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Players ready to play especially when it comes to challenging a talented national program. You got that impression from reading Mike Krzyzewski’s postgame quotes after his numberone ranked Duke team struggled to defeat Purnell’s Dayton Flyers in 200203 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.Dayton is obviously wellcoached. Oliver Purnell and I have been friends for a long time and I’m not saying .
That because he’s my friend. He’s a heck of a coach and what he’s built at Dayton is not just a team he’s built a program.The list of Dayton’s victims during GHD Straighteners UK Purnell’s nine years include Notre Dame LSU DePaul Marquette Cincinnati UCONN Maryland Purdue Louisville and Kentucky. In one week in November of 2000 he upset a 12th ranked and .
Defending national champion UCONN team by an 8066 score then stopped a sixthranked and eventual Final Four Maryland team by a 7771 score. Both games were played on neutral floors.Prior to taking the reins at Dayton he spent three years as head coach at Old Dominion his alma mater. He compiled 57 wins in those three years and took the .

Conducted by the Associated Press. It was the first top 20 final ranking for the Dayton program since 1969.Purnell was named the head coach at the University of Dayton on April 8 1994 just the fourth head coach of that program since 1947. He inherited a program that had won just 17 games the previous four seasons combined. The team .
Was ranked 209 in the Sagarin rankings in 199394. In his final year he had the program ranked in the top 20 of the AP poll much of the season.In 199798 Nike SB Purnell was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year by the league’s coaches and was the NABC District Coach of the Year that same season. It was the third .
Time he was named a conference coach of the year the third different conference to honor Purnell. He had been named Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year at Old Dominion in 1993 and the Big South Conference Coach of the Year while at Radford in 1991.Purnell has the reputation of a coach who has the ability to get his .

The Flyers to at least 21 wins in each of his last four years the first time since the late 1960s that Dayton had four straight 20win seasons.In 200203 Dayton had a 246 overall record including a league best 142 mark in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Seven of the wins were on the road; the most road wins for the .
Flyers in 33 years. Purnell’s team then won the Atlantic 10 Tournament with a 7972 victory over Temple that clinched an NCAA automatic berth for the Flyers. It was the second time Purnell had beaten Hall of Fame coach John Chaney in 200203.In his final season at Dayton the Flyers gained a victory over then #9 ranked Marquette who advanced .
To the NCAA Final Four at season’s end and a victory over a top 20 Cincinnati team. The victory total was the most for the Dayton program since the 196667 team won 25 games. The season included a ninegame winning streak the longest for the Flyer program since 198990 and the squad finished 16th in the final regular season poll .

Three seniors in 200506 Akin Akingbala Steve Allen and Shawan Robinson all graduated on May 12 2006. It was the first time since May of 1991 that three Clemson men’s basketball players graduated on the same day. In the fall of 2006 the team had a 2.55 GPA highest for the Tigers’ men’s basketball program since 1983.With this impressive list .
Of accomplishments and experience it was easy to see why Clemson Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips was impressed with Purnell and sought his interest concerning the school’s vacant head basketball coach position in April of 2003. After interviewing in New Orleans at the Final Four Purnell was named Clemson’s head coach at an April 6 press conference on the Clemson .
Campus.As stated above Purnell came to Clemson with 15 years of Division I head coaching experience at Radford 198889 through 199091 Old Dominion 199192 through 199394 and Dayton 199495 through 200203. He now has a career record of 326249 including an 8839 ledger in his final four years at Dayton. His 155 victories rank third in Dayton history. He led .

Greece in 2004.Purnell has been a leader in his field administratively. He was selected to the NABC’s Board of Directors at the 1998 National Association of Basketball Coaches Convention. In 2000 he was appointed by the National Association of Basketball Coaches 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. His latest appointment is the ultimate testament to his leadership within the coaching ranks. His move up the ladder within the NABC culminated Air Max shoes with his selection as the organization’s President a capacity he served during the 200607 season. He was the first Clemson coach in any sport to serve as national president .
Of a coaches association.His players have been successful on the court and in the classroom. In his nine years at Dayton all but two of his fouryear players graduated. His first senior class Chris Hobbs and Beau Shay both left Clemson with degrees. In 200405 Clemson guard Shawan Robinson was selected to the ESPN the Magazine Academic AllDistrict team. His .

Resume. Seven of his last eight seasons he has taken a team to postseason play including each of the last three at Clemson.From an honors standpoint Purnell has been named conference coach of the year in three different Division I conferences. In 200203 as the head coach at Dayton he was named a finalist for the Naismith Award the honor .
Presented to the top Division I coach in the nation. No previous coach had come to Clemson with such a distinguished list of honors.Prior to his career as a head coach at the Division I level Purnell served as an assistant coach for 10 seasons at his alma mater Old Dominion and at the University of Maryland. Additionally he has .
Been a coach prominently involved in the USA Basketball program for nearly 10 years. Teams he has been affiliated with in the USA Basketball program as a head coach or assistant coach have accumulated a 454 record and won five gold medals in international competition. He was an assistant coach under Larry Brown on the United States Olympic team in .

Over Maryland gave the program four straight wins over the Terrapins a feat that has not been accomplished at Clemson since 194951. Another highlight win was over instate rival South Carolina 8263 after Clemson pulled down 26 offensive rebounds one of the best singlegame marks in school history. It was the largest margin of defeat for the NIT Champion Gamecocks .
In 200506.Under his leadership Clemson was second nationally in steals per game 11.0 after establishing a school record 352. It marked the second straight year the Tigers ranked in the top Abercrombie and Fitch outlet 10 nationally in steals per game. Purnell coached point guard Vernon Hamilton to AllACC Defensive Team honors after the junior led the league in steals per game and established .
Clemson’s singleseason and career records in that statistical category.    The 53yearold native of Maryland came to Clemson with 15 seasons of experience as a Division I head coach more than any other firstyear Clemson coach in history. He now has 326 career Division I wins and has taken teams to 11 postseason tournaments and has nine 20win seasons on his .

20 games and the best winning percentage since the 199697 team reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament with a 2310 mark. Purnell also led the Tigers to seven ACC wins the most conference wins produced at Clemson in eight years. He led the Tigers to their second straight berth in the postseason NIT. Clemson’s win over Louisiana Tech .
At home was the first postseason win for the program since 1999. Also during the 200506 season Purnell claimed his 300th win as a Division I head coach after Clemson defeated Georgia Tech 9582 on Senior Day.In December of 2005 Purnell guided Clemson to its first eightteam tournament championship since the 1980 Rainbow Classic. The team won on three consecutive .
Days to capture the San Juan Shootout including victories over Akron and Holy Cross teams that won 20 games in 200506. He also helped the Tigers to their first win over Wake Forest in four years and to a sweep of Georgia Tech which had not been accomplished at Clemson since the 199697 season. In addition the Tigers’ 8977 win .

Shot in school history. Sharrod Ford scored on a slam dunk off a steal and assist by Shawan Robinson at the buzzer to give Clemson the thrilling victory.Purnell coached a pair of AllACC performers in 200405. Ford was a thirdteam AllACC selection after posting 14.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Purnell also coached freshman Cliff Hammonds who was selected .
To the ACC’s AllRookie team. Hammonds averaged 10.6 points per game in his first year with the program. He was a fourtime ACC Rookie of the Week selection the most ever by a Clemson freshman.Clemson’s allaround improvement in 200405 was evident in the NCAA statistical categories as well. The Tigers were the only team in the nation to rank in .
The top 20 in both steals and blocks per game. Clemson ranked seventh nationally with 10 steals per game and 20th nationally with 5.2 blocks per game. In fact Clemson’s 319 steals were the thirdmost in a single season in school history.The 200506 team finished with a 1913 overall record the best mark at Clemson since the 199899 team won .

That the Tigers had not done against a conference foe since defeating N.C. State three times in the 199394 season. Clemson defeated the Terps at home 8873 then 9793 in College Park. The Tigers completed the trifecta with an 8472 win over Maryland in Washington D.C. at the 2005 ACC Tournament giving Clemson its first ever season threegame sweep of .
The Terrapins. Purnell’s young squad raised even more eyebrows while building a 13point advantage in the final quarter of the game over eventual national champion North Carolina in the tournament quarterfinals. Clemson was unable to hang on for the victory but the performance showed the program’s potential.Purnell also guided the Tigers to some exciting last second victories in his second .
Year. First he took his young team into a hostile environment at the Colonial Center in Columbia to play archrival South Carolina. In front of 17828 fans Clemson took home a 6362 overtime win on a threepoint goal with 3.4 seconds left. Purnell’s squad also defeated Virginia Tech at home 6664 in what turned out to be the latest gamewinning .