Earlier this year Oliver Purnell left his position as Clemson Tiger head coach to take over the DePaul Blue Demons. It was a surprising move. Brad Brownell of Wright State was hired to take over.
In regards to bringing Brownell in Andy Katz of ESPN asks this question "Can Clemson take it to the next level?" in his recent article.
Katz points out that for Brownell making the jump from the Horizon league to the ACC is not an impossible one. Clemson's AD Terry Donn Phillips thinks Brownell will have a lot success at Clemson.
All sounds pretty good right? Brownell is going to just keep the Clemson program trucking along where Purnell left off. There will more NCAA tournaments and more 20+ win seasons.
Coaching Clemson basketball is probably one of the two or three toughest jobs in the ACC. Clemson presents a lot of obstacles. At Clemson football is king. The school doesn't have history of producing NBA talent, though Trevor Booker was a first round pick NBA this year, and the school doesn't have much winning basketball tradition. Playing in the ultra competitive ACC doesn't help either.
It can fall apart fast there too. After three straight NCAA tournament appearances from 1996-1998 under Rick Barnes, Larry Shyatt and Clemson were losing double digit ACC games within a couple of years.
What Purnell did at Clemson was remarkable. There were 6 straight post-season appearance and 3 straight NCAA trips. Brownwll might be a good coach, but he's got a lot of work ahead of himself if he's going to elevate the Clemson program beyond what Purnell did.
