NCAA Basketball: 8 bold predictions for the 2018-19 season
By Brian Rauf
1) Maryland’s Mark Turgeon will (likely) be gone if Maryland misses the NCAA Tournament
Occasionally, I’ll include a tidbit like this if I’m hearing or am told something of a newsworthy nature. I already touched on this subject in more detail, but I was told this summer by people with close ties to the program that this will be a make-or-break year for Turgeon.
Now, I say *likely* because some things have changed at Maryland since I was told this. There’s always the chance that the Terps get derailed by injuries again and that buys Turgeon another year. However, there’s also the whole D.J. Durkin scandal with the football team.
While you may think that has nothing to do with basketball, the decision to fire Durkin could cost the program $5.53 million if he was not fired for cause. I find it pretty easy to think that Maryland will be able to fire him for cause and not have to pay him that money, but given that the Board of Regents originally decided to keep him, who knows.
The Maryland athletic department has been strapped for cash – it’s the big reason why they left the ACC for the Big Ten – so they may not be willing to pay two coaches millions of dollars not to coach for them (Turgeon is under contract through the 2022-23 season).
Let’s put it this way: a healthy Maryland team has to make the NCAA Tournament if Mark Turgeon wants to keep his job. There are ways he can keep it but, if the Terps continue to struggle and fans get even more unhappy, the school will try to get rid of him. Heck, UConn found a way to fire Kevin Ollie with cause last year thanks to minor NCAA violations, and Maryland was brought up in the FBI investigation.