As Turner began to trust Perry, the boy with the man-sized body showed remarkable progress. And not just on the basketball court. Perry founded his basketball academy on Biblical principles, particularly the words of Titus 2:6, which states: “Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled (NIV).”
“It wasn’t an overnight transformation, and we fought like a father and son at times,” Perry said. “But as time progressed, he began to take what I was teaching him to heart. We spent as much time talking about being a good citizen as we did about being a good basketball player. We worked relentlessly on drills, and we talked endlessly about taking responsibility. The transformation he made physically, emotionally and spiritually was amazing.
““I had to wear the black disciplinary hat many times, but I am so incredibly proud of him. There’s no point of throwing anyone under the bus, although Lord knows I could when I talk about what he has dealt with in his past. So many people have lied to him, disappointed him, disowned him and so forth. He has every right to be an intensely bitter young man. But he’s not like that. I love the young man’s spirit. He’s become part of our family. My wife, Regina, and I consider him one of our own, and our biological kids—I have a 12-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter—consider him their big brother. I can’t even put into words how proud I am of his development as a young man.”
“His progress as a young basketball player has been phenomenal, as well. Turner came to Perry as a raw prospect. He developed his body by doing an endless array of push-ups and jump-rope sessions. He developed his magnificent leaping ability by running long distances in Jumpsoles, popular frontal training platforms that attach to shoes and develop the fast-twitch muscle fibers in the lower leg.
“Under Perry’s tutelage, Turner also developed his overall game. He’s an outstanding ball-handler with both hands; he is a capable three-point shooter with a soft touch; he’s a solid free-throw shooter; he’s a strong on-the-ball defender; and he is a ferocious rebounder.
“He has an array of skills,” Perry said. “But the one lesson I drilled into him is that, ‘There is money in the paint.’ If you tell him that he’ll know you’ve been talking to me. I’ve told him that a million times. If he wants to play in the NBA, he needs to rebound, run the floor, get his put-backs and hit his free-throws. Whenever he starts to drift out toward the three-point line, I remind him, ‘Ray, there’s money in the paint.’
“That’s where he is going to impress the scouts. That’s where his stock took off years ago.”
Turner flew somewhat under the recruiting radar because he didn’t consistently play in the mainstream AAU circles. But when he did, he left a memorable impact. At the Reebok National Championship Tournament in Las Vegas in July of 2008, for example, Turner played on two different teams and was so impressive that ESPN.com’s Bob Gibbons listed Turner as one of the top five national sleepers of the entire ’08 class.
Turner, who averaged 16 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game as a junior at South Park’s Jones High School, chose A&M over Oklahoma State, Missouri, Baylor, Nebraska and Marquette. Turner says he chose A&M for numerous reasons. Among the most significant was his connection to current A&M players such as Bryan Davis. At Perry’s urging, Turner had also attended some summer camps at A&M, where he had felt quite comfortable.
Perry was initially worried about Turner fitting in at A&M because the enrollment was so big. But ultimately, Perry says he resolved to trust that God had guided Turner to Aggieland. Turner is the first member of his family to attend college, and when he signed with the Aggies in November of 2008, everyone who had ever touched Turner’s life in a positive manner celebrated the monumental occasion.
“While he had a lot of odds stacked against him, he also had a lot of people in his corner.” Perry said. “My parents became big Ray Turner fans, and my mother’s Sunday school class is continually praying for him. People like his second grade teacher, Glenda Drew, have also had an impact on him. When Glenda first saw him in the gym she said to me, ‘Is that Ray Turner?’ I told her it was, and she said to me, ‘I was worried about him. You are saving his life.’
“I thank God for Ray. He has made me a better parent and a better man. His principal at Jones High School used to pick Ray up in the morning before school so that Ray could read to kindergarten-aged kids. He’s a fine young man, and we all hoped that signing with A&M would be a new beginning.”
It seemed that it would also be the end of Turner’s struggles. On Nov. 25, 2008, in an ESPN.com article that broke down the Big 12 recruiting classes, Bob Gibbons and Reggie Rankin wrote:
“The final signee for Texas A&M is unheralded forward Ray Turner (Houston/Jones). Turner is still relatively unknown nationally and very underrated. However, do not be surprised if he turns out to be one of the best college players in this class. Turner is an outstanding all-around athlete and a capable perimeter shooter. He is one of the nation’s top sleepers. He likely will become a key contributor for Turgeon’s program as a freshman.”
That prediction would ultimately prove to be prophetic. But not before Turner faced yet another jaw-dropping challenge where he would again be forced to prove his extraordinary ability to rise above his circumstances.
CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF…FINALLY
Sitting inside an office in the north end of Kyle Field, Ray Turner brightens the room with a charismatic and triumphant smile when he is asked to describe the dunk at Missouri, the put-back at Texas Tech or his numerous other contributions to the Aggie basketball team.
Turner is having the time of his life on the basketball court at A&M. And everywhere else, for that matter. He relishes being around people who care about him and push him to excel. He appreciates being in a safe environment and is awestruck by the friendliness of the A&M campus. He’s ecstatic to be a college athlete. That’s easy to determine by what he says and how he says it.
“He’s a really grateful young man,” said Vernon Banks, A&M’s assistant strength and conditioning coach who works extensively with men’s basketball. “A lot of kids are happy to be here. But Ray’s beyond happy; he’s grateful. You can see it in his eyes.”
You can hear it in his voice, too. Turner is naturally soft-spoken, but when he warms up, his passion for A&M—and the opportunity he now has because of college basketball—is obvious.
“I am very excited, especially to be under Coach Turgeon’s program and his assistants,” said Turner, who turned 20 on Jan. 24. “I am going to hope for the best as the years go on in my career. I am enjoying every moment of my time.
“There was a time where I was not expecting to go to college. I was just hoping to finish high school. But when I started playing basketball the opportunity (to go to college) came along, and now A&M is everything I had hoped for and more. It’s wonderful. I’ve fallen in love with this place and the people. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to play basketball here, especially after what I went through last semester.”
What Turner endured last semester was cruel punishment, especially since it was no fault of his own. Partly because of his extremely difficult home life as a youngster, Turner fell through the educational cracks. When Perry became his guardian, one of his first priorities was to remove Turner from alternative schooling. After bouncing around from several schools, Turner returned to mainstream classrooms and even took correspondence classes and night school to put him back on track to earn college entrance.
According to Garry Gibson, Texas A&M assistant athletic director for academics, Turner had taken and passed his core high school coursework. His overall grade-point average and test scores were also acceptable for entrance into A&M. But some of the correspondence classes were taken through a Houston subsidiary of a Louisiana-based “diploma mill.” That raised red flags from the NCAA Clearinghouse, which put a hold on Turner’s scholarship eligibility.
“The hold-up was that he took some correspondence classes through one of those schools he probably shouldn’t have,” Gibson said. “He got bad advice to take those courses. The NCAA Eligibility Center had issues with being able to clear some of the courses. When you take correspondence courses, you must be able to provide the Eligibility Center with a syllabus, grade sheets, homework assignments and any correspondence.
“The school didn’t provide that. When we tried to call the school, we always got an answering machine. There was no human contact, so it was real fishy. But it was at no fault of Ray’s. He did what he was asked to do. The NCAA is cracking down on those types of courses, and they are trying to make sure they are more structured. (A&M’s Director of Compliance) David Batson probably talked to the NCAA every day, and they understood it was not Ray’s fault. But we could not provide the information the NCAA was looking for so they could not clear him.”
Gibson says he was initially hopeful that the Eligibility Center could clear Turner in days. But after Turner enrolled at A&M to begin the 2009 fall semester, days turned into weeks. And months. Because he had not been cleared, Turner couldn’t receive any of the financial aid that was entitled to him through his athletic scholarship. No meal money. No room and board. Nothing.
Turner was not even allowed to work out with his teammates or to have contact with his coaches.
Turner came to A&M with barely any money in his pockets, and he was suddenly being required to pay his own way. Perry did what he could to provide financial support, and Turner applied for emergency student financial aid.
“It was eating me inside,” Turner says of the lingering Clearinghouse issues. “I was stressing. I was wondering if I would even be able to play college basketball. I knew what was going on, but I didn’t know why. Not being able to practice or be around my teammates was hard. I was missing out on building that bond. It took so much for me to get where I am now and once I finally got here, something else came up and tried to stop me.
“My girlfriend back in Houston kept telling me to not give up. My Christian faith also kept me believing that everything would be alright. I did a lot of praying. But it was hard. When I was done with classes, I’d run sprints to stay in shape. I had to work out and do everything on my own. I had to shoot on my own, too. I couldn’t even be around coaches or my teammates. It was confusing, frustrating and a lot of other things, but I didn’t give up.”
In 14 years of working with student-athletes, Gibson says Turner’s case was the most lengthy and frustrating NCAA Clearinghouse issue he’d ever personally encountered. Each day, Gibson and Batson would talk, hoping that they could clear the NCAA’s hurdles. But at the end of each day, Gibson would once again be forced to let Turner down easily.
“Academic services was the one area where we could have constant contact with Ray,” Gibson said. “We thought we were so close so many times. Every day, I would try not to get his hopes up too high. It was a constant roller coaster of ups and downs for him. I would have understood completely if he had just packed it in and left. But he never wavered in his commitment. Ray has a smile that could light up the entire Bright Complex, and even on his darkest days, he’d manage to show that smile.
“The maturity he showed during that whole process was astounding to me. Every day he was in my office. Even on the weekends. Everybody here—from our academic services personnel to our student-athletes—knew what Ray was going through, and we all just hoped that he would one day get the good news.”
Toward the tail end of the fall semester, Turner was inside the Nye Academic Center on the second floor of the Bright Complex studying for a final exam when Gibson finally received the much-anticipated call in his office. Gibson, a former U.S. Marine, excitedly slammed the phone down and sprinted toward the cubicle where Turner was studying. Without warning, Gibson literally leapt onto Turner, who was initially stunned.
Everyone inside the Nye Academic Center knew exactly what Gibson’s reaction meant. The entire complex burst into spontaneous applause.
After thanking everyone for their support, Turner sat on the couch in Gibson’s office and tried not to cry. But the tears of rejoice and relief eventually flowed, although not solely from Turner
“His eyes were watering, and he said, ‘Mr. G, I am not going to cry, I am not going to cry in front of you,’” Gibson recalled. “I told him, ‘That’s fine, but excuse me if I cry myself.’ It was so great. Right after I told Ray, I called the coaches and told them. At practice that day, Ray was so pumped. I remember his very first shot at an official practice. He took off on this big tomahawk dunk, and he missed it. He had to run stairs for missing the dunk, which provided some comic relief after a long ordeal. But it is so good to have him on the team. He’s provided such a lift.”
And he has done it in so many ways. Turgeon is quick to point out that because Turner was not able to go through preseason practices and because he was not even allowed to suit up for a game until the Dec. 12 contest against New Mexico in Houston, he often appeared to be lost in terms of his overall understanding of the game plan. But he has made up for any shortcomings with pure hustle and energy.
Ironically, Turner made his debut in an A&M game on Dec. 22 at Washington—the same game where the Aggies lost senior co-captain Derrick Roland to a gruesome and grotesque compound fracture of Roland’s right leg. In no way has Turner replaced what the veteran Roland brought to the team. But in the aftermath of that injury, Turner has delivered much-needed energy.
“We were really sad and demoralized after that incident with D-Ro,” Turgeon said. “And then some of our guards were not coming along like we wanted them to. But now we have been able to play Khris (Middleton) a lot more on the perimeter, and Ray has really helped us. He has helped us with size and with rebounding. There is no good timing for a guy to have an injury like D-Ro suffered, but it just so happened that Ray became eligible right when Derrick got hurt. That has been a blessing for us.
“Ray has definitely been a spark. Some times teams can get stagnant during the season, but adding Ray has really added energy for us. He struggled learning some plays and remembering everything, and he has had to learn two positions because we want to keep David Loubeau where he is comfortable, so it has really been hard on Ray. We try to simplify things when Ray is in the game, but all the guys know that Ray is going to make plays for us.” He’s also made the Aggies much better in practice. Turgeon credits Turner for the major strides Loubeau has made in the second half of this season. Whereas Davis and Loubeau once had an easy time dominating the paint in practices and scrimmages, that is no longer the case.
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