Colleges:

Newly named UC Irvine men’s basketball coach Russ Turner has an impressive resume as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors, Stanford and Wake Forest.

But he said Friday during his introductory news conference that his background as a player is also something that might provide him rare insight into the wide range of personalities and skills that will comprise the Anteaters’ roster.

“I was the best player on my college team pretty much from the time I got there,” Turner said of Hampden-Sydney College, a Division III program in Virginia. “But I was a junior varsity high school player in the 10th grade and I was probably the fifth- or sixth-best player on my high school team, which was ranked No. 3 in the nation and won the state championship my senior year.

“Going through those different experiences was valuable,” said Turner, a two-time All-American at Hampden-Sydney and the 1992 Old Dominion Conference Player of the Year whose 2,272 career points are 307 more than the second-most prolific scorer in school history. “It’s valuable to connect with different people throughout your team. Any coach who is successful, builds those relationships and doesn’t disregard any member of the team, from the best guys, to the guys who get the least playing time.”

 Turner, a 6-foot-7 center who said the only three-pointer he ever made was an ally-oop pass that went in, said he was 195 pounds out of high school, but finished his collegiate career at 240. He said the lack of full physical maturity led him to pass on Division I scholarship offers, including one from the Virginia Military Institute.

After college, Turner said he had offers to play overseas, including Israel. But his apprehension, as well as a willingness to pursue coaching, led to the termination of his playing career.

“I did not believe in myself as a player enough to [pursue professional opportunities],” said Turner, who noted that he began thinking about coaching while still in college.

“When other kids in college who were working as hard as I was academically were out getting internships and summer jobs, I was working basketball camps,” said Turner, who graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English and economics in 1992. “I probably knew sometime around then that coaching was what I wanted to do.”

 Turner, 39, said he learned greatly from former Stanford head man Mike Montgomery, who took Turner with him when he left Stanford to take over at Golden State.

“[Montgomery] was a great fit at Stanford, because the players believed in him as a guy,” Turner said. “And, now, I think that will be the case for me here. At least I hope it will be. I believe that coaching is a talent business and I have an edge and a talent about me that I have cultivated over a bunch of years. That’s a hard thing to say about yourself, but I think you have to have that belief in order to succeed.”

Turner also was generous with praise about the things he learned under Don Nelson, who last week became the NBA’s career coaching wins leader, when Nelson retained him from Montgomery’s staff after Montgomery was fired at Golden State.

“It’s impossible to describe how valuable it is to be around Don Nelson,” Turner said. “People talk about him as an innovator, which is an easy thing to say. But it’s impossible to describe unless you’re around him every day. We’ve tried more things as a coaching staff than a lot of coaches will ever even consider. We will think of them and actually do them. Sometimes they work brilliantly and sometimes they look silly.

“I don’t know if I can learn more, ever, from a guy in basketball than Don Nelson. People call coaches geniuses sometimes and I don’t know if that’s appropriate. But he is almost like a coaching savant, in terms of his ability to connect with the players and see the game in different ways.

“When he hired me and told me he was going to give me a chance, I didn’t think I’d really last with him for more than a year. But it gives me great confidence that I did. I know he has belief in my ability to be successful, and that’s a really powerful feeling.”

 Turner said the fact that he was retained from the previous coach’s staff with the Warriors will impact whether or not he retains current UCI assistants Doug Oliver, Ross Land and Ryan Badrtalei.

“Nellie kept me when he didn’t know me, so I want to give those other guys full consideration,” said Turner, who starts fulltime at UCI on Thursday and said he is in no hurry to assemble his staff.

“I want to hire guys who are going to be here a while,” said Turner, who signed a five-year contract with an annual base salary of $205,000. “I know if there is continuity within the staff, there is a much better chance for success.”

 Turner has no monopoly on success in his household. His wife, Elizabeth, graduated No. 1 in her medical school class at Wake Forest and has been completing a fellowship in critical care.

“I like to brag on my wife,” Turner said. “She’s a life-saving doctor, the kind you don’t want to see, but if you need to see one, you want to see her.”

The Turners have two young children, daughter Devlin and son Darius.

 Turner, who grew up in Roanoke, Va., said he had no knowledge of the Big West Conference as a young man. And though Stanford played at UCI when he was with the Cardinal, that knowledge has only slightly been advanced since.

“I’m looking forward to learning more about all the [Big West] schools, most of which I haven’t even been to yet,” Turner said.

 Turner did say that he realized early in his NBA tenure that coaching at the college level was something he wanted to return to.

“The best times I’ve had are when I’ve been part of a campus, part of a community and like-minded academic-type people,” Turner said. “I really look forward to getting back to a leadership role for young men and being a role model. I want to have more of an influence, day-to-day, on what guys are doing and who they are becoming.”

 Another coach who likes to watch his players become men is former UCI baseball coach Dave Serrano. Serrano, in his third season at Cal State Fullerton, was at Anteater Ballpark through the weekend, watching his Titans win two of three from an ’Eaters’ squad that includes nine players who were in the program during the run to the 2007 College World Series in his final season.

“To be quite honest with you, I’m kind of glad to see them all gone now,” Serrano said of the UCI veterans such as Danny Bibona, Eric Pettis, Jeff Cusick, Francis Larson and Christian Bergman, after Sunday’s series finale.

“This is the last time I’ll have to see many of those guys. It has been tough competing against them and tough seeing how good they’ve become.”

The total attendence for the Fullerton series was 3,986, an average of 1,329.  Barring upsets, the UCI men’s volleyball team will likely earn one of eight berths into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation postseason tournament. But the Anteaters, the 2009 NCAA champions, can amplify their status as a dangerous long shot by defeating No. 1-ranked Stanford, an MPSF rival, in the final regular-season match Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Bren Events Center.