Regeneration of Kansas basketball started with Mark Turgeon’s recruiting class

With roots firmly planted in the game’s origin and decade after decade of success, Kansas’ position as a distinguished basketball brand is unquestioned.

But as the college game’s popularity began to soar in the early 1980s with the expansion of the NCAA Tournament bracket, the Jayhawks stood at something of a crossroads. A second straight losing season prompted a coaching change after the 1983 season. Out with Ted Owens, in with Larry Brown.

History is conclusive here. Kansas is part of any top-program conversation in the Brown-Roy Williams-Bill Self era.

One measure is NCAA Tournament success. The Jayhawks bid to become the fourth program with 100 tournament victories — 77 have been accumulated by the most recent three coaches — when they meet Maryland in the South Region semifinal on Thursday.

The opponent ties in nicely to the narrative. The Terrapins are coached by Mark Turgeon, who was a member of first recruiting class, the 1983-84 newcomers who were arriving at a time when Kansas’ fortunes were ebbing.

There hadn’t been a Final Four appearance since 1974 and only one Big Eight championship in the previous eight seasons.

Into this program came freshmen Turgeon of Topeka, Cedric Hunter of Omaha, Neb., Chris Piper of Lawrence and junior college transfer Mike Marshall.

For Turgeon, sealing the deal went something like this: “I was down on my knees begging Coach Brown to take me,” he said. “I recruited them.”

If he hadn’t, Turgeon likely would have ended up at hometown school Washburn. There were no other takers among Division I schools.

Piper, a slender, 6-foot-7 high school player, was asked to walk on. Hunter was the best prospect of the group and considered Nebraska. But the Cornhuskers went in a different direction at point guard.

Team recruiting rankings were not a big thing then. But if a value had been assigned to the 1983-84 Jayhawks class, well, coaches get fired over such low expectations.

“Keep in mind, he had only been a college coach for two years at UCLA,” said Richard Konzem, who worked with the basketball program as an administrator at the time. “Also, he was hired after the 1983 Final Four. He got a late start.”

Brown apparently wasn’t counting on much from his first class. Piper was redshirted. Turgeon wasn’t sure about his role.

“It was a one-year deal,” Turgeon said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, you’ve got one shot. If it doesn’t work out, you won’t be here next year.’”

But things worked out, not for the entire class that season. For Turgeon.

Hunter started out at the point but he missed the final two-thirds of the season for an academic issue. Enter Turgeon. In his first season, the hardly recruited guard led the Jayhawks with 5.3 assists. He 25 more assists than points.

The Jayhawks won the Big Eight Tournament and appeared in the NCAA Tournament. Recruiting soon picked up thanks to a staff hire. Ed Manning had joined the Jayhawks staff in Brown’s first season, which gave Kansas a good shot at signing Ed’s son, Danny, especially after he transferred from a high school in Greensboro, N.C., to Lawrence High for his senior year.

Manning became the most productive player in KU history, but three of Brown’s original class became major contributors.

Hunter left Kansas as the school career leader in assists. Piper became a starter for the 1988 NCAA title team.

Turgeon wouldn’t start as many games over his final three seasons (17) as he did the first (18) but he left Kansas as the first player to appear in four NCAA Tournaments and was the career leader in games played.

His future career was well under way before leaving KU. Just as Dean Smith worked toward his ambition as a Kansas player in the early 1950s, Turgeon was breaking down plays and communicating with Brown as if he was an assistant coach during practices.

There had been talk of Turgeon redshirting as a junior and playing his senior season in 1988. Nope, he wanted to finish and get into coaching. And why not? At Kansas, he dealt with John Calipari and Bill Self as staff members, Brown and later Roy Williams as head coaches.

He left Kansas in 1992 and hasn’t returned. A triumph over his alma mater, the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed, will stand as one of the biggest of his career.

But Turgeon also carries with him a sense of pride and accomplishment. He and others in the 1983-84 recruiting class reestablished the Kansas basketball brand.

“It’s the way Kansas basketball should be,” Turgeon said. “Expect to win, expect to have great players. I’m just glad I was a part of that period where we’re kind of rebuilt it.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 8:21 PM with the headline "Regeneration of Kansas basketball started with Mark Turgeon’s recruiting class."