Oliver Purnell question

[Gato78]

Is he on the hot seat? Is it at least luke warm? Frankly, I cannot see how he has made it this long. I hear DePaul has some backers who think they should move to the A-10 (or whatever the number is now) because they cannot compete in BIG EAST. Seems with their tailspin and the new arena/casino and the money that may cost DePaul, they may well be at a crossroads. I think they need to dump Purnell after this season with all that is at stake. It is clear he cannot deliver a winner.

[Nukem2]

I suspect we need DePaul for NCAA tourney purposes or 5 years until X, CU and BU get us within guidelines...?

[MayorBeluga]

Does anyone at DePaul care? This s a serious question, and I wonder if the administration and the AD care. They certainly don't appear to care as long as they can cash some checks from the Big East.

[unclejohn]

We'll see how Purnell does this year and next with some good recruits and transfers coming in. I remember when DePaul hired Purnell. Some of their fans were disappointed that they didn't get a guy with a better NCAA tournament record. Who on earth were they expecting. Dean Smith, maybe? The fact is, Purnell had gotten a couple of lower D-1 teams to the Dance, which is hard enough. Those teams tend not to win. He turned around Dayton and Clemson. They did not do terribly well in the post-season, but that is a small sample to judge from. Wainwright was also successful elsewhere before he flopped at DePaul. I have to wonder if it is more about the school than the coach. I think the arena in Nowhere really does hurt them, and their administration has not managed to get the ship afloat. Perhaps the new arena will help. Maybe not. It would seem that there is enough talent in the Chicago area for a team like DePaul to at least compete. Even Loyola is stepping it up, and DePaul's women's program has been very successful. I think this points to leadership, rather than coaching.

[DCwarrior]

I don't think DePaul has the budget to buy out the remainder of Purnell's contract and hire a new coach.

[MUBasketball]

It is clear he cannot deliver a winner.

Except that Oliver has won everywhere else he has been. His DePaul tenure has been a disaster so far, no denying that. This year will be very telling. Young and Melvin are upperclassmen, and Garrett is supposed to be a real good player. They need to show a lot of improvement. If they don't, not sure it will matter in terms of his job security (which speaks to the Mayor's question), but the new league needs all the firepower it can have so I'm pulling for them to get it together.

[TheSultan]

I have to wonder if it is more about the school than the coach.


This to me is the biggest problem. I think their AD is borderline incompetent, and their higher-ups really don't seem all that concerned. I've said this before, but you really can't half-ass division one sports. Otherwise you get DePaul.

As for Purnell, I thought he would be better than he turned out to be for them. I never thought he was a super-star, but the guy has been able to recruit well enough to turn around a couple programs and at least make them competitive. He just hasn't been able to land that top-notch recruit out of Chicago yet that could really change the way their program is viewed. They've gotten some decent mid-level type guys like Billy Garrett recently, but what if they had been able to pull off a Jabari Parker or Jahlil Okafor?

[Goose85]

I don't believe Purnell has ever won an NCAA tournament game.

DePaul really needs their version of MU and Tom Crean.

A young coach that works like crazy to get the program going in the right direction. Sells the program at every chance and gets students interested in hoops.
Also helped to have Bill Cords who, along with Crean, did a very good job with the big money boosters.

Not sure the AD is a Bill Cords, and I sure don't think Purnell is a Tom Crean type.

[BLT]

Billy Garrett is an assistant's son. Purnell sure better have landed him. Groce has turned it on in Chicago which won't help OP. His two best players are from Baltimore. Chicago AAU is a tangled web.

[TheSultan]

Billy Garrett is an assistant's son. Purnell sure better have landed him.


Thanks....I think I once knew that!!

[CaribouJim]

I don't believe Purnell has ever won an NCAA tournament game.

DePaul really needs their version of MU and Tom Crean.

A young coach that works like crazy to get the program going in the right direction. Sells the program at every chance and gets students interested in hoops.
Also helped to have Bill Cords who, along with Crean, did a very good job with the big money boosters.

Not sure the AD is a Bill Cords, and I sure don't think Purnell is a Tom Crean type.

Totally agree - make that guy the first hire of the NEW AD - she should have been launched years ago.

[MUfan12]

DePaul really needs their version of MU and Tom Crean.

I thought they had it when Leitao was there. He was starting to build a little bit. They gave him an extension, and he bolted for Virginia the next season.

[MUBasketball]

Totally agree - make that guy the first hire of the NEW AD - she should have been launched years ago.

At least she looks sexy in that blue blazer!!

In the words of Veronica Corningstone in Anchorman..."you look like a blueberry!".

[IWB]

They hired Purnell who was old at the time and as Goose said, had never won an NCAA tourney game. At the time he had 21 years as a head coach, 6 tourney appearances and he was 0-6. As many years as he had coached, why give a $17 million deal to a coach who has never won a tourney game? OP said to a friend at the time the same thing McIlvaine says when people bring up the worst contract in NBA history, "They offered me millions, what was I supposed to do, turn them down?"

On top of all that, I do not believe he had any recruiting ties/relationships in Chicago when he was hired. Zero.

The AD needs to go.

OP needs to go.

They need a young, hair's on fire coach.

[unclejohn]

I still think the 0-6 record in tournament play is ********. Most tournament stats are ********, but this one in particular. He got his first bid when he was at Old Dominion. They entered the tournament at .500, so they probably opened against a 1 or 2 seed. Of course they lost. They were supposed to lose. He got Dayton into the tournament twice. I do not know where they were seeded, so it is hard to say whether they should have won or not. But take a look at where they were when Purnell got there. They were terrible. That was just after the GMC folded. As you may recall, Dayton was in the league with Marquette at the time, and never won a game. Purnell got them into the tournament and totally turned the program around. At Clemson, he took a program that had not been successful and got it in the tournament three straight years. I do not know off hand, but I doubt Clemson ever made the tournament three years in a row under anybody else. Again, I do not know what their seed was in the tournament, although I recall they got upset once or twice. But these are a couple games out of a season, hardly what someone should judge a team on. The year after Purnell left, the team made the tournament again with his recruits. Last year, they reverted to sucking.

It is really, really hard to turn around a losing program. Purnell has done it three time. Just getting to the post-season, never mind winning, would be huge for DePaul. The next Tom Crean is not lining up to take the job. It looks like Purnell is getting some pieces in place to get them competitive. That is about what DePaul can expect at this point

[CaribouJim]

The next Tom Crean is not lining up to take the job.


There will be if they get a new administration and/or new AD with a vision and an ounce of ambition. I still say DePaul is a sleeping giant of Biblical proportions.

After all, ICIC - It's Chicago...It's Chicago.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

With a new arena, new AD, and a new coach they could do wonders. However as long as they have their same arena, coach, and AD they pretty much will be what they are.

[MUMac]

I still think the 0-6 record in tournament play is ********. Most tournament stats are ********, but this one in particular. He got his first bid when he was at Old Dominion. They entered the tournament at .500, so they probably opened against a 1 or 2 seed. Of course they lost. They were supposed to lose. He got Dayton into the tournament twice. I do not know where they were seeded, so it is hard to say whether they should have won or not. But take a look at where they were when Purnell got there. They were terrible. That was just after the GMC folded. As you may recall, Dayton was in the league with Marquette at the time, and never won a game. Purnell got them into the tournament and totally turned the program around. At Clemson, he took a program that had not been successful and got it in the tournament three straight years. I do not know off hand, but I doubt Clemson ever made the tournament three years in a row under anybody else. Again, I do not know what their seed was in the tournament, although I recall they got upset once or twice. But these are a couple games out of a season, hardly what someone should judge a team on. The year after Purnell left, the team made the tournament again with his recruits. Last year, they reverted to sucking.

It is really, really hard to turn around a losing program. Purnell has done it three time. Just getting to the post-season, never mind winning, would be huge for DePaul. The next Tom Crean is not lining up to take the job. It looks like Purnell is getting some pieces in place to get them competitive. That is about what DePaul can expect at this point

Dayton was a 4 seed in '03 under Purnell and lost to Tulsa. The other Dayton team was an 11 seed. At Clemson, he was a 5, 7 and 7 seed. Clemson was in the tournament 3 consecutive years, two times. 96, 97 and 98 were the other years.

EDIT: Inadvertently counted Brian Gregory's first season as a Purnell NCAA appearance and have deleted that.