Oliver Gordon Purnell Jr. (born May 19, 1953) is an American former

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at

Radford University Radford University is a public university in Radford, Virginia. It is one of the state's eight doctorate-granting public universities. Founded in 1910, Radford offers curricula for undergraduates in more than 100 fields, graduate programs incl ...

from 1988 to 1991,

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia w ...

from 1991 to 1994, the

University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the nation and the second-largest private university in Ohio. The univ ...

from 1994 to 2003,

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...

from 2003 to 2010, and

DePaul University DePaul University is a private, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Ca ...

from 2010 to 2015, compiling a career record of 448–386.

Early years

Purnell was born in

Berlin, Maryland Berlin is a town in Worcester County, Maryland, United States which includes its own historical Berlin Commercial District. The population was 4,485 at the 2010 census, and has since grown in population. It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland ...

, the second of Oliver Sr. and Phyllis' four children. He attended Stephen Decatur High School, where he played on the boys' basketball team that captured the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association Class B championship in 1970.Morris, Ron. "12 Lives: Purnell leading by example," ''The State'' (Columbia, SC), Sunday, March 28, 2010.
/ref> Purnell was recruited to play basketball at

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia B ...

. While at Old Dominion, Purnell enjoyed a highly successful playing career, finishing 18th on ODU's all-time scoring list with 1,090 points and leading the Monarchs to the 1975

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

national championship. That year, Purnell was selected by Converse as an honorable mention Division II All-American. Purnell averaged 14.4 points a game his senior year and 13.8 as a junior. He scored 25 points against Randolph-Macon in the NCAA South Atlantic Regional Championship game in 1975. As a junior, he averaged 6.7 assists per game and tallied 181 for the season. He was accorded the team MVP honors his senior year. Purnell also dished out 474 career assists, which placed him sixth on the school's all-time list. He still shares ODU's single game steal record with eight against Washington and Lee in 1975. Purnell was drafted in the sixth round of the 1975 NBA draft by the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 196 ...

.Biography
Oliver Purnell, retrieved June 4, 2011. Purnell was inducted into the Stephen Decatur High School Hall of Fame on September 19, 2008. He was inducted into the ODU Sports Hall of Fame in April 1988.

Coaching career

Purnell became a graduate assistant coach at ODU in July 1975, eventually becoming a full-time assistant at the university. During Purnell's tenure as a full-time assistant, he helped ODU reach the postseason seven times (3 NCAAs and 4 NITs).

Lefty Driesell Charles Grice "Lefty" Driesell (born December 25, 1931) is a retired American college basketball coach. He was the first coach to win more than 100 games at four different NCAA Division I schools, Driesell led the programs of Davidson College, t ...

hired Purnell in 1985 to serve as an assistant on his

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

staff. Purnell served three seasons at Maryland before being selected as head coach at

. Purnell is credited with one of the biggest one year turnarounds in NCAA history as his 1990-91 Radford club posted a 22-7 record, a 15-game improvement over the previous season. In 1991, he returned to Old Dominion to take the head coaching position. After another successful stint, in 1994, he accepted a position as head coach at the

where he led the Flyers to two NCAA tournament appearances (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

) before accepting the head coaching job at

shortly after the #4 seeded Flyers lost to #13

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

in the first round of the 2003 NCAA tournament. Purnell was the head coach of the 1999 USA World University Team and led the squad to an 8-0 record and the Gold Medal in Brisbane, Australia. He was the recipient of USA Basketball's 1999 Developmental Coach of the Year Award for that accomplishment. He was selected to the Board of Directors at the 1998 convention for the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). In 2000, he was appointed by the NABC to serve as a member of USA Basketball Men's Collegiate Committee. That committee is responsible for the selection of collegiate coaches and players for USA Basketball's teams. During his tenure at Clemson, he built the program steadily, improving each subsequent season. He served as

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, head men's basketball coach at the University ...

in 2006–07. At the conclusion of that season, Purnell took his team to the championship game of the NIT, losing to

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

in the final, following wins against

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, and Ole Miss. In 2008, he guided the Tigers to a third-place 10–6 record in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...

and a runner-up position in the ACC Tournament in Charlotte, losing to

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

by 5 points. The 2007–08 season marked Clemson's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in ten years. However, Purnell was unable to win an NCAA tournament game (0–6) during his stints with ODU, Dayton and Clemson. On March 18, 2008, Clemson extended Purnell's contract through 2014 and raised his salary. On April 6, 2010, Purnell signed a seven-year deal with

. At the conclusion of the 2014–2015 season, Purnell announced his resignation.

Head coaching record

References

External links

DePaul profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Purnell, Oliver 1953 births Living people African-American basketball coaches African-American basketball players American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Maryland Basketball players from Maryland Clemson Tigers men's basketball coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Dayton Flyers men's basketball coaches DePaul Blue Demons men's basketball coaches Maryland Terrapins men's basketball coaches Milwaukee Bucks draft picks Old Dominion Monarchs men's basketball coaches Old Dominion Monarchs men's basketball players People from Berlin, Maryland Radford Highlanders men's basketball coaches 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople