Alex Rychwalski | No, tonight isn't Turgeon's last game

Mar. 20—No matter what happens in Maryland's NCAA tournament matchup with UConn tonight, no, Mark Turgeon is not on the hot seat.

His seat isn't even warm. It's more akin to the temperature of a forgotten cup of coffee after a half-hour — lukewarm.

In an anticipated down year — where most predicted the Terps wouldn't sniff the postseason after Anthony Cowan Jr. and Jalen Smith left for the next level, and the Mitchell twins transferred, the only true post players on the roster entering 2021 — Maryland is in the dance.

Now, if your argument is that a head coach in his 10th season at a school like Maryland shouldn't be retained after a 16-13 season, 15 years ago I'd acquiesce.

But here we are, 10 Mark Turgeon seasons without a March Madness run beyond the final 16, and nine more with just a single Sweet 16 to cap Gary Williams' tenure.

Bruce Weber has surpassed that threshold twice in that span.

Nineteen years of March failure by Maryland's once-lofty standards does a lot to change a program's perception. These aren't your parents' Terps. Heck, they're not even your Terps.

If you were to assign letter grades to every college basketball coach in America, there'd only be a handful of A+ recipients.

Gonzaga's Mark Few, Kentucky's John Calipari, Kansas' Bill Self, Villanova's Jay Wright and, though it may pain me to say it, Mike Krzyzewski at Duke.

Turgeon is probably a B+.

He's the Mike Tomlin of college basketball. The worst season he'll give you, without any NBA prospects or a big man, is a 10 seed in the tournament. At best, with all the talent in the world, he'll get you to the second weekend once every five years.

Just competent enough to avoid getting fired and not nearly enough to win when it matters. At this point, that might be all my alma mater deserves.

Turgeon is a B+ coach, but Maryland has become a B+ program.

Look at the landscape of NCAA hoops. What upgrade exists if Maryland Athletic Director Damon Evans takes a shot and gives Turgeon the ax? Would they even be interested?

We're probably not getting Texas Tech's Chris Beard or Baylor's Scott Drew, who have both constructed Big 12 juggernauts out of thin air. I doubt Nate Oats would be interested after winning the Southeastern Conference at Alabama.

If Maryland was still that school a few years removed from its 2002 National Title or 2001 Final Four, then Beard, Drew and Oats would pick up the phone. Even Eric Musselman at Arkansas, who has achieved far less than the trio, would be making a lateral move coming to College Park.

And before you say, "That's hogwash, this is Maryland we're talking about! Gary Williams, Lefty Driesell, Len Bias, Juan Dixon, Tom McMillen, the legends and the pageantry!"

The Razorbacks have made 10 Elite Eight trips in program history. The Terps? Four.

The old Lefthander made more trips past the Sweet 16 at Davidson (two) than in his 17 years at Maryland for crying out loud.

Evans would have to gamble for a home-run hire on an up-and-comer, like Porter Moser at Loyola Chicago or even Ryan Odom from UMBC. Moser led the Ramblers to the 2018 Final Four, and Odom architected the greatest upset in tournament history over No. 1 Seed Virginia the same year.

It's just not worth the wager. The last time Maryland went for the long ball it hired Bob Wade.

I'm not saying Turgeon is a world-beater. And I also don't think the Terps are some middle-of-the-road program.

But we as Maryland fans need to stop overrating the program and underrating the head coach. We're not Kentucky, and Turgeon isn't Kelvin Sampson, and that's perfectly fine.

He's here to stay another year. He'll probably put out a decent tournament team next year, and then we can talk about what replacements are available assuming it ends in disappointment again.

For now, just try to enjoy watching the Maryland-UConn game tonight. It might be Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Darryl Morsell's last time in a Terps' uniform, and Turgeon has his group playing the hardest of any during his tenure.

Who knows, college basketball is crazy. This team, Maryland's least-talented in years, might be the one that finally makes a run.

Now that I said that out loud, they'll lose for sure.

Alex Rychwalski is a sportswriter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.