It has been 25 years since MK Turk was head coach at Southern Miss yet he remains the only coach in school history to make multiple NCAA tourney appearances. He also made 6 NIT appearances and won the NIT title in 1987. In 1991 he was inducted into the Southern Miss Athletic Hall of Fame and in 2005 he was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Coach Turk passed away in 2013 but HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with John Cox (the “Voice of the Golden Eagles”) about the winningest coach in school history. Today would have been Coach Turk’s 79th birthday so we take this time to honor his life/legacy.
Turk led his team in scoring as a player at Livingston University in the 1960s and was named most outstanding athlete: how good a player was he back in the day, and how did he get into coaching? People who knew him and saw him play tell me that he was really, really good and had a great JC/college career. They say he played the way he eventually coached: he was unselfish, team-oriented, and willing to do whatever it took for his team to win. He always wanted to coach and when the opportunity presented itself he took it and never looked back. He used to say that he was born to coach and never really wanted to do anything else.
He spent 2 decades as head coach of Southern Miss: how was he able to be so successful over such a long stretch of time? I think what made Turk successful was his positive attitude and his belief that if he could get the type of players that would fit his system then they could do some things at Southern Miss that had never been done before. He sort of drew a circle around Hattiesburg that stretched out a couple of hundred miles and he and his staff were determined to get the best players they could within that radius. He and his staff did an amazing job of finding players who were sometimes off the radar but who they projected would be good/productive players at some time in their careers…and most of them did. He brought a fast-break, fast-paced, pressure defensive style to Southern Miss that allowed him to be successful over that stretch.
In the 1981 NIT he had a 2-PT loss to Holy Cross: how close did he come to getting the win? It was a great atmosphere with a great crowd: the best there had ever been at Southern Miss to that point. There was a lot of excitement in Hattiesburg when the Eagles received their 1st-ever postseason bid. People held out hope that they might make the NCAA tourney…but after the Eagles were eliminated from the Metro conference tourney they found out that they had been bypassed by the NCAA tourney. They received an invitation to the NIT and learned they would be hosting Holy Cross at Green Coliseum in the opening round. When the 2 teams met on March 12th before about 7000 fans, Holy Cross defeated the Golden Eagles 56-54 thanks to a 10-foot base line jumper at the buzzer, several missed USM shots, and an injury to USM’s Ronald Jackson. Jackson was kicked in the back of the ankle just 7 minutes into the game and reinjured his left foot. He did not return until 4 minutes remained. Turk said that without Jackson, “We had to alter our plans and it forced us to do some things that we do not normally do.” The Eagles played 29 minutes without a center. Neither team led by more than 4 PTS and the lead changed 16 times. Holy Cross coach George Blaney said after the game, “We kept our poise after turnovers, especially late in the game when we could have let the game get away from us. After the 1st half I told my players that they had played their best half of basketball all season and to hang with it because we were going to need it again in the 2nd half.”
In 1986 he was named Metro Conference COY: what did it mean to him to win such an outstanding honor? I think like any coach that was sort of a validation for the kind of job that he had been doing at Southern Miss. I think it meant a lot to him to have accomplished that in a league that included coaches like Hall of Famer Denny Crum. Of course, he was the type of man who gave all the credit to his assistant coaches/players and would have said it was a team effort, but after inheriting the program and then taking it to the point where they were a contender in the Metro Conference and then being named COY was very special to him.
What are your memories of the 1986 Metro conference tourney (Myron Hughes scored 29 PTS in a 1-PT win by Cincinnati)? The Golden Eagles blew an 11-PT halftime lead and fell to Cincinnati 75-74. The foul line had been an ally for the Eagles in their productive 1st half as they drained 14-15 attempts while Cincinnati hit only 1-4. However, the 2nd half saw the Bearcats reverse the trend by hitting 18-19. Kenny Siler was averaging 15 PPG for the Eagles but made just 1 basket in 4 attempts en route to 3 PTS. USM would now await word from the NIT selection committee and Turk believed the Eagles would receive an invite, which they did. I believe Turk thought that team was playing pretty well at that point in the season and might have a chance to contend for the Metro title but the Bearcats knocked them out. “I do not see how a 1-PT loss to a fine team like Cincinnati should diminish our team’s chances,” Turk said after the game. “I have said all along that I thought we deserved to go to a postseason tournament.”
In the 1987 NIT title game the Golden Eagles made 11-24 shots from behind the arc in a 4-PT win over La Salle: what did it mean to him to win a title, and what was the reaction like when the team got back to campus? I think MK thought that was his greatest accomplishment as a coach at Southern Miss, especially considering what they had to do to win it. After a home game against Mississippi to open the NIT they had to go to St. Louis on St. Patrick’s Day to play the Billikens and they won in OT. They were selling green beer that night at old Kiel Auditorium…and had to quit selling it at halftime! Turk thought they would get another home game after that but were sent to Nashville to play Vandy, where they won to advance to New York and win the 50th anniversary of the event. When the team came home there was an amazing turnout to welcome them back. Green Coliseum was full of people cheering on the Eagles and on the way home from the Jackson Airport people were on nearly every overpass returning to Hattiesburg with signs and flags and everything. I think with everything that was involved it meant a lot to him to accomplish something that I am sure people thought might never be done.
In February 1988 Bimbo Coles scored a conference-record 51 PTS to help his team overcome an 18-PT deficit in a 141-133 2-OT win by Virginia Tech: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of his career? It was an amazing game that came a short time after Southern Miss had beaten Virginia Tech 127-102 at Green Coliseum. I do not know if it was more disappointing than any other game but it sure would have been a great victory. In the highest-scoring game in Metro Conference history, Virginia Tech avenged an earlier loss to the Golden Eagles by winning 141-133 in double OT on February 6th in Blacksburg. USM came from behind to send the game into its 1st OT at 110 apiece, and came from behind to force a 2nd OT at 122-122. Tim Anderson and Bimbo Coles hit back-to-back 3-PT shots while USM failed to score on 3 straight possessions as Tech built a 132-126 lead with 1:20 remaining, then hit 9-13 FTs down the stretch to ice the victory. Coles dissected USM’s defense by scoring a conference-record 51 PTS, dished out 11 AST, and made 18-27 FTs while teammate Wally Lancaster scored 39 PTS. John White scored 41 PTS for USM (tied for 2nd-most in school history) while Derrek Hamilton scored 30 PTS. The loss dropped the Golden Eagles to 15-4 and dropped them from a 1st-place tie in the Metro.
In the 1990 Metro conference tourney LaBradford Smith had 24 PTS/9 AST in a 3-PT win by Louisville: do you think that Russell Johnson’s shot with 6 seconds left was taken in front of the 3-PT line or behind it? At the time I thought it was good…but when you go back and watch the tape of the game you can see that his toe was on the line: not by much, but it was on the line. There was never a 3-PT signal from the officials. It was a shame to lose that 1 because it was being played in Biloxi, MS, with a sellout crowd and an NCAA bid on the line. It would have meant a great deal to Coach Turk to win that one over Coach Crum. It was a great battle that day between Felton Spencer and Clarence Weatherspoon.
He remains the winningest coach in school history: what made him such a great coach, and do you think that anyone will ever break his record? I think that what made him such a great coach was his passion for the game. He had been taught the game the right way while growing up in Bardwell, KY. He never shied away from a challenge: the bigger the game, the better we played. He was a player’s coach and was not afraid to listen to them and make decisions based on what they told him. He knew the game and knew how to handle players: I thought that he was a terrific game coach. I am unsure if anyone will ever break his record but I know that he would have enjoyed watching someone give it a try.
He passed away in December 2013: when people look back on his career, how do you think he should be remembered the most? As a man who loved his family, his school, and his players, and who never doubted that he could help take Southern Miss where it had never been before. It was the most exciting stretch of basketball in the history of Southern Miss, with record crowds and people standing on their seats. I loved the man and I think Southern Miss fans did too. He has left his imprint on Southern Miss basketball that will never go away, and was admired by his peers in the coaching ranks.