NCAA Basketball: Indiana, Illinois, Virginia Tech, Maryland headline Sunday Mailbag

What are my thoughts on the resignation of Mark Turgeon? – Bryan Mauro (@threecolorbeard)

I am never a huge proponent of firing a coach mid-season. I know coach Turgeon resigned, but it was likely a forced resignation especially when it was this early in the season. Firing a coach mid season does nothing to fan the flames of the team. It doesn’t even make the team better, it usually makes them worse. It also never made any sense to me because no coach is going to talk to Maryland about the head coaching position that is open until after the tournament so it isn’t like they are getting a head start anyways.

The grass isn’t always greener, just ask Pitt and to a lesser extent the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Turgeon was not a great coach but he was doing just fine and was likely going to make a deep run in the tournament in the 2019-2020 season before it was cancelled due to Covid. Other than that year the Terrapins under Turgeon were usually a top-half team in the league and they had some trouble wining in the tournament taking some very head-scratching losses in March. The one sweet 16 he did makes was when he beat a 13 seed and a 12 seed.

Turgeon had still done enough to not warrant being fired. I am not a Maryland fan and as an outside observer, I would love to have the team I root for be as successful as the Terrapins were under Turgeon.

Another part of me sees why the administration felt like they had to make this move, the recruits were leaving and he was having a really hard time keeping the talent in College Park, and honestly with the amount of talent that is in the DMV they should be a top 2 team in the Big Ten every season. Danny Manning is the interim coach for the rest of the season and a once-promising Maryland team is now likely going to struggle this year.