Clemson's Purnell Has His Tigers by the Tail

There are two full pages in Clemson's 264-page media guide that detail Oliver Purnell's life in basketball, beginning in 1975, when as a senior at Old Dominion he helped lead the Monarchs to the Division II national title. Few key moments are missed: degrees earned, key victories, awards won, jobs taken. In all, there are 52 entries. There's one critical date missing: June 19, 1986. That was the day Len Bias died. Purnell had just finished his first season as an assistant coach at Maryland. He was home with the flu when Lefty Driesell's secretary called him with the news early that morning.

"I still think about Len a lot," Purnell said yesterday afternoon, soon after Clemson had put a virtual period on Maryland's NCAA tournament hopes with an 84-72 victory in the opening game of the ACC tournament. "I have a poster of him that I keep in my basement, a way of remembering how great he was. I can still remember that night in '86 when we went down and became the first team to beat [North] Carolina in the Dean Dome. Back then, when it happened, it was devastating on so many levels."

Devastating not just because of the tragic nature of Bias's death, but because of what it did to everyone connected to Maryland. Purnell was 33 at the time, just breaking into coaching at the big-time level.

"I wondered if I would survive as a coach," he said. "Could I ever get another job just because I was so close to the situation, regardless of the circumstances. Could Maryland's program survive? It was a difficult time."

Nineteen years after he wondered about his future as a coach, Purnell has a long-term contract to coach in the ACC. He has taken a team that was 10-18 a year ago to 16-14 this season, including three victories over Maryland. Clemson will, at the very least, play in the National Invitation Tournament. For the Tigers, that's a step in the right direction. But it certainly isn't what Purnell is after.

"Clemson has had coaches who have had good seasons," he said. "But never anyone who has stayed and kept winning. I came here thinking I could build a program, be a consistent contender in the ACC. I know there were people who thought I was crazy to take the job, but I honestly believe it can be done. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here."

There was good reason to believe that leaving Dayton to come to Clemson was an act of insanity. For one thing, Purnell had rebuilt the program, taking over after the Flyers had back-to-back seasons in which they won four and six games and winning 24 games in 2003, entering the NCAA tournament as a No. 4 seed. But Purnell had a reputation as a builder: Two years after Bias's death, he became the head coach at Radford. He had turned around the team there, then done the same thing at Old Dominion before taking the Dayton job. Nine years and five postseason bids later, the Flyers were a very good team in a very good conference (the Atlantic 10).

"We had things right where we wanted them at Dayton," he said. "We were winning consistently, and the school has a great basketball tradition. We had come a long way from when I had taken over. But I grew up in Maryland [Berlin, on the Eastern Shore] and I've always been an ACC guy. There are only nine ACC jobs."

He smiled, "At least then there were only nine ACC jobs."

Purnell had interviewed for the Clemson job in 1998 after Rick Barnes left for Texas. Ironically, Clemson was coming off three straight NCAA tournament bids and appeared to be in a more solid position than it had been in a long time. "Yeah, it did look that way," Purnell said. "But there were reasons why Rick left. I think a lot of them had to do with commitment. When I went back two years ago, things had changed. The financial commitment was there in terms of how much we were going to pay assistants, in terms of the cars we drove; in terms of practice facilities. In a lot of ways, the ACC is a beauty contest. Clemson had to be willing to compete in that contest."

Among the ACC's original teams, only Clemson hasn't won the ACC tournament. The Tigers have been in the final once -- 1962 -- and that was the last time the school won more than once in the same event. Yesterday was the first ACC tournament victory for anyone in a Clemson uniform. The Tigers have had moments -- reaching the NCAA regional final in 1980; the round of 16 in 1997 -- but competing consistently in the ACC has never been easy and probably never will be.

"The hardest part is trying to compete in recruiting against Duke, against Carolina, against Wake," Purnell said. "That's always going to be hard, but that doesn't mean there aren't good players out there we can get. There were times last season when I thought to myself, 'What have I done? Why am I here?' But then I reminded myself that I had those thoughts early on in all three of the other jobs. I know what we have to sell at Clemson: the ACC, the chance to beat Duke and Carolina, the weather, the campus. There's a way to do this, and I know what it is."

Moving up to the next job can be a tricky thing in coaching. Ask Pete Gillen, who made the regional final while at Providence in 1997, left for Virginia a year later and will be looking for work next week. Ask Larry Shyatt, Purnell's predecessor at Clemson who left a good job at Wyoming to take the Clemson job and is now an assistant at Florida. Ask Mike Deane, who built a mid-sized power at Siena, went to Marquette, then Lamar and is now trying to rebuild at Wagner. The list goes on. Purnell is fully aware of those stories.

"I had friends who never told me to my face I was nuts, but told others I was nuts," he said. "I understand. In a lot of leagues the worst job in the league isn't as good as the best job in a weaker league. But I think the ACC is different. Plus, I didn't plan on this being the worst job for long."

He smiled again. "Days like today are the reason I took this job. To come into this building and do something almost no one thought we could do, that's fun. That's what makes coaching fun. I know what we have ahead of us [today vs. top-seeded North Carolina], but my coaches and I will enjoy dinner tonight."

They will go back to Oceanaire, the seafood restaurant a few blocks from MCI Center, to celebrate their third victory of the season over Maryland, a victory that pretty much cleared the building before the tip-off of the N.C. State-Florida State game.

"This is just another block," Purnell said. "There are a lot more to build."

North Carolina today will be more like a skyscraper than a building. Purnell understands that. But it's okay. He's glad to be in it -- as the coach at Clemson. And, anyway, he'll have eaten at Oceanaire again for good luck.

"Wrong," Purnell said. "I'm not going back there for good luck; I'm going back because the food was really good."

Yesterday, his team was, too. A team he is very happy to be coaching.