The more I learn about Iowa Western Community College basketball coach Jim Turgeon, the more I think he is the right fit to succeed Bonnie Henrickson to lead Kansas University’s women’s basketball program.

A pair of telephone conversations I had with women who played for him in junior college did nothing to sway my feelings.

Tyisha Smith came to Iowa Western from Minneapolis. She said her two older siblings never graduated from high school. Smith is on pace to graduate from the University of Northern Iowa next month.

“I’m the first one in the history of my family to graduate from college,” said Smith, a criminology major. “I’m inviting coach Turgeon and his wife (Tracey) to my UNI graduation. I hope they can make it. I never would have been on the path I’m on without them.”

Iowa Western Community College women's basketball coach Jim Turgeon takes 30-3 record into national juco tournament.

Smith said that both Turgeons were like parents to her during her three seasons (one as a red shirt) at Iowa Western.

“I didn’t understand at the time why the things they were teaching me were so important, but I understand now,” said Smith, who has an internship lined up that will speed up her chances of reaching her goal to become a juvenile-probation officer. “I was struggling with my grades, and coach Turgeon made me get tutoring and made me go to study hall. I hated it at first.”

She loved the degree she received from Iowa Western, which put her on a path for the one she’ll earn next month. The connection to what she first hated and what made her proud was not lost on her.

“Coach Turgeon is definitely the bomb,” Smith said. “I still reminisce with some of the girls I played with there, and we talk about how we wish we could go back to those days, and we talk about how we wish it was a four-year school. That was one of the best experiences of my life.”

Smith said, “we all really loved him,” and added she could think of only one player who “sometimes didn’t like him.”

Oh?

“And that was his daughter,” she said with a laugh.

Smith said Turgeon had a knack for convincing players he believed in them, which fueled their confidence and in turn their improvement.

When Smith’s father had a stroke, she said she considered quitting basketball and discussed that possibility with her coach.

“He told me, ‘I don’t care if you still play, but you have to graduate, because that will give you a better future, a better life.’ And he was genuine when he said that,” Smith said. “He’s a really caring, loving person. That’s why I really respected him.”

Turgeon recently completed his eighth season at Iowa Western. The Reivers went 31-4, made it to the elite eight of the national junior-college tournament and lost their final game in double overtime.

Turgeon, 52, a native of Topeka and the older brother of Maryland men’s coach Mark Turgeon, coached at Dodge City Community College before heading to Iowa Western. In three seasons before Turgeon took over at Dodge City, the school went 28-63. In his final five seasons there, his record was 105-55. In the eight seasons since Turgeon’s departure, Dodge has a 66-179 record under three head coaches. In his eight seasons at Dodge, Turgeon posted a 124-97 record.

Crystal Reed played for Turgeon in the coach’s third and fourth seasons at Dodge City and was part of the turnaround. In her first season, 2002-03, she played on the team that lost to Seward by 75 points. The next year, she was part of Dodge City’s 20-point victory vs. Seward, a 95-point turnaround in one year.

“He never let us forget,” Reed said of the 75-point loss. “He made us believe we were going to beat them. It wasn’t, ‘If we do this, this and this, we can beat them.’ It was, ‘We’re going to win this game.’ He prepared us for everything.”

Reed spent the past four seasons as an assistant at Dodge City Community College and lost her job after a 10-21 season. Reed said she had returned to the school in hopes of helping to bring the program back to its winning days.

“It was coach Turgeon who turned things around,” Reed said. “Even before we started winning, he had the community behind us. He had them on board. We would walk around town, and people knew who we were. That’s pretty unusual for a junior college. We had it to the point people would watch our game and then leave before the men’s game started.”

How did he fire up the community?

“I honestly don’t know,” Reed said. “I probably should have asked him that question. Maybe if I had asked him, we would have had a better outcome.”

Turgeon’s success created hope.

“That’s what people expect now,” Reed said. “He created some great memories. The coaches after him have some big shoes to fill. Nobody realizes how hard it is to win here and thinks any coach should be able to do that. That’s not the case. He won because he’s a special guy.”

Sounds like a natural fit for the KU job, especially if he retains interim head coach Katie O’Connor, adds an assistant with an established reputation as an outstanding recruiter and continues to tap his extensive international basketball contacts to bring overseas players to Kansas.