2012-13 DEPAUL BASKETBALL
OLIVER PURNELL
TWITTER: @COACHPURNELL
HEAD COACH | THIRD SEASON AT DEPAUL | 25TH SEASON OVERALL A leader among his peers both on and off the court, Oliver Purnell enters his third season as head coach at DePaul in 2012-13. Known as a builder of programs, DePaul is the fifth coaching stop for Purnell over his 24-year career as he established has winning traditions at each of his previous four coaching stops. He was named the 13th head coach in DePaul basketball history on April 6, 2010 after stops at Clemson, Dayton, Old Dominion and Radford. From his first victory at Radford on Nov. 30, 1988 to his 400th career win with the Blue Demons on Dec. 22, 2010, Purnell has recorded a milestone victory at each stop of his coaching career. Evidence of the rebuilding at DePaul started in 201112 as the Blue Demons improved in a variety of ways. DePaul opened the season by winning nine of its first 12 games. The 9-3 record marked just the third time in the last 25 seasons that a DePaul team won at least nine of its first 12 contests. In addition to the increase in victories, DePaul also posted its highest scoring average since 199495 and the highest number of steals per game since the 2002-03 campaign. Individually, Cleveland Melvin’s 522 points marked the sixth-highest sophomore total in program history while Brandon Young became the first player since Rod Strickland to total at least 100 assists in a season as a freshman and sophomore. Purnell led the Blue Demons through the 2010-11 campaign and set a foundation for future success behind then-rookies Melvin and Young. Melvin was selected as the BIG EAST Rookie of the Year and was joined on the BIG EAST All-Rookie Team with Young. Melvin was Purnell’s first signee as he inked his National Letter of Intent a month after Purnell was hired at DePaul. The two Baltimore natives led the Blue Demons and all BIG EAST freshmen in scoring throughout the 2010-11 season. Melvin’s BIG EAST Rookie of the Year honor was the first major BIG EAST award by a DePaul player and he was the first player to earn conference rookie of the year honors since Quentin Richardson was the 1999 Conference USA Freshman of the Year. Melvin also eclipsed Mark Aguirre’s freshman field goal percentage record by shooting .522 from the field. Purnell inherited a Clemson program in 2003 following stints at Dayton, Old Dominion and Radford. After a 10-18 record during his first campaign in 2003-04, he led the Tigers to six straight postseason appearances including each of the last three NCAA Tournaments. Clemson was just one of 21 programs nationally, including BIG EAST members Louisville, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Villanova and West Virginia, to make three straight NCAA appearances. In his last four seasons with the Tigers, Purnell’s .694 winning percentage is third in the ACC with only Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and North Carolina’s Roy Williams posting higher winning percentages in that span. The 2009-10 squad finished at 21-11 with the program’s third straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Clemson also finished the season with 301 steals in 32 games to rank among the nation’s best for the sixth straight year. Purnell compiled a record of 138-88 (.613) during his seven-year tenure at Clemson while the program improved its win-
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ning percentage in five straight seasons from 2004-09. Following the 2009-10 season, senior forward Trevor Booker was selected by the Washington Wizards in the first round of the NBA Draft. Booker was the 23rd overall selection in June 2010 and was the first senior selected in the draft. The first first-round pick from Clemson since 1994, he completed his degree from Clemson in August 2010. Booker concluded his career third in Clemson history with 1,060 rebounds and fifth on the career charts with 1,725 points. He played and started all 134 games of his career, a Clemson record. He also earned USBWA AllDistrict III honors twice and was a first team All-ACC and All-Defensive Team as a senior - a first in school history. Among the many highlights during his time at Clemson were the No. 24 ranking in the 2007-08 final AP poll and the 25-win season during the 2006-07 campaign. With the 25-11 record that season, Purnell became just the seventh active Division I head coach to take at least four schools to 20-plus win seasons. Purnell joined Krzyzewski and Bobby Cremins of Georgia Tech as the only coaches in ACC history to accomplish that feat at a league school. The 2008-09 season was record-breaking on many fronts. Purnell’s team finished with a 23-9 record, a .719 winning percentage, and a No. 24 final ranking in the Associated Press poll. Purnell and former Georgia Tech mentor Bobby Cremins are the only two coaches in ACC history to guide their teams to five consecutive years of improvement in winning percentage. The Tigers also won 20 or more games for the third straight season in 200809, a first in school history. Included among Clemson’s victims in 2008-09 was third-ranked Duke, who lost to the Tigers by a score of 74-47 on Feb. 4 at Littlejohn Coliseum. It was the largest margin of victory ever for Clemson against a ranked opponent. The Tigers also won four ACC games on the road, including over an NCAA Tournament team in Boston College and following a 15-point come-from-behind effort at Virginia Tech. His 2007-08 team advance to the ACC Championship game before falling to top-ranked North Carolina. On the way to the finals, the Tigers knocked of No. 2 seed and seventh-ranked Duke to earn a No. 5 seed in the 2008 NCAA Championship. It was the school’s first NCAA appearance since 1998 and also saw Clemson ranked No. 22 in the AP top 25 for the program’s first final ranking since 1997. After taking over prior to the start of the 2003-04 season, Purnell put Clemson on the map in his fourth season. The Tigers matched a school record with 25 wins in 2006-07, which was also set a single-season best for Purnell in his then-20 years as a Division I head coach. Purnell led the team to 17 consecutive victories to open the season, also tying a record held by the 1986-87 Tigers while lasting as the nation’s last remaining unbeaten team that season. Clemson also returned to the national polls for the first time since the 1998-99 season. The Tigers were ranked in the USA Today coaches’ poll for eight consecutive weeks, which included a high of No. 14 on Jan. 8, 2007. Clemson also reached the No. 1 spot in the Sagarin computer ratings on Dec. 14, 2006. Clemson finished the 2006-07 season with a 25-11 record and advanced to the NIT championship game for the second time in school history.