Mark Turgeon To Bring Big Vision, Stellar Track Record to UMKC Men’s Basketball
A Kansas native, Turgeon will bring over 20 years of head coaching experience and 10 NCAA Tournament bids to the Kansas City sidelines
Kansas City, MO, Feb. 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- One of the winningest coaches in NCAA history, Mark Turgeon has been named the head coach of Kansas City men’s basketball heading into the 2026-27 season, UMKC Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Dr. Brandon Martin announced on Sunday. Turgeon is the program’s ninth head coach since elevating to Division I in 1987-88.
“We are delighted to welcome Coach Turgeon and his wife Ann to the Roo family. It’s exciting to have them both back home in the Midwest,” Martin said. “Coach Turgeon brings a wealth of credibility and success for our fan base, alumni, donors and key stakeholders throughout Kansas City. This will undoubtedly be an exciting and rewarding era for our Roo basketball program.”
It will be something of a homecoming for Turgeon, who was raised in Topeka, Kansas, and was a four-year letterwinner for the University of Kansas men’s basketball program, qualifying for four NCAA Tournaments and making a Final Four run in 1986. Turgeon also spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Kansas and seven years as the head coach at nearby Wichita State, lifting the Shockers into national relevance.
"It is an honor to be returning home and to be trusted to build a winning tradition with Kansas City men's basketball,” Turgeon said. “It was obvious through our initial conversations that I could build a strong partnership with Dr. Martin and Chancellor Agrawal. I've always had a great love for Kansas City, and I believe that this city deserves a team that reflects its championship culture. There is so much untapped potential and with the full strength of the Kansas City community behind us, we will be able to elevate this program to new heights."
Turgeon arrives in Kansas City with one of the best resumes in college basketball. A 2024 inductee into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, he brings 24 years of head coaching experience and a career winning percentage of .634 between stops at Maryland, Texas A&M, Wichita State and Jacksonville State.
“We are thrilled to welcome a new leader for Kansas City’s Division I basketball program at such an exciting time for our university and city,” UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal said. “Coach Turgeon brings the vision, record and competitive drive that align perfectly with our commitment to excellence – on the court, in the classroom and in the community. His hiring is part of our broader investments in elevating the university and strengthening programs that bring pride and momentum to our campus. We believe this is the start of a new chapter will raise the profile of our program and make our university community proud.”
Across his 24 seasons as a head coach, Turgeon has amassed a 476-275 overall record, which puts him in the top 30 in career wins among active Division One head coaches. He has taken teams to the NCAA Tournament 10 times with a pair of Sweet 16 appearances and winning records in 21 of his 24 years on the sidelines.
Throughout his career, Turgeon has displayed a knack for attracting and developing professional-level talent. He has coached 11 future NBA draft picks including Alex Len, the fifth overall pick in the 2013 draft.
Turgeon’s most recent head coaching tenure was spent at the University of Maryland from 2011-21, finishing with a winning record in all 11 seasons. He led the Terrapins through the transition from the ACC to the Big Ten, earning 2015 Big Ten Coach of the Year honors and finishing top-three in the Big Ten standings four times.
His 2015-16 squad finished 27-9, advancing to the Sweet 16 as a five-seed with wins over South Dakota State and Hawaii. In 2019-20, the Terrapins compiled a 24-7 record and won the Big Ten regular season title, compiling four wins over nationally ranked opponents throughout the season. In total, Turgeon-led Maryland squads qualified for the NCAA Tournament five times, advancing past the first round in four seasons.
From 2007-12, Turgeon manned the sidelines at Texas A&M, compiling a 97-40 overall record and finishing top four in the Big 12 in each of his final three seasons. His squads earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament all four years, advancing past the first round three times.
Turgeon took over at Wichita State prior to the 2000-01 season, and what followed was a turnaround that made the Shockers one of the biggest names in the Missouri Valley Conference. Turgeon took over a program that had just two winning seasons in the past 11 years and went .500-or-better in 6 of his 8 seasons at the helm, compiling three 20-win seasons.
Following three-straight NIT bids from 2003-05, Turgeon’s Wichita State squad broke through in 2005-06, winning the Missouri Valley regular season championship and qualifying for program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in nearly 20 years. The seventh-seeded Shockers took down No. 10 Seton Hall and No. 2 Tennessee in the first and second rounds, reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1981.
Turgeon’s head coaching career began at Jacksonville State in 1998, leading an incredible turnaround between his first and second seasons. After going 8-18 in his first year, the Gamecocks went 17-11 in 1999-2000 and finished third in the Trans America Athletic Conference standings.
Turgeon earned his stripes as an assistant coach from 1987-98, spending time at Kansas and Oregon before gaining NBA coaching experience with the Philadelphia 76ers. He was a member of the 1988 Kansas coaching staff that led the Jayhawks to a national title and aided Oregon to three-in-a-row winning seasons for the first time in 20 years.
At the University of Kansas, Turgeon played under Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Larry Brown. He was the first player in Kansas history to play in four consecutive NCAA tournaments and was a team captain during his junior and senior campaigns. Turgeon led the Jayhawks to the 1986 Final Four as well as Big Eight Conference regular season and tournament titles, earning Big Eight All-Academic Team honors in 1986 and All-Freshman honors in 1984.
Turgeon was born and raised in Topeka, attending Hayden High School and capturing state championship titles in 1982 and 1983. He was named to the All-State Tournament team in both seasons and was a First Team All-State honoree his senior year. Turgeon is a member of the Topeka Sports Hall of Fam and the Hayden High School Hall of Fame.
Turgeon earned his bachelor’s degree in personnel administration from Kansas in 1987. He is married to Ann Fowler Turgeon, and the pair have three children: Will, Leo and Ella.
About the Kansas City Roos
The Kansas City Roos are the NCAA Division I teams of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, providing energy, excitement and a rallying point for campus and community. Home to one of the most unique mascots in college athletics, KC Roo was originally designed by Walt Disney, and is one of just two kangaroo mascots at the Division I level. Kansas City has won five conference championships since joining the Summit League in 2020, including back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances by the Roos' men's soccer program in 2024 and 2025. For more information, visit kcroos.com or follow us on social media with the handle @KCRoosAthletics.
About the University of Missouri-Kansas City
The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) is the largest comprehensive, fully accredited university in the Kansas City area, serving about 15,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. UMKC is Kansas City’s only Carnegie Research 1 university, placing UMKC in the top tier of all research universities in the nation. UMKC’s internationally recognized faculty have won Emmys, Fulbrights, Grammys, Guggenheims, Pulitzers, Time Magazine Invention of the Year – and more. UMKC offers degree programs for nine of the top 10 U.S. News & World Report jobs, based on salary and work-life balance, and innovates to bring cultural, social, health and economic prosperity to the metropolitan, regional and global communities it serves. UMKC features Kansas City’s only Division I athletics program, the Kansas City Roos.
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Jerod Fox Kansas City Roos Assistant Athletic Director, Strategic Communications 316-249-2846 jerodfox@umkc.edu
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