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CU Medallion [19049]
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Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 6, 2022, 4:15 PM
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I posted this earlier in the early fall that I found an interview that they do with NOVA area Northern Virginian sports celbrities.
Oliver Purnell talks about his career. The Clemson part of this video starts about 1 hour and 1 minute into video at the bottom.
He mentions that Clemson was the best experience he had as far as his coaching career, and regretted maybe not staying there.
Now this is no judgement on how OP left Clemson or what caused him to leave or maybe stay.
This is just a compliment what Clemson can do as far as what they need in a future coach similar to OP and even Rick Barnes. I would go back to a style of play of very aggressive either press or 1-3-1 zone style that can be used to force turnovers. You recruit a lot of long athletes not necessarily real big but long guards, forwards, and type of post players that are in that 6-2 to 6-9 range that can really play hard like a James Mays, Sam Perry,Trevor Booker. Raymond Sykes, and a Jerai Grant, and then mix that with some guys that are really good shooters from 3 like a KC Rivers and Terrence Oglesby. Also find some savy guys that can really guard at PG like a Cliff Hammonds and Demontez Stitt. Go back and look at the prep profiles for these guys. They were high 3 star type of prospects. Both Trevor Booker and Cliff Hammonds were both recruiting steals that were barely 3 stars until their senior year. Booker did get some looks from some bigger schools during the summer before his senior season. The highest recruit was probably KC Rivers before his severe knee injury at Oak Hill but his senior year he was a high 3 star prospect. In fact Brad Brownell has had a few more 4 star recruits than OP did the last few years with marginal results except for Simms and now PJ Hall.
KC Rivers Rivals:
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2005/kc-rivers-13173
James Mays Rivals:
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2004/james-mays-45797
Terrence Oglesby Rivals:
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2007/terrence-oglesby-67501
Jerai Grant Rivals:
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2007/jerai-grant-50327
Also, during the interview OP mentions that they could recruit and to what Clemson has to offer. That is one thing about OP I admired about him that he was a half glass full mentality type as coach, and Brad Brownell is the way more a glass half empty coach. Clemson needs a half glass full type of coach who is very positive. Rick Barnes was very much like that also. Dabo is definitely like this and football at the time really needed it after a glass half empty guy in Tommy Bowdan. During the interview OP mentioned how a lot of success comes from the physiological part of the game from your players, to what teams have had on your schedule before you play them.
Clemson fans have always gravitated to the type of coach who has teams play very hard that both Rick Barnes and OP offered. It is football type of mentality that the fans obviously like. Put your hard hat on and go to work
Now Clemson could decide to go more x and os type of coach like Brad Brownell but need a guy who is very positive from their attitude and recruits some athletes that Brad has gotten away as he mentioned after the Syracuse loss. Mix in some good shooters along the way and you can have a good solid program.
OP interview:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fJcwvCV4lDw
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CU Medallion [20883]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 6, 2022, 5:28 PM
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The ACC was a much better league in the PURNELL YEARS. And the Clemson players were in outstanding physical shape. The full court press was effective at times and not at others when better coached teams with top point guards wore us down.
But bottomline it was an exciting style of basketball played by super athletes going all out to win. Purnell never taught the team how to set a screen for Oglesby, but he coached full court defense and fast break. Ahh. Memories of when I still attended Clemson basketball games.
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Rival Killer [2645]
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OP definitely has a basketball identity…
Feb 6, 2022, 6:10 PM
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Clemson is so ‘blah’ with CBB. It’s like time is not moving and then it’s 12 years later.
Truthfully, I used to hate it when we were up 3 and OP would not foul and the other team hit a 3 for OT. Still OP had a basketball vision and seemed to obtain it.
To the original poster’s point; Clemson has its pluses for a coach. ACC, world known for football (Oliver knew how to use the football weekend for recruiting). Really just simple stuff most any coach can parlay into a decent product.
I miss being mad at Oliver…now I’m pretty apathetic about BB games.
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110%er [6825]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 10:49 AM
[ in reply to Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long) ] |
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Nope.
2006-2007 you had a only one decent team. Only two were ranked UNC (4) and Maryland (18) which only had a good run in the last few games of conference play. Knocking off UNC at home bumped them up but that was about it. Lost to the last place Miami team in the opening round of the ACC Tourney... then to Butler in the NCAA. Otherwise, a few years the ACC didn't have a F4 team.
Hewitt made run to the NCG and got blown out. Other than that, only UNC won the NC in Purnell's tenure - twice.
However, current ACC member's have won the NC title FIVE time across 4 schools since 2010. (Duke-2, UNC, UofL, Virginia. And nore a few Cuse final fours, etc.
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Hall of Famer [8225]
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You don’t have to convince me, I loved OP
Feb 6, 2022, 7:49 PM
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He actually had an identity, his players played hard, were scrappy would fight to the end. OP knew when to call a time out. He also took a program that was completely in the gutter and turned it into a winner, I think that’s completely underappreciated. Brownell took over team that was a tournament team, and has made no progress. I think everyone understands that now except for Judge Keller. OP will always be my favorite coach, a close second, Rick Barnes
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Rival Killer [2769]
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Re: You don’t have to convince me, I loved OP
Feb 6, 2022, 9:44 PM
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Don't forget when OP left, BB was down.
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Paw Warrior [5049]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 10:16 AM
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I loved watching OPs team play at Clemson. Even in the losses, fans were involved and there was energy at LJ.
The only thing that was tough - was we were the worst free throw shooting teams ever under OP. Seems we were always around 50-55% as a team. (It seemed).
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110%er [6166]
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Purnell teams were exciting at their best and extremely
Feb 7, 2022, 11:10 AM
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frustrating at their worst.
When they were “on”, they were really hard to beat and could use athleticism wear out teams with more hoops talent.
I still recall his guys simply overwhelming a fine Duke team in Littlejohn.
But on off nights, they had a tendency keep running without playing defense and to let teams come back on them.
The loss to Villanova in round one of NCAA is one prime example, but there were a bunch of others in regular season situations.
But above all else, I will always remember Oliver Purnell as one of a couple of coaches who gave Clemson a ray of hope that basketball could become a reasonably strong program on a consistent basis ... and then simply quit on us.
I’m sorry he left like he did. I don’t know how he would have fared if he’d stayed for 20 years. But I do know that ultimately he failed at Clemson by simply giving up and running out in the middle of the night.
*And YES, I’m well aware of the behind the scenes issues those “in the know” will bring out to explain his actions. Bottom line, I just don’t care about that crap. Same applies to Rick Barnes. Neither appeared to have those particular issues prior to and after their brief stays at Clemson.
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CU Medallion [19049]
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Re: Purnell teams were exciting at their best and extremely
Feb 7, 2022, 11:29 AM
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Again the thread was never to comment on why he left, but how a coach can build a program at Clemson. OP recruited good players and these guys were good students and people like Brad does now.
I belive he got greedy and didn't realize how good he had it. But that is the past and now need to bring in another good coach when ever Brad and Clemson part ways. Barnes and OP proved you can win, now if that happens again the next strategy is find someone who does and wants to stay there...
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110%er [6166]
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Part 2 of the strategy will always be the toughest. Getting
Feb 7, 2022, 1:54 PM
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Someone to stay at a program historically viewed as a “stepping stone” job is a huge challenge.
That image for Clemson basketball is pretty much set in stone.
Our hoops image is not that of some untapped sleeping giant just waiting for the right coach to come along
Escaping that image will require a Dabo-like talent and personality.
Can we expect Clemson to get that lucky twice?
After watching and hoping for over 60 years, I have my sincere doubts.
Ironically, my doubts only increased because of Barnes and Purnell.
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CU Medallion [19049]
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Re: Part 2 of the strategy will always be the toughest. Getting
Feb 7, 2022, 3:21 PM
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So if Brad were to go to five straight NCAATs and decide he wanted to retire, what do you do now? Is Dck Bender your next Basketball Coach?
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110%er [6166]
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Not sure how that reflects anything I said, but
Feb 7, 2022, 10:42 PM
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I’ll play along.
Brad has been here a long long time without that happening, so it probably not something to worry about.
Chances are our next coach will be someone who is a really good coach who sees us as a stepping stone ... or a mediocre coach who is willing to stay until we run him off.
Just like our last four guys.
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Orange Phenom [14991]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 11:33 AM
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Oliver Purnell talks about his career. The Clemson part of this video starts about 1 hour and 1 minute into video at the bottom.
He mentions that Clemson was the best experience he had as far as his coaching career, and regretted maybe not staying there.
WHAT PART OF OP COULD NOT STAY AT CLEMSON DO YOU GOOBERS NOT GET. OP COULD NOT KEEP HIS ZIPPER ZIPPED. IT REALLY AINT ROCKET SURGERY. NCTIGS AND DIXIEDON SHOULD GET A ROOM, SNUGGLE UP AND WHISPER HOW MUCH YOU HATE COACH BROWNELL IN EACH OTHERS EAR.
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Offensive Star [332]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 11:50 AM
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Basically, Clemson can be successful with a gimmick system. That's what I'm reading. A gimmick system that doesn't work well when teams have the ability to practice for it. Come tournament time, it's less effective. That's why he never won a game in the NCAAT, but BB reached the Sweet 16.
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CU Medallion [19049]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 12:08 PM
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I disagree with you that it is a gimmick system.
Ever heard of West Virginia under Bob Huggins known as Press Virgina?
Also, Shaka Smart learned it from Oliver Purnell is got VCU to the Final Four with it and called it Havock. Also he is using that Marquette now and this season they are the surprised team in Colloge Basketball in his first year there.
Can say a lot of bad things about Rick Pitino but he still is a very good coach and has used that a lot at Kentucky and Louisville.
Remember Nolan Richardson in his 40 minutes of hell at Arkansas? They used a press to do that and they won a National Championship there
Maybe OP used it too much and didn't know when to stop it at suggested times but it is not a gimmick system. Go watch the interview again. Could get good players at Clemson but not great ones that they were not going to get. That is why Shaka did not run the system at Texas because did not think he could get the best players or McD AAs who wanted to play that style, but he has made mention now at Marquette is he should have used it there.
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Offensive Star [332]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 1:01 PM
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I still believe it's a gimmick system when you do nothing else. I'm not going to dispute that it can be successful, and Clemson may be the spot for it; however, the administration has to make Clemson a destination school. All of those coaches you mentioned had longevity at their schools.
When Clemson's offense is on, it's very exciting to watch. Brownell's biggest issue, to me, has been consistency. They can go toe-to-toe with Duke then lose to GT.
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CU Medallion [19049]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 1:08 PM
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I agree. His last season they didn't know to stop with the press. When they won at Virginia Tech his next to last season they were getting really burnt with the press, and stopped it and got back into the game with a good half court defense that eventually won them the game led by KC Rivers. OP most of the time didn't know when to stop it and that is why they didn't win much in the post season. I still think it a very effective system if used right.
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110%er [6825]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 2:26 PM
[ in reply to Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long) ] |
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Eddie Sutton rebuilt Arky which ironically help Richardson indirectly as Sutton was forced out of UK with some of their NCAA issues surrounding the program when Arky joined the SEC. Sutton made Arky a destination then killing Kentucky in the early 90s with the NCAA. Richardson caught fire in the first few years but after Kentucky rebuilt (pPitino), he kept it between 19-21 wins for the most part. Great coach but had the right conditions. I mean OP wasn't taking us to the Final Four/Elite Eight...
Next, (and I say this as a son of a former VCU practice squad under Noe) VCU/RVA supports basketball. No football teams and while Tennis is good, it is BB above all else. They have more NCAA appearances than us. Jeff Capel and Anthony Grant rebuilt VCU. And while Shaka made a Hewitt like run, he tended to have a good tourneyment team (kinda like Cuse) but stuggles in conference a little bit.
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110%er [3682]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 2:37 PM
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Also Shaka smart completely failed at Texas.
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110%er [6825]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 2:43 PM
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Texas fails at Texas...
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CU Medallion [19049]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 2:49 PM
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Texas fails at Texas...
Yes just can't win big there like you should. I think give Chris Beard enough time and he can. they can get a huge win tonight at home vs Kansas.
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CU Medallion [19049]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 2:47 PM
[ in reply to Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long) ] |
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Yes, and had very good players. But He admitted he made a mistake by not implementing Havoc like he has now at Marquette and did at VCU. Marquette won like 7 game in row including like 4 over top 25 teams until last week when they finally lost to a good Providence team. You don't have that kind of record with the press with it not being effective.
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CU Medallion [19049]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 2:42 PM
[ in reply to Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long) ] |
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Good points but was basically saying you can with that style but you have to use it right. And like you said you might not win it all but at least you get to a good point. Look what Shaka Smart has done so quickly at Marquette with mainly transfers.
You can also use good half court defense with jamming the ball to get steals with good on ball defense by your guards as Brad used to do himself. Why he stopped or these guards aren't effective at anymore, I don't know? Also can trap using a zone like some of Boheim's better teams, and a 1-3-1 zone to get in the passing lanes. Obviously Duke's better teams under Coach K also get in the passing lanes a lot. The best way to run these good defenses to get steals though is with good long athletes, that can Clemson can get like in the past like Jaron Blossomgame, KJ McDaniels, Jerai Grant, Raymond Sykes, James Mays and Sam Perry.
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110%er [6825]
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Re: Oliver Purnell Interview this past late spring should give Clemson guidance (long)
Feb 7, 2022, 2:55 PM
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Yeah but the Lewis kid is turning out to be something special. When he can light-up and score 30+ points, then everything else gets easier. So having an all american scorer does that. And he was Wojo's kid. Smart kept him (recruiting a previous coaches kid to say on says a lot). Balancing a Maryland grad transfer point guard and some length and voila. Adding a 30+ppg take-over all american changes everything.
Also, they are 8-1 in the last nine. We are 3-6. We were tracking about the same before but our season is completely sideways... uggg.
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CU Medallion [20786]
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OP never won an NCAA tourney game
Feb 7, 2022, 2:52 PM
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Never won with Clemson or any of the other teams he coached. 0-6. Don’t know if it is because of legs being tired late in season, coaching, or bad luck. Probably a little of all three.
He did win a few NIT games and coached on the Olympic team. So that’s pretty good.
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CU Medallion [19049]
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Re: OP never won an NCAA tourney game
Feb 7, 2022, 3:12 PM
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Winning in college basketball is not determined by just winning NCAAT games. I'd rather have a coach who can get there more than just win a game or two but only making it three times in about 10 years. Look at it this way, would you like to at least make it and lose, then try to figure out how to win rather than not even get that chance? There are hall of fame coaches from power conferences that have dropped more than 3 straight opening round loses. I am not going to count OP's other NCAAT games because he was at lower mid major schools.
OP got way to greedy but I am sure he would have figured it out if he was patient, and did not make the mistakes he did that made him want to leave. If he was recruiting better shooters like Oglesby and Tanner Smith. I am confident that if TO would have stayed his next season and not go Pro, they would have broken through and won a game. He was probably going to be their 1st or 2nd leading scorer his Junior year, yes even with Trevor Booker there and Clemson would have probably been a 4th seed and broken through.
He also was leading for top 70 Lead guard Shane Larkin out of Orlando since his sophomore season. Larkin followed OP to DePaul but wanted to be closer to home in the Southeast and ended up at Miami and led them to the ACC Championship.
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TigerNet Immortal [176422]
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Your case is better made with Barnes (and Ellis for that
Feb 7, 2022, 10:58 PM
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matter) than OP, IMHO. Barnes had the ability to adapt his system to the talent. OP tried to recruit players to fit his system but really had no adjustments in the seasons when the formula didn't work.
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TigerNet Immortal [176422]
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Pretty much agree until you call BB a X and O's coach.
Feb 7, 2022, 10:56 PM
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The man has no offensive system, much less the ability to X and O his way out of a jam.
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110%er [3682]
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Re: Pretty much agree until you call BB a X and O's coach.
Feb 8, 2022, 8:05 AM
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Have you ever played basketball, or do you watch frequently? Brownell draws up great sets conastantly. He gets his players open shots. They just need to make them. His half court offense compared to Purnell's is night and day. Here is an example of some great offense drawn up by brownell.
https://twitter.com/franfraschilla/status/1475846787009335301?s=21
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