News and Notes: Oliver Purnell, Steve Donahue, and a couple guards on the move?

Quite a bit of non-Duke and non-Butler news has broken over the last 24 hours. while the college basketball season is over, keep in mind that now is prime time for early entry into the NBA Draft and that the coaching carousel is in full swing.

• There was quite a bit of speculation as to who was DePaul was going to get as a head coach. From Jamie Dixon to Ben Howland to Isiah Thomas to Craig Robinson to Chris Lowery (the list goes on), it seemed like every name that popped up was either out of DePaul's league or simply would not have been a good fit. Which makes it all the more surprising that late after Monday night's national title game DePaul announced that they had finally come to a decision, signing Clemson's Oliver Purnell to a seven-year, $15 million contract.
  
  Now this one leaves you scratching your head a little bit. Like the Steve Lavin hire at St. John's, Purnell doesn't have a whole lot of connections in Chicago. In fact, Mike Irvin, the CEO of the Mac Irvin Fire -- a Chicago-based AAU program that is one of the best in the country -- told ESPN.com that "I've never seen him. I've never seen a Clemson coach. That's bad, because in Chicago it's about the relationships, the ties. Chicago's a different animal, a different city." Combine that with the fact that DePaul had more Big East wins the last two seasons -- one -- than Purnell has career tournament wins, and you see why people are left scratching their head at this one.

• Al Skinner got the axe just over a week ago at Boston College, and while the Eagles coaching search focused on former assistants Ed Cooley and Bill Coen, as well as Richmond's Chris Mooney, word is that BC will announce the hiring of Cornell's Steve Donahue today.
  
  It makes perfect sense. Donahue built Cornell from an Ivy League cellar dweller into a Sweet 16 team this past season. But this Big Red team had nine seniors on it, including Louis Dale, Ryan Wittman, and Jeff Foote. If Donahue was ever going to have a chance to move up to a high-major conference, this was it.


• Texas freshman Avery Bradley will enter his name into the NBA Draft, but he will not be hiring an agent, according to Jeff Goodman. Many expected this, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Bradley is guaranteed to be a high draft pick. A very good defensive player, Bradley is a bit of a tweener. Is he big enough to play the two? Can he be an NBA point guard? Does he have the offensive skill set to be worthy of a first round pick? Draft Express currently has Bradley listed as the 28th pick in the draft, while NBADraft.net puts him at 25th.


• It appears Mike Rosario, the Rutgers sophomore who averaged 16.7 ppg this season, will be looking to transfer. According to Zagsblog, places he is considering include Florida, USC (where he would join high school teammate Jio Fontan), and Michigan State.