We are less than 10 days away from the tip-off of the new college basketball season, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with UC Irvine coach Russell Turner, who talked about some of his new players and his expectations for this season.
As a player at Hampden-Sydney you set the school scoring record with 2272 career PTS: what is the secret to being a great scorer? That was a long time ago. I played with a great PG who got me the ball in position to score, as did the rest of my teammates, and I had a great coach who fit my style. You must be able to score in a lot of different ways: using both hands, getting fouled, etc. Guys who can score in a lot of different ways are the hardest to guard.
You were named 1st-Team Academic All-American in 1992 and graduated magna cum laude: how did you balance your work on the court with your work in the classroom? I showed up and went to class every day and took pride in my performance on the floor and in the classroom. It was important to me and I worked at it. I had a lot of players who excelled at both academics/athletics because they knew their sports career had a shelf life.
In 2002 you were inducted into your school’s Hall of Fame: where does that rank among the highlights of your career? That was fun: it is nice to be recognized for your impact. The best part was the memories and the teammates you did it with. We accomplished something special by becoming the 1st team in school history to make the D-3 tourney.
In 2019 as coach at UC Irvine, you won your conference tourney and then had a 6-PT win over Kansas State: how big a deal was it to get the 1st NCAA tourney win in school history? It felt like a big deal to make the NCAA tourney for the 1st time in 2015, and then we were able to win a game when we made it back there in 2019. It was very special because we played in San Jose, so we had a lot of fans/alumni who were there with us in person. We had incredible support from a school that has only been in existence since 1965. March Madness is such a cultural impact point and we got ourselves recognized. It was validation for a lot of alums to see how good we were. A lot of folks around here feel like “little brother” to bigger schools like UCLA/USC, but we accomplished more than some people thought we could.
You were named conference COY 4 times during a 7-year span from 2014-2020: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? There is respect that comes with that but we were being recognized as an entire staff: it is never a 1-person award but rather was about what our group was doing. For the 1st decade I was here it seemed like the coach who won the league got that award. That bar has been raised for us because we have done very good work since then, which is why I give credit to the people I have around me.
In 2025 you won a school-record 32 games (including a nation-high 14 on the road) and made the NIT title game before 1-PT OT loss to Chattanooga: what is the key to winning games on the road? We play a lot of road games, which is 1 way to get better at them. We make good decisions when we travel and believe that we can win. It gives us a bit of an edge, and our style of play helps us grind teams down. We have good depth with a lot of guys who contribute, which gives us a chance. It is a little bit magical: it is hard to get “road kills” and our guys take a lot of pride in that.
You went 7-1 en route to a runner-up finish in the Williams Jones Cup in Taiwan last August due in large part to FR G Josiah Johnson (who led the team in scoring), then won an exhibition game in Montreal 2 weeks ago: what sort of travel budget do you have, and is it too early to predict that Josiah will be named conference ROY? You need a budget to do 2 foreign tours, which is something we had never done before. The Jones Cup is an unbelievable opportunity, and they subsidized a lot of it after we got the invitation. We also have incredible community donor support, so we were very fortunate to travel there/experience the culture in Asia. It was a great learning experience, and it is a big deal in Taiwan: they are real games in a real tourney environment. I had previously agreed to play an exhibition game in Montreal, which was part of our recruitment of Olivier Rioux after he had not played much during his time at Florida. That part of Canada is much different culturally than the US, and we got a great reception there. Josiah is unquestionably a talent, and we have had multiple freshmen here win ROY. It is certainly a possibility and I am encouraged…but he has a long way to go. I want him to keep making progress because there are a lot of good players in the Big West every year.
Olivier was certainly your “biggest” addition during the offseason: what kind of production do you expect to get from the tallest player in the history of the sport? Everybody asks that: he did not play much at Florida, but part of that is because he was on a team that had some of the best big men in the country. There have been times this summer where his size/skill have been dominant so I hope that he can assert himself for us. He should be able to shoot/rebound at a good rate but needs to get better with his conditioning. I think he will be an important factor on our team.
You had losing seasons during your 1st 2 years in Irvine, but since then you have had 14 straight winning seasons and are now the winningest head coach in school history with 344 wins: how have you been able to be so successful for such a long period of time? #1: I have had incredible people around me. I took over a team that had some important foundational pieces to establish our culture. We have had continuity while growing/improving, and as things have changed over the past 3-4 years, we have been aggressive in adapting while staying true to our community. We offer a world-class education and play winning basketball with unselfish people who are willing to make sacrifices. We give ourselves a chance to improve and work very hard at it.
What are your goals for the upcoming season, and what are your expectations for the upcoming season? I have a young team that is deep/athletic/talented so I am excited about the journey: we will fight to defend and have a competitive mentality. Every year’s team is different but we always say that our goal is to advance in the NCAA tourney, even though we have not been there in a while. It is important to play for championships in our league so we need to stay focused on the ultimate goal: continuing to improve throughout the year. We have a difficult schedule, but I hope that it gives us the opportunity for some good wins and gets us ready for a 22-game regular season in the Big West. Everyone here is starving to make it back to the NCAA tourney…but we must stay locked in.
