Texas A&M's Mark Turgeon said Monday night that athletics director Bill Byrne discussed giving the third-year head men's basketball coach a raise late last week, but that nothing has been finalized.
"We're working on it but it's not done yet," Turgeon said. "Hopefully soon, we're trying to get everything done. It's getting closer."
Turgeon, who is 73-31 at A&M, has reached the second round of the NCAA tournament each of his three seasons. The Aggies beat Utah State this year before losing in overtime to Purdue.
Speculation had started even before the tournament that Byrne would fight to keep and reward Turgeon. The former Kansas guard led the Aggies to a second-place tie in the Big 12 despite having 6-foot-10 Chinemelu Elonu surprisingly leave a year early and losing senior guard Derrick Roland to a season-ending injury near the end of nonconference play.
The Aggies were 24-10, including 11-5 in league play. A couple of newspapers named him the Big 12 Coach of the Year for his accomplishments in the country's top-rated conference.
A&M gave Turgeon an eight-year, $9.6 million deal when he was hired from Wichita State. It was a five-year pact with a rollover year added after each of the first three seasons.
Turgeon didn't say how much the raise could be, but the offer is believed to be anywhere from $250,000-$500,000 more per year.
Turgeon had been mentioned as a possible coaching candidate at Oregon, which fired Ernie Kent. Turgeon was an assistant at Oregon for five seasons -- 1992-93 to '96-97 under Jerry Green.
"I was never asked, so you can never say I officially turned them down," Turgeon said. "Obviously, there were some behind the scene things there."
Turgeon said any raise would have to be agreed upon by him and Byrne, then receive approval from University President R. Bowen Loftin and the Board of Regents.
A&M hired Turgeon to replace Billy Gillispie, who was hired away by Kentucky. Gillispie, who had just completed his third season with the Aggies, had agreed to a new contract at A&M for $1.75 million a year before bolting. Kentucky paid him $2.3 million a year, but Gillispie was fired after two seasons there.
Turgeon's contract calls for him to get a bonus of $41,667 for making the NCAA tournament. His contract had a buyout clause of $1 million if he had terminated it before April 10, 2008. The buyout dropped to $500,000 before April 10, 2009, when it's lowered to $250,000 for the remainder of the deal.
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