New UAA men's basketball coach believes he can steer Seawolves through transition
Apr. 5—As the associate athletic director for the University of Alaska Anchorage, one of Rusty Osborne's duties was to introduce Cameron Turner as his successor in the role of head coach of the men's basketball team. The two sat shoulder to shoulder at a table during a press conference Tuesday at the Alaska Airlines Center as Osborne shared that his former assistant would take up the mantle of head coach.
"It's my pleasure to turn this program over to somebody I've known a long time," Osborne said. "He was a big part of the success we had with quite a few teams. " Even though Turner worked under Osborne previously with the Seawolves from 2011 to 2017, he was subjected to the same process as the rest of the candidates.
"It was a very professional process," Turner said. "I had to submit and do everything like everybody else and then went through Zoom interviews. It was fun to see familiar faces through that process, and then obviously, getting the job and seeing them today was great.
" Osborne was not on the search committee for the next head coach but was asked for a few recommendations for strong candidates. The list he gave included Turner, among other names he declined to divulge. Turner coached the men's basketball team at Eastern Arizona College the last four seasons.
Before that, he engineered a turnaround for the Eastern Arizona women's basketball program, which he coached for five years. "I think all of us from Alaska understand that sometimes, familiarity with Alaska is important, but he wasn't the only candidate that had those qualities," Osborne said. "I think his record stands on its own.
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