little easier? That's not how it's supposed to work! But tell us what you like about Maryland, Mark.
"It kind of got my juices flowing a bit knowing I might not be their first choice at the time. So I thought about it. But Roy Williams and Larry Brown, guys that were mentors for me, were just adamant about Maryland and this job. And I felt, knowing what I know about college basketball, it was a top 10 or 15 job in the country or better with so many players in the area."
So your first thought was that other people told you it was a great job, so you took it? It's only one day, and it probably means nothing, but man, I expected more enthusiasm.
In actual news, Turgeon said he's preparing to put together an "East coast" staff to take advantage of the importance of maintaining local ties and not letting top recruits get away. But even here, he said "one of the hardest things I'll have to do is change my staff" and that "made the decision really difficult for me." Soon (hopefully?), Turgeon will at least be more excited publicly about this job, right? Right?