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.
"When March Madness spills into April.... that's the gravy!" - Homer Simpson
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
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.
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.
Last edited by MUMac; 06-18-2013 at 05:20 PM.