Oliver Purnell is out as basketball coach at DePaul, the school announced Saturday.
Purnell officially resigned following a five-year stretch in which the Blue Demons won only 54 games and lost 105. They were 12-20 this season, were beaten handily by below-.500 Creighton in the first round of the Big East tournament and ended on an ugly eight-game losing streak.
The 61-year-old Purnell still is best known for his long coaching stints at Clemson and Dayton. Though he had many competitive teams at both schools, he has never won an NCAA Tournament game. He took Clemson to the tourney his final three seasons there, but he never came close to even a .500 record at DePaul.
“He moved the program forward with the building of the roster and we wish him and his family well in the future,” athletic director Jean Lenti Ponsetto said in a statement. “We are grateful to Coach Purnell for turning a corner in DePaul recruiting.”
Where the school goes from here is complicated. The basketball program’s most obvious drawback — one of the least-appealing home courts in college basketball — is being addressed with the construction of an arena in the South Loop that is scheduled to open for the 2017-18 season. But the disconnect between Blue Demons basketball and the city’s sports fans is the larger problem.
Can the right coach not only win at DePaul — 11 years removed from its last tourney appearance, and more than 25 from its hoops heyday — but make Chicago care again?
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