When a few of his high school teammates came for a visit, they were surprised his Wichita home was so modest — smaller than some of their own.

“We said, ‘Mark, what do you do with all your money?’?” recalled friend and former teammate Tom Meier. “Mark said, ‘You never know. I could get fired tomorrow.’?”

Meier and his buddies knew that wasn’t a possible outcome for the most competitive and confident kid they grew up with, now the head coach at the University of Maryland.

Who is Mark Turgeon and what is he doing so far removed from his basketball roots?

People close to Turgeon, 46, paint a picture of a competition junkie, driven by his love of basketball, his dreams and his fear of failure. A Catholic-school product, Turgeon has an understated spiritualism, but he’s also addicted to excitement and the bright lights of a packed, noisy arena.

He had a great job at Texas A&M, making more than $1.5 million a year. He guided the Aggies to the NCAA tournament in each of his four seasons, and he had a potential top-10 team returning in 2011-12. But it wasn’t enough.

“Mark was in awe of the football scene at A&M,” said a friend who requested anonymity. “But it bothered him so much that those same fans couldn’t feel that way about basketball. And that’s why he’s at Maryland. He knows it’s big time.”

Turgeon was born to a basketball family. His father, Bob, played at Creighton. When the Turgeons moved into a new home when Mark was young, it wasn’t enough for Bob to put up a hoop over the garage. He had a 52×30 court erected in the backyard, with the backboards painted green because, without a local NBA team to root for, the Turgeons were fans of the Boston Celtics because their point guard, Jo Jo White, was an icon at Kansas.

Two of Turgeon’s three sisters played college basketball, as well as brother, Jim, who is now the women’s coach at Western Iowa Community College.

Mark also followed sports with a fan’s passion. If Hayden High lost, he cried. Same for the Kansas Jayhawks or the Kansas City Chiefs.

“I don’t like to lose an argument. I don’t like to lose a game. I don’t like to lose a recruit,” Turgeon said on Thursday. “I’ve matured a lot. I handle it a lot better.”

Playing against Jim and his older friends, Mark’s competitive fires were stoked in those backyard games as he overcame his size disadvantage with feistiness.

“He was this itty-bitty thing, always the smallest kid on the court,” Meier said. “But the first time I played against him, I thought, ‘Man, I want to be on his team.’?”

It happened at Hayden High, where the 6-foot-6 Meier started for four years and was named Mr. Basketball in Kansas in his senior year. As a 5-foot-2 sophomore, Turgeon had to wait his turn to play. But three games into his junior year, he took over at point guard and Hayden won back-to-back state titles.

“I’ve never had another player like him — game situations, managing the clock, inspiring others,” said Ben Meseke, a coach for 40 years, and winner of six state titles. “He actually taught me a lot.”

In their senior year, neither Meier nor Turgeon had a Division I offer when they met with Kansas coach Larry Brown, who tried talking them into walking on.

Brown’s primary target was Meier, who wasn’t interested. He took the sure thing — a scholarship to Washburn University. Turgeon, however, was dying to play for Kansas, regardless of the conditions. When Brown asked him why he thought he could play at Kansas, Turgeon said, “Because I’m better than any of the point guards you got right now.”

“That’s what sold coach Brown,” Meseke said. “I think he saw a lot of himself in Mark.”

Turgeon quickly earned a scholarship at Kansas. When Brown gave instructions during a timeout, Turgeon often called another huddle as players returned to the floor to clarify.

Turgeon admits his ways sometimes rubbed his teammates the wrong way, but not the ones that really wanted to win.

“One of my strengths is, I’m pretty competitive,” Turgeon said. “One of my weaknesses is, I’m pretty competitive.”

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