BOULDER — Here’s yet another benefit from Colorado’s move this summer to what will be the Pac-12 Conference: After this season, CU men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle and assistants Jean Prioleau and Mike Rohn won’t have to coach against their pal Mark Turgeon anymore.
“That’s going to be better,” Boyle said. “This will be hard.”
Pregame and postgame handshakes between the coaching staffs are sure to be firm and sincere tonight when Turgeon’s Texas A&M Aggies (17-5, 4-4 Big 12) play Colorado at the Coors Events Center. Boyle, Prioleau and Rohn served as assistants under Turgeon at Wichita State before Turgeon left the Missouri Valley Conference school for the Aggies in 2007.
Boyle and Turgeon go back a long way. They played together in the backcourt for Larry Brown at Kansas in the 1980s. Turgeon and Boyle were assistants at Oregon (1994-97), and then Boyle worked for Turgeon at Jacksonville (Ala.) State (1998-2000) and Wichita State (2000-06).
Turgeon said it will feel strange to see his former Shockers staff on an opposing bench. Like his Aggies, Colorado (15-9, 4-5) is in desperate need of a conference victory.
“It is not going to be a lot of fun,” Turgeon said on a teleconference about coaching against his friends. “It will be awkward in the beginning. But once the game starts, you just coach your team.”
Boyle did not profess an interest in coaching while playing with Turgeon at Kansas and instead became a Boulder-based stockbroker. When Boyle started to get an itch to coach, he coached the Longmont High School boys team “kind of as a hobby.”
He decided to take the full plunge when Turgeon called from Oregon and helped convince Boyle to take a restricted-earnings position on the Ducks’ staff.
Turgeon had watched Boyle coach the Longmont Trojans during a visit to the Front Range. “What he did with that team, you knew he’d be successful,” Turgeon recalled.
Boyle said one of the best things he tried to take from Turgeon is the ability to make adjustments “during a game, as well as from game to game.
“Having been under Coach Brown, we want our teams to guard, to rebound, to be rock solid and to not beat themselves,” Boyle added. “We may have some different ideas about offense (CU is more up-tempo), but our core philosophies are the same.”
Rohn said fans tonight will spot a lot of similarities in how the Buffaloes and Aggies approach the game. He should know. Rohn followed Turgeon from Wichita State to Texas A&M and was the Aggies’ director of basketball operations for three seasons before joining Boyle’s first Colorado staff last spring.
“Coach Turgeon is just so well-rounded,” Rohn said. “He has a good grasp on his philosophy and what he wants to do. He’s persistent in teaching the things he believes in — to work every single day and stick to what you do well.”
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
Texas A&M at Colorado
7 p.m., ESPNU, 760 AM
Spotlight on Khris Middleton: The Aggies’ 6-foot-7, 215-pound sophomore “may be the most improved player in the Big 12,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said this week. Middleton is one of those rare athletes who can switch instantaneously from quickness mode to power mode, depending on the situation.
Texas A&M: Aggies are out to snap a three-game losing streak, including home losses to Texas and Baylor. Top wins have been over Washington, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma State and Kansas State. . . . Not as big up front as in recent years, Aggies rank last among Big 12 teams in blocked shots (one per game). Also uncharacteristically, Texas A&M is last in field-goal shooting defense (.467).
Colorado: Buffs are 12-1 at home, losing only to Kansas. . . . Starting point guard Nate Tomlinson sprained an ankle Saturday in the loss at Missouri. He is day to day. . . . CU and Texas A&M are among seven teams separated by a game or less in the middle of the Big 12 standings. . . . Colorado averages 81.2 points and Texas A&M (70.5) no doubt will try to dictate a more deliberate tempo. . . . Bins will be set up for used Crocs shoes that will be donated to the needy around the world. Those making donations will receive discount coupons for Crocs stores in Boulder.
Tom Kensler, The Denver Post
