It was freezing cold on a Thursday afternoon back in December when hundreds of Clemson students just like me waited in line to receive vouchers for tickets to the home basketball game against Duke.
I sat alone during my “shift” in a four-person tent adjacent to Death Valley underneath the walkway that provided ample cover from the rain that had been pouring off and on throughout the day.
With the front flap of the tent open, I took a break from reading my economics textbook when I heard a distinctly familiar voice greeting my neighbors.
It was a deep, raspy voice that boomed with confidence. I put down the book and poked my head out of the tent as former Clemson Head Coach Oliver Purnell made his way toward me. He reached out to shake my hand and said: “Hello, how are you doing?”
“Fine,” I said, “how about yourself, coach?”
“Doing well,” he said, “I just wanted to come out and thank everyone for their support. We really appreciate it. We’ll be bringing pizzas around at 6 o’clock.”
“Thanks, coach,” I said. Then he left.
He wandered his way down the row of tents and greeted each resident warmly, expressing his gratitude for the students’ support and dedication. It was a very classy gesture, I thought.
He didn’t have to leave the comfort of his office to painstakingly meet and greet hundreds of students who had been waiting in line since the Sunday after Thanksgiving for tickets to the Duke game.
He didn’t have to provide pizzas for the crowd. He didn’t have to do anything.
Shaking his hand and watching him move from tent to tent made me appreciate Oliver Purnell’s presence at Clemson University even more than I already did. Not only had he done wonders for a basketball program that was the perennial cellar-dweller in the ACC, but he also won the support of an adoring public, better known as the OPP.
But just under two weeks ago, I woke up when my phone received a text message at 7 a.m. from my dad asking whether or not there was any truth to the rumor that Purnell might be leaving for DePaul.
No way, I thought. But curiosity got the better of me, and I rolled out of bed to check thetigernet.com just for kicks and giggles. What I saw surprised me. The headline on the front page read, “Reports: Purnell to leave Clemson for DePaul.”
At first, as I’m sure many of you did, I became critical of this announcement. The key word being “reports.” Reports aren’t always right, and there was no way Purnell could be leaving. I mean, he had built this program up from the ashes and given birth to a whole new era of Clemson basketball, the likes of which few have ever had the privilege to see.
Sure enough, though, as the day wore on and more evidence surfaced, OPP became obsolete, and the man who had been praised no less than a month ago for bringing the Tigers to their third consecutive winning record in the ACC was gone.
There’s still not a lot of solid evidence about how or why Purnell decided to leave. And of course, there’s always going to be speculation. I’ve heard things along the lines of “Purnell had reached his peak at Clemson,” “he didn’t have enough support from the Athletic Director” and so on.
Surely some of these explanations may have merit, but the fact of the matter is the man seemingly vanished into thin air.
He reportedly made the decision in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday. He neglected to tell his players of his departure. And, amidst a growing concern after having never won an NCAA tournament game, he left Clemson fans with a very bitter taste in their mouths.
Do we have a right to be angry? Absolutely. The Oliver Purnell we had come to know seemed utterly incapable of such treacherous tomfoolery. Any time a coach simply leaves as abruptly as Purnell did, it always raises an eyebrow.
Was this really about the substantial raise that DePaul offered him? Or was there something more to it? We all know Purnell’s track record as a program builder, but leaving Clemson seems – to me at least – to be suspicious in that he hadn’t finished the job yet. Sure, he built Clemson back up from the depths that it had sunk to during the Larry Shyatt years, but as we all know, a measly win at the Big Dance seemed to fall through the fingertips of each Tiger basketball team of the past three years.
A lot of people will cite this as Purnell’s reason for leaving. Even more will cite this as justification for opening the door for him on the way out.
But it’s foolish to say the failures of the men’s basketball team to ascend the ranks of college basketball as a whole rested on Purnell’s shoulders alone. If you think Oliver should have been fired, I pity you for your idiocy.
Conspiracy theories and personal vendettas against Purnell aside, there is no refuting that over the past several years Clemson has been the third-best team in the ACC behind Duke and UNC. Check the conference standings over the past three years and see for yourself.
We have Oliver Purnell to thank for that. While he was here, Purnell improved the image of Clemson basketball more than any of us will ever give him credit for.
By no means am I thrilled with how the past two weeks have unfolded.
I don’t think anyone around Clemson is, whether you like Purnell or not. Furthermore, I don’t know what it was that caused Purnell to leave. I don’t care to speculate on it, either. What’s done is done, let’s move on.
That said, I want to say I’m still down with OPP. I wish Oliver and his family the best of luck in Chicago and will follow their progress as the 2010 basketball season unfolds. In the meantime, I’ll still wear my orange to Littlejohn and take pride in what looks to be yet another very talented Clemson basketball team next winter led by the incoming Brad Brownell.
He’s the big man on campus now. If he’s as good as advertised — and from what I’ve seen so far – he’s the best candidate to fill the gap.
