In his 17 years as a college head coach, Oliver Purnell has earned a reputation as a program builder.
In his previous stops at Radford, Old Dominion and Dayton, Purnell has resurrected programs, winning 20 games at least once at each school and eight times overall. Purnell also led Old Dominion and Dayton into the NCAA Tournament a total of three times. Now in his third season at the helm of Clemson, Purnell is looking for similar results.
"I can feel the excitement," he said. "I think you see on paper a bunch of teams bunched together, which is going to make for an exciting race. The key will be for one or a number of those teams to emerge from that group to be in the top echelon of the ACC. Obviously, we're hoping that that's us."
The 2004-2005 season was a big step in the right direction for Clemson. In just his second season, Purnell guided the Tigers to a 16-16 record-a six-game improvement from his first year-and their first trip to the NIT in six years.
More than that, though, the season brought a renewed sense of excitement to Littlejohn Coliseum, as the Tigers developed a sense for the dramatic. Clemson beat in-state rival and eventual NIT champion South Carolina by one on the road and conference-foe Virginia Tech on a steal and dunk at the buzzer at home.
The season was highlighted by Clemson's dominance of perennial ACC power Maryland, as the Tigers won all three games against the Terrapins, including their first win in the ACC Tournament since 2001.
Purnell is looking to build on last season's progress with a team that returns much of its young nucleus. Unfortunately, he does have the unenviable task of replacing graduated senior Sharrod Ford, who led the Tigers in scoring and rebounding on his way to earning third-team All-ACC honors last season. To make up for the loss of Ford in the post, Clemson will look to increase the tempo.
"To give yourself the best chance to win, you tweak your style depending on your personnel, so we're going to be more perimeter-oriented this year," Purnell said. "We're going to spread, and if we stay healthy, we're going to run more and press more."
Senior shooting guard Shawan Robinson is the team's leading returning scorer after averaging nearly 11 points per game last season. He is joined in the backcourt by junior point guard Vernon Hamilton and sophomore Cliff Hammonds. With newcomers Troy Mathis and K.C. Rivers also sharing time in the backcourt, the Tigers can run a three-guard set and shoot more three-pointers than they did a year ago.
"The reason we play a certain style is because of the type of players we have, to give them the best opportunity to be effective," Purnell said. "But I think it still comes back to the players performing."
Purnell and the Clemson faithful hope this is the year the Tigers break through and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998.
"We don't have J.J. Redick or Shelden Williams or a first-team All-American or that kind of thing," Purnell said. "But I think we've got a number of good players that hopefully will make a terrific team."
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