Next in Line: Purvis Ready to Lead

UConn head coach Kevin Ollie speaks to guards Rodney Purvis (44) and Ryan Boatright (11) on Thursday, March 12, 2015, at XL Center in Hartford, Conn. (Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/TNS)
Continuing tradition (Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant)

In early December 2013, Rodney Purvis sat quietly on the UConn bench, watching his teammates run through their pre-game drills. Not allowed to join them — a consequence of his transfer from North Carolina State during the offseason — Purvis spoke about using his time off the court to absorb as much knowledge as he could from the team’s leaders, Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright.

“Ryan is a lead-by-example type of guy,” Purvis said at the time. “And Shabazz is a really talkative person. He just loves to help. He’s one of the best leaders I’ve ever been around.”

Two years later, with Napier and Boatright departed, Purvis is ready to implement what he’s learned and mold this year’s team — his team — in his image.

“I’m on the right path. I feel like I have some of the same qualities as those guys, the leadership,” Purvis said following UConn’s exhibition win over New Haven on Saturday.

“I just try to play at 110 percent and the rest will take care of itself. As long as you play hard and put the team above yourself, great things are going to happen.”

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The first step on the journey for Purvis was coming to terms with his own shortcomings.

“I tried to focus too much on my offense last year,” he admitted.

The result was an up-and-down regular season .

A turning point came in the AAC Tournament. In the Huskies’ four games, Purvis averaged 17.5 points per game, culminating in a 29-point explosion against SMU in the final, while Boatright battled injury.

“That was everything I needed going into the summer,” Purvis said. “I maintained that confidence throughout the whole entire summer. I knew that coming into this season, people would expect me to come back and play at that level, and I wanted that for myself. This summer I went home and I was either at the gym or my mom’s house, every day, all summer.”

Back on campus for his junior year (though a senior academically), Purvis is eager to build on his success while implementing the leadership skills he’s learned and inherited from the guards that preceded him.

He averaged 12.5 points in the Huskies’ two exhibition wins. After the first, an 88-72 victory over Tampa, his coach Kevin Ollie declared the team in search of a leader. An “alpha dog,” as he put it.

A week later, after the New Haven game, Ollie heaped praise on Purvis.

“Rodney’s leading our guys,” he said. “Rodney’s stepping up and leading by example too.”

“I think I’m the leader of this team,” Purvis added. “I accept that role.”

“I want to be the leader of this team.”

1 COMMENT

  1. this pervus should play foosball or ? hims know hoolahooper et may beez knice man but das anticoach kall hims ferrari leeder bord? anticoach luv antiplaya et das sledteem gots nein setup pt guardian et gotz gardenguardian non 7 feater; woe ist meesa

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