Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon yells instructions to his players. Turgeon, in his first year since leaving Wichita State, played for Larry Brown at Kansas University in the mid-1980s.

College Station, Texas ? Larry Brown was shuffling papers in his Kansas University basketball head coach’s office in the spring of 1983 when a scrawny Topeka Hayden High School senior knocked on the door.

Mark Turgeon wasn’t looking for a job as team manager.

The brash 5-foot-10, 150-pound all-stater, who led the Wildcats to a 41-1 record and Class 4A Kansas state championships his junior and senior seasons, instead wanted – and asked for – a full-ride hoops scholarship.

That’s books, tuition, lodging, fees, training table … the works.

“‘Turg’ comes in the office. He wasn’t recruited. The only school that offered him a scholarship was Washburn,” Brown, executive vice president of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, said in a recent interview with the Journal-World.

“He said, ‘Coach you don’t know me, but I think I’m better than any guard you have.’

“He was the first kid we signed at KU.”

And one of the best players Brown signed at KU.

While at Kansas, Turgeon – who today leads his first Texas A&M team against KU in a 3 p.m. tip at Reed Arena – became the first player in school history to play in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

He was twice selected as team captain (1986 and ’87), was named to the 1984 Big Eight all-freshman team, played a key role on the 1986 Final Four squad and was part of 108 victories, 33 defeats.

In no hurry to leave his alma mater, ‘Turg’ worked as a student assistant on Brown’s staff during the magical 1987-88 national title season and, after working for Roy Williams at KU and Jerry Green at Oregon (1992-97), served a season on Brown’s Philadelphia 76ers staff (1997-98).

Since then, he’s been head coach at Jacksonville State (1998-2000), Wichita State (2000-07) and, now, at Texas A&M, where today the gritty ex-Jayhawk will coach the first game of his career versus his alma mater.

“Texas A&M is a perfect fit for Mark,” Brown said. “His teams play hard, unselfish and they guard. His values are the same as what Billy’s (Gillispie, Turgeon’s predecessor, now at Kentucky) were.”

It should come as no surprise Turgeon sought Brown’s advice while debating whether he should leave mid-major WSU for A&M.

A folk hero of sorts after leading the Shockers to the Sweet 16 of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, Turgeon was more than content living in his beloved Sunflower State with his wife, Ann, a former KU basketball manager, and his three children.

“Larry Brown has been a big part of my life,” Turgeon said. “There were some job openings (last offseason) that he was talking to me about, and I just told him, ‘Coach I have a really good life here (in Wichita). I’m comfortable. The people really like me. I could be here and have a great life.’

“He just said, ‘Coach, you didn’t get into coaching to be comfortable. You got into coaching to coach in the Sweet 16 every year and Final Fours.’ And that’s why I’m here.”

It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Turgeon in his first year in College Station.

The Aggies were considered an NCAA bubble team heading into Wednesday’s game at Baylor. A 71-57 victory (one that followed a 37-point loss at Oklahoma) pushed A&M to 22-8 overall and more importantly, 8-7 in the league, likely good enough for an invitation to the 2008 Big Dance.

The NCAA Selection Committee doesn’t look kindly on teams with sub-.500 conference records.

“We’re going to have to do something this week – win at least one of them,” the 43-year-old Turgeon said before the Baylor game. “If you are 8-8, I think you’ve still got a chance. I really don’t want to get into that. I just want my team to be consistent and play well.”

Consistency has been a major problem for Turgeon’s Aggies, who beat powerful Texas at home this season, 80-63, then lost the rematch in Austin by 27 points (77-50). The Aggies’ 37-point loss at Oklahoma followed a 44-point victory at home against Texas Tech.

The roller coaster, which has included a 4-3 home record in league play (including losses to Oklahoma State and Nebraska) has sprouted some gray hair atop Turgeon’s head.

“It’s been tough. I’ve had bad teams that were more consistent than this team,” Turgeon said.

“When we are good, we are good. When we are bad, we don’t fight through it hard enough to figure a way to win. This is new ground for me, new territory. It’s probably the most frustrating season I’ve been through as a coach.

“With that said, we’ve still won 22 games, but the ups and downs of it is unexplainable. I keep trying to figure it out. You don’t win by 44 one game and lose the way we did the other day (at OU).”

Turgeon, who has just a pair of double-digit scorers on the roster in Josh Carter (12.7 ppg) and Joseph Jones (10.7) with four players averaging between 7.8 and 9.7 points a game, has a team that many think still could make some noise in the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments.

DeAndre Jordan, a 7-foot, 260-pound freshman from Houston who averages 8.9 points and 6.6 boards, is expected to have a big postseason, then enter the 2008 NBA Draft. Dominique Kirk, Donald Sloan and Bryan Davis gained experience on last year’s Acie Law-led 27-7 Sweet 16 team.

“They defend. They are very athletic,” KU coach Bill Self said of the Aggies. “Jordan is an athlete few people in America have. Like many teams, the same with us, when they play well, they make shots.”

Self is hoping A&M is off the mark today. A victory would assure KU (28-3, 12-3) at least a tie for the conference title.

Today, Turgeon will try to prevent his alma mater for attaining league glory.

“I hope he has the exact same feelings I did, especially after the game starts because it stunk for me,” Self joked of his first experience as a KU coach against his own alma mater, Oklahoma State. The Cowboys punished the Jayhawks, 80-60, in 2004 in Stillwater.

“I used all my timeouts before the 16-minute mark. That was a night Oklahoma State was fabulous. For ‘Turg,’ I’d say this won’t be emotional for him like it would be normally. It will be emotional coming back (to KU) next year.

“You know what people are talking about down there: ‘We need to beat Kansas’ butt to accomplish what we want to accomplish.'”

Turgeon has a warm place in his heart for KU and roots for the Jayhawks every other day of the year.

His family members – Ann as well as sons William Harris and Leo and daughter Ella – do as well.

“When I told my son we were maybe going to Texas A&M (from Wichita) he said, ‘Well dad we’re going to have to play KU.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, well, that’s part of life. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do.’ So we’ll do it,” Turgeon said.

“My hope is it’s a really big game every year and means a lot and is on national TV and gets us a lot of good exposure.”

Turgeon said he and his family love their new home in the Lone Star State.

“It’s Midwest to me. The people are the same,” Turgeon said. “I recruited Texas a lot for Wichita State. I fell in love with the state and people. I like being back in the Big 12. It’s an area where I want to be.”