photo by: AP Photo/Terrance Williams

Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon looks on from the sideline during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Hofstra, Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, in College Park, Md.

Mark Turgeon has been hired as the head coach at Kansas City, the school announced on Sunday morning.

The move brings the former Kansas player and assistant coach, a Topeka native, back close to his home state as the leader of the Roos. It will be Turgeon’s first job in coaching since he stepped down at Maryland early in the 2021-22 season.

Kansas City is able to make this unusual midseason coaching hire because it announced on Jan. 12 that Marvin Menzies will depart at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season. Menzies led the Roos to a .500 record and tie for second place in the Summit League during his second season, 2023-24, but they were just 40-57 overall in his first three years and are on pace for the worst season of his tenure, with just one win against a Division I opponent as of Sunday morning. The Roos have not made the NCAA Tournament since moving from the NAIA in 1987, and their lone postseason appearance was a 1-1 stint in the 2017 College Basketball Invitational under Kareem Richardson.

Turgeon spent more than 23 seasons as a head coach before his own midseason exit from Maryland. He spent time at Jacksonville State, Wichita State and Texas A&M. He led the Shockers to a memorable 2006 postseason run in which they won the Missouri Valley Conference and reached the Sweet 16, then left for A&M after a downturn the following year.

With the Aggies, he made the NCAA Tournament all four seasons, three times losing in the second round before a first-round exit his final year. He then departed for Maryland as the immediate replacement to Hall of Fame coach Gary Williams.

The Terrapins were Turgeon’s longest-term employer. They didn’t gain much traction in his first three seasons, but after moving to the Big Ten experienced some more success, including a Sweet 16 berth in 2016 and a regular-season conference title in 2020 before the postseason got canceled.

However, Maryland tied for eighth in the league the following year and then got off to a poor start in nonconference play before Turgeon stepped down. Danny Manning took over as the interim coach that year. The pair had been teammates at KU.

Turgeon served as a reserve guard for much of his playing career with the Jayhawks from 1983 to 1987, including on the 1986 Final Four team under Larry Brown. He started 34 of his 134 career games as a player, then coached under Brown and Roy Williams before assistant coaching stints with Oregon and then with Brown’s Philadelphia 76ers.

Now Turgeon brings a career record of 479-275 to Kansas City. He is also, according to CBS Sports, expected to bring along his son Will Turgeon as part of the staff. The younger Turgeon was previously an assistant at Eastern Washington.