Morris: Purnell will be missed on, off the court

THE NEWS OF Oliver Purnell's departure Tuesday for DePaul was as sad as it was stunning for not only the Clemson community but the state of South Carolina.

Purnell took the Clemson men's basketball program to unprecedented heights in his seven seasons. His teams won 20 or more games each of the past four seasons and reached the NCAA tournament each of the past three.

But the legacy Purnell leaves goes beyond his accomplishments on the court. Purnell was a leader in the Clemson community, a man of high principles and a coach who set an example for his players.

"Oliver did things the right way, he never cut corners and he was professional in every undertaking," Clemson athletics director Terry Don Phillips said in a prepared statement.

Purnell's influence as the first black head coach at Clemson spread to all corners of the state. He was outspoken about the flying of the Confederate flag on the State House grounds, and he longed for the day when blacks could be proud to say they lived in South Carolina.

His unassuming demeanor, terrific sense of humor and general good will earned Purnell respect from his own players and administration to opposing coaches to fans of South Carolina basketball. Rarely was Purnell on the receiving end of barbs from USC fans.

This past November at the annual preseason media gathering in Greensboro, N.C., North Carolina coach Roy Williams was asked what he most admired about Purnell.

Almost without hesitation, Williams replied, "He's a friend."

Williams, who the previous March had led his team to the national championship, said he took time from the Tar Heels' early NCAA tournament preparation to call Purnell.

Williams said he knew Purnell was hurting from Clemson's first-round NCAA tournament loss to Michigan, and it was important that coaches in the ACC recognize the good work of others.

Everyone who follows ACC basketball knows that 10 coaches essentially are in a race for third place year-in and year-out, behind perennial powers UNC and Duke. Purnell had positioned Clemson to be the leader for the third spot.

He took Clemson to the ACC tournament championship game in 2008, beating Duke in the semifinals. He administered one of the worst beatings ever to a Duke team in 2009, a 74-47 whipping of the fourth-ranked Blue Devils.

He made his teams competitive by establishing a full-court pressure style of play and recruiting players to fit his method. Gone were the days when ACC opponents saw Clemson as a patsy.

So, why after seven seasons would Purnell head to DePaul? We may never know the answer, but let me throw out a couple of possible reasons.

First, Purnell is a program builder and he might have recognized his job as being close to finished at Clemson. He successfully constructed competitive programs at Radford, Old Dominion, Dayton and Clemson. He is recognized nationally for what he did at those schools, and perhaps he sees DePaul as his next challenge.

"Oliver, to me, is one of the huge program builders in the history of our game," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said recently. "The program becomes real good while he is there, and then when he leaves, he has established a program for somebody else. There are some people who wreck programs or never establish them. Oliver, he makes his bed really nice for people to sleep in it."

Purnell leaves a solid program at Clemson for the next coach. Just as he did at each of his previous stops, Purnell faces a monumental rebuilding job at DePaul, where the Blue Demons have won 11, nine and eight games the past three seasons and are 7-47 in the Big East over that stretch.

What DePaul might offer Purnell the most is a school without a football program. Basketball is the sport of note at DePaul, and by paying him a reported $2 million per year it appears the school is prepared to make a serious commitment to that sport.

Frankly, Purnell never was going to establish basketball as the sport of choice at Clemson. Some pretty darned good coaches have tried and failed to do that, and none probably moved the program further in that direction than Purnell.

Whatever the reason, his departure made Tuesday a sad day around the Clemson campus and across the state of South Carolina.