At the 2013-14 DePaul basketball pre-season luncheon, DPU Coach Oliver Purnell boldly said that the very realistic goal for this year was making the NCAA Tournament. When I tweeted that, it was met by condescending laughter from the Twitterverse. But hey, it’s September and there’s nothing wrong with a Coach wanting to be optimistic.
Then DePaul basketball radio announcer Zach Zaidman said the same exact thing at the same luncheon, and this time I really had to laugh. Zaidman is supposed to be a journalist, dealing in facts, not drinking his employer’s Kool-Aid. Now I have to question the validity of Zaidman’s Chicago Bears reports after hearing him say something so ludicrous.
Speaking of dealing with facts, this program has shown zero progress in the four years under Purnell. Time to re-evaluate his job, and that of his boss too.
Back in mid-January, at 2-3 in conference and showing some signs of life, it looked like the Blue Demons might contend for .500, or thereabouts. Now at 2-11, so much for that. Other than a home date with Butler to close the regular season, no one see a victory in sight.
Things were bad before leading scorer Cleveland Melvin was kicked out of school, but now the bottom has really dropped out since then.
DePaul basketball has lost 50 straight games versus a ranked opponent. Purnell looks very unlikely to hit 3-15 in the Big East. I bring that number up because it’s the Big East high water mark for DePaul basketball under Purnell. Yes, he’s averaged a conference showing of 2-16 during his four years. And the level of attention on DePaul basketball, as well as the home attendance figures, are on par with the team’s record.
Cleveland Melvin was poised to become the second leading scorer in DePaul basketball history. Yet his dismissal from the team made a blip in both the local and national media.
Cleveland Melvin has 486 followers. I think that tells you all you need to know about the state of DePaul basketball.
— Joe Ostrowski (@JoeO670) February 11, 2014
Let’s try this again:) DePaul announces Cleveland Melvin has left the program. Tree falls in forest. Not sure anyone notices.
— Andy Katz (@ESPNAndyKatz) February 10, 2014
That’s one national and also one local sports media pundit perfectly encapsulating the state of DePaul basketball in 140 characters or less. For a program to fall down this much, sure the coach gets most of the blame, but you need to look at the Athletic Director too. This abyss has occurred on the A.D.’s watch. Since Jean Lenti-Ponsetto took over in 2002, DePaul basketball has one NCAA Tournament appearance- one!
Yes, she’s gotten a new downtown arena in place, but you need people to actually show up if you want to fill that arena. You won’t get people out to watch DePaul basketball games unless you have a winning team. Right now mediocrity is light years away, let alone contending for Big East championships. DePaul basketball under Oliver Purnell is on par with Illini football under Tim Beckman.
As much flak as Jerry Wainwright, Dave Leitao and Pat Kennedy received, at least they all had a 20-win season. Can you imagine Purnell winning 20 games any time soon? Joey Meyer was heavily criticized for his performance, but that’s just because he wasn’t his dad and he couldn’t come close to duplicating that level of sustained success. Joey Meyer had six 20-wins seasons and four conference championships. Current DePaul basketball fans would give anything for that level of achievement right now.
And of course, my younger readers need a DePaul basketball history lesson too: Ray Meyer won 25+ games six times and took the Blue Demons to a Final Four. That happened in 1979, but given what DPU hoops is like today, it feels like it occurred in 1779.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)