By Pete Iacobelli
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. ó Clemson coach Oliver Purnell was eating breakfast along South Carolina’s coast when he found out he had a very big hole to fill in next year’s starting lineup.
Terrence Oglesby, the Tigers’ shoot-from-anywhere sophomore, called Purnell on Tuesday morning to tell him he was off to play professionally in Europe, giving up his final two college seasons.
Oglesby, from Cleveland, Tenn., led the team with 92 3-pointers last season and was often an offensive catalyst in Clemson’s NCAA season. But he’ll be remembered by some for his final act with the Tigers, throwing an intention elbow to Michigan’s Stu Douglass and getting ejected from the first-round NCAA loss to the Wolverines.
Purnell had had several conversations with Oglesby since season’s end to discuss 2009-10 and was blindsided by his guard’s decision.
“I’m disappointed he won’t be with us,” Purnell said Wednesday. “Yet at the same time, it’s a decision I believe he made in concert with his family. It is what it is.”
Oglesby finished as the team’s third-leading scorer last season behind Trevor Booker and K.C. Rivers. Oglesby and Rivers, a senior last season, accounted for 161 of Clemson’s 256 3-pointers this past winter.
Now, Purnell and his staff will be left without the outside threat who thrilled fans with his gumption to take ó and make ó shots from almost anywhere inside the half-court line.
Don’t look for anyone on Clemson’s roster to take over that role.