CHICAGO – After being named head coach on April 6, Oliver Purnell announced today the members of the coaching staff that will join him in Lincoln Park. Associate head coach Ron Bradley, assistant coaches Billy Garrett and Kevin Nickelberry, and director of basketball operations Josh Postorino will assist Purnell in leading the men’s basketball program.
In addition to Bradley, Garrett, Nickelberry and Postorino, David Booth will serve as the program’s director of community, corporate and professional relations while Andy Farrell comes to DePaul as the video coordinator. Mac Calloway will handle duties as men’s basketball strength and conditioning coach and Brandon Bailey will be the graduate assistant director of basketball operations.
“After a lot of careful analysis and thought, I believe I’ve put together a staff that will help me build a tremendous program here at DePaul,” said Purnell. “This staff will provide the energy, the work ethic, the expertise and the desire that it takes to establish a program at a high level.”
Bradley, Farrell and Postorino each served on Purnell’s staff at Clemson while Booth, Garrett and Bailey were members of the staff at DePaul last season.
Bradley is the associate head coach after serving in the same capacity with Purnell the last eight seasons at Clemson. He has over 30 years of collegiate experience, including the 29 at the Division I level. He led efforts as the recruiting coordinator with Purnell that landed a 2009 signing class ranked in the nation’s top 25 by ESPNU, Rivals.com and Scout.com. Bradley is credited with helping implement the pressure defense used by Purnell’s teams that saw Clemson rank among the nation’s leaders in steals in each of the last six seasons. In addition to assisting Purnell for the last eight years at Clemson, Bradley also served as associate head coach at James Madison (2002-03), head coach at Radford (1991-02), assistant coach at Maryland (1983-89) and head coach at Eastern Nazarene (1976-81).
Garrett enters his second season at DePaul in 2010-11. He joined the program in May 2009 after coaching at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2007-09), Iowa (2006-07), Seton Hall (2001-06) and Siena (2000-01). Garrett started his coaching career in Chicago as head basketball coach at Providence St. Mel High School from 1994-00. He led that program to a 130-50 record in his six seasons before moving into the collegiate ranks. In his collegiate career, he has assisted teams in reaching the postseason on four occasions including two NCAA Tournament appearances while at Seton Hall.
Nickelberry returns to the collegiate scene after a year as head coach of the Libya National Team. While in Libya, he led the team to the second round of the African Championship and handled all aspects of scouting, directing and signing of players for the national team. Prior to his season in Libya, Nickelberry was head coach at Hampton from 2006-09 where he was rated No. 15 among the nation’s “Up-and-Coming” college basketball coaches by The Sporting News and Hoop Scoop in 2008. Nickelberry was an assistant under Purnell at Clemson from 2003-06 where his recruiting efforts laid the foundation for Clemson’s three straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2008-10. Prior to Clemson, he was an assistant at Charlotte (2001-03), associate head coach at Holy Cross (1999-01), and an assistant coach at Monmouth (1998-99) and Howard (1994-98). Nickelberry started his coaching career as the head women’s coach at Columbia Union from 1991-94.
Postorino spent the last three seasons with Purnell at Clemson including the last two as an assistant coach. He enters his 10th year at the collegiate level next season and will be the director of basketball operations at DePaul. Postorino was the director of basketball operations under Purnell during the 2007-08 season before moving into an assistant coach role the last two years. As an assistant coach, he played a major role in landing the top 15 recruiting class by Rivals.com last season. Postorino played for Purnell at Dayton from 1995-99 and started his coaching career with the Flyers from 2000-03. He was on the staff at Marshall from 2003-07 before joining Purnell’s staff at Clemson.
Booth returns for his second season at his alma mater after serving as an assistant coach in 2009-10. In his new role with the program, he will be the director of community, corporate and professional relations for the men’s basketball program. In this role, Booth will work as a liaison to members of the university community and Chicago’s corporate community while also handling the program’s relationships with professional basketball franchises in the United States and overseas. Prior to joining the program in May 2009, Booth was a NBA scout for the Memphis Grizzlies from 2005-09 and spent 14 years playing professionally overseas in France, Greece, Italy, Japan and South America. The DePaul Hall of Fame member is one of the program’s all-time greats after totaling over 1,900 career points in a Blue Demon uniform from 1988-92.
Farrell joins the staff as video coordinator after serving in the same capacity with Purnell the last two seasons at Clemson. Prior to handling the video coordinator duties at Clemson, he was a graduate assistant at Virginia Commonwealth during the 2007-08 season. As an undergraduate student at Dayton from 2003-07, Farrell was the head student assistant for the Flyers.
Calloway begins his stint at DePaul after working at Miami (Fla.) since 2005. With the Hurricanes, he handled strength and conditioning duties along with pre-season, in-season and off-season programs with the men’s basketball team. Calloway and Purnell worked together for two seasons at Dayton and Clemson. Calloway was the basketball strength and conditioning coach at Dayton during the 2002-03 season and joined Purnell at Clemson for the 2003-04 campaign. Prior to Dayton, Calloway worked with the Orlando Magic of the NBA and the Orlando Miracle of the WNBA from 2000-02 and has conducted and assisted with testing at the NBA Pre-Draft Combine since 2004.
Bailey continues as a graduate assistant after joining the program prior to the start of the 2009-10 season. He will assist the staff in all phases of the program including video operations, practice preparation and tape exchange.
In addition to the staff additions in Lincoln Park, the men’s basketball program will also be consulted by sports psychologist Dr. Joel Fish. Dr. Fish is the Director of the Center for Sport Psychology and a nationally recognized expert in the field.