(Nick Wass - AP) Mark Turgeon said in his first day in College Park that he had already turned to Gary Williams for advice before accepting the job. From Liz Clarke’s story:

In deciding to accept Maryland’s offer, which was extended by Athletic Director Kevin Anderson after an interview in a Pittsburgh hotel Sunday afternoon, Turgeon used Gary Williams as a sounding board. Turgeon said the outgoing coach was frank about the challenges ahead — chief among them: rebuilding a front court that will be without the team’s leading scorer and rebounder from last season, center Jordan Williams, who departed for the NBA after two seasons at Maryland — but gave him confidence that he could succeed in College Park.

Well, Williams discussed his advice himself on a Tuesday appearance on ESPN 980.

“The big thing for him, I wanted him to make sure about Kevin Anderson, our athletic director, [that he knew] the way I felt,” Williams said. “Obviously no one has all the answers, but I wanted to give him my honest feelings about Kevin Anderson and what it was like to work for him.

“And then the other thing is the ACC has this thing that no other conference has, Duke and Carolina up there all the time. And I tried to assure him that you won’t do it every year, but you can be competitive with those guys, really coming in and working hard. And I think that’s the thing I liked about Mark the best. He knew the challenge. He was ready to come in here and work hard.”

Williams also told Kevin Sheehan that he’s considering looking into jobs both as a studio analyst and as a game announcer.