Mark Turgeon is a pansy. Last week Mark Turgeon enjoyed a round of blasts after he cried about having to succeed Billy Clyde at Texas A&M. "I know no matter what I do, if I win, Gillisipie is getting the credit. And if we lose, it's my fault. I'm in a no-flippin'-win situation this year, and that puts me in a bad mood."
Everyone pull out your violins for poor Mark Turgeon, Division 1 basketball coach. Life is hard, cruel, and unfair.
Turgeon attempted to right the ship this week by being - in Chip Brown's words - "positive and authoritative." A nice effort from Coach T, but it rings a little hollow when, in the same chat with reporters, he explains away a loss in Lubbock by noting the presence of a rowdy crowd eager to see Bob Knight win game 900. And the loss to Kansas State? "They were coming off the win at Oklahoma and had all week to prepare."
Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Turgeon, Excuse Maker. Fans don't want to hear that B.S. And players definitely shouldn't hear that kind of B.S. Not from the head coach.
Crediting the opposing team after a win is a good thing - being a sourpuss isn't attractive, either - but there's a fine line between noting your team "ran into a buzzsaw" and offering up excuses. Turgeon's not shown much ability to walk that line lately.
High stakes. Nothing impresses the NCAA Selection Committee more than road wins, making tomorrow night's trip to College Station another excellent opportunity to beef up the resume. Joe Lunardi currently slots Texas as a #3 seed, right in line with the Horns' consensus seed. On the flipside, Texas A&M's back-to-back losses to Tech and KSU have sent them tumbling down the boards to a consensus #8 seed. Protecting their home turf Wednesday is essential to their climbing back up the seeding chart.
Quick Hits. Charles W. writes in to note that Vince Young starred in an Independent Film Channel feature called 'Framed'. Though I couldn't find a run date on IFC's website, Charles suggests it's running this week... The DMN college blog has a Jevan Snead update... The offseason Stats Relevance Watch begins at Sunday Morning Quarterback... Keanon Cooper commits to Mike Leach... Some of the finest writing of the year from Orson at EDSBS.
--PB--