Report: Oklahoma's Porter Moser adds former Longhorn to staff
Newly minted Oklahoma basketball head coach Porter Moser has reportedly made his first staff hire, and it’s a former Longhorn.
According to a report by Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, former Texas assistant K.T. Turner will be joining Moser’s staff in Norman.
Turner was named associate head coach in Austin last September after spending seven seasons as an assistant coach at SMU.
Originally from Cincinnati, OH, Turner played at Hutchison Community College in Kansas before transferring to UT-Arlington and finishing his playing career at Oklahoma City University.
Before his stops at SMU and Texas, Turner had spent his entire coaching career building relationships in Big 12 country. Turner had coaching stints at Panola Community College in Texas, Redlands Community College in Oklahoma, Northern Arizona, Cowley College in Kansas, Hutchison Community College, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Wichita State before arriving on campus for the Mustangs in Dallas.
Turner’s familiarity with the Big 12 recruiting landscape will be essential for Moser, who has spent most of his career in the Chicago area. Moser did have a brief stint on staff at Texas A&M and served under Coach Rick Majerus at Saint Louis, but he is a decade removed from his days at Saint. Louis.
Before serving as a member of Shaka Smart’s staff in Austin, Turner coached under Larry Brown and Tim Jankovich at SMU, having been exposed to his fare share of great college basketball coaches.
Oddly enough, Turner served as the acting head coach for the Longhorns last season when the Sooners left Austin with an 80-79 victory on Jan. 26. Smart was unable to coach the game after testing positive for COVID-19.
K.T. Turner and Lon Kruger
Ricardo B. Brazziell-USA TODAY NETWORK
It appears Turner was not a part of new Longhorn coach Chris Beard’s plans, freeing him up to join Moser’s new staff at OU.
While Moser adjusts to coaching at the Power 5 level, he will at least be able to lean on Turner's experience in the conference and his knowledge of Oklahoma's recruiting footprint, two major questions in Moser's transition to Norman.
