Clemson Finds Its Man: Wright State's Brad Brownell To Replace Oliver Purnell

Brad Brownell: Just Who Is Clemson's New Basketball Coach?

With the news that Clemson has poached former Wright State head coach Brad Brownell to leads its basketball team, SB Nation's Clemson blog, Shakin' The Southland, takes a closer look at his previous record and coaching tendencies. The verdict? While Brownell's schemes may not be a huge adjustment for the Tigers, the team may have to get used to playing at a much, much more pedestrian pace than the one they were used to under the full-court pressing Purnell. From Shakin' The Southland:

[Brownell's] at least a decent recruiter (2010 class with 4 guys rated 80 or higher by ESPN) , with more ties in the Ohio area than in NC, and they play decent defense (61st Def. Eff by Kenpom), but they play a half-court game and very slow tempo (316th). His teams really take the air out of the ball, but play with discipline and hustle. Those are two things I would like to see out of our current players.

He's young, and is known as a pretty good X's and O's coach, and if he brought in the right staffers to recruit into Atlanta I think I would support this hire by TDP. He runs a 3-2 motion set with man/man defense and a bit of 2-3 zone to mix it up. He runs his 3-2 with the PF/C in the high post, perfect for Milton Jennings. Damien Leonard would fit his offense perfectly as well. I doubt his scheme would be a huge adjustment for our players and we could possibly win immediately with it.

Clemson fans, no strangers to first-round NCAA tournament exits under Oliver Purnell, must be at least a little worried, however, that Brownell has never advanced to the round of 32 (in three tries) himself. Plus ça change...

Brad Brownell To Be Introduced By Clemson At 4 PM ET Press Conference

Clemson released a statement Tuesday morning officially confirming Wright State’s Brad Brownell as the school’s next head coach. Brownell will meet the press at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday. You can watch the press conference here.

Wright State's Brad Brownell To Replace Oliver Purnell As Clemson Coach

Clemson has found their head coach replacement a week after Oliver Purnell left the school for DePaul. Brad Brownell will take over the Tigers.

Brownell spent the last four years as the head coach of Wright State, where he won at least 20 games each season and led the school to one NCAA Tournament appearance. Prior to his time at Wright State, Brownell was at UNC-Wilmington, where he took the Seahawks to the Dance twice.

The move is expected to officially be announced by Clemson on Tuesday.

Oliver Purnell Leaves Clemson To Take Coaching Job At DePaul

After spending weeks courting high-profile candidates, DePaul will hire now-former Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell, according to Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports.

Purnell compiled a 138-90 record during his seven-year stint at Clemson, leading the Tigers to three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. Despite his regular-season success, the 56 year-old Purnell has yet to actually win an NCAA tournament game, going 0-6 in his career, with his latest loss a 86-78 setback to 10-seed Missouri in this year's edition of March Madness.

Purnell will most certainly bring his trademark aggressive trapping style of defense to DePaul, where the the Blue Demons have struggled, to say the least, in the hyper-competitive Big East. Indeed, despite producing a handful of NBA players over the last decade, DePaul's once proud basketball program has bottomed out, finishing last in the Big East each of the last two seasons.

While Purnell is a step down from the other candidates DePaul was rumored to be after, he has a track record of making downtrodden programs respectable, which at this point for the Blue Demons would be an enormous step up. Considering how awful they've been, and how daunting rebuilding their program, even with a hypothetical pipeline of Chicago-area players, will be in the Big East, he was probably the best they could have hoped to do.