With the exception of her four years playing college basketball at Fresno State, Corry Irvin had lived her entire life in the state of Illinois as of 2022. So moving to Starkville and taking a job on Sam Purcell’s coaching staff at Mississippi State was a big change for her.
But Irvin knew it was the right move. She had come to know Purcell over the years during her 18 seasons as the head coach at Whitney Young High School in Chicago, where she won three state championships. Purcell, as an assistant coach at Tulsa, Georgia Tech and Louisville, had recruited some of Irvin’s players and the two already had a strong relationship.
After Irvin spent two years working for Purcell with the Bulldogs, she earned her first Division I head coaching position back in her hometown at Chicago State. On Sunday evening, Purcell will bring his team to the Jones Convocation Center to face Irvin’s Cougars.
“(Coming to MSU) was good timing. It was something that made me a better person and coach,” Irvin said. “I’m really grateful that I had that opportunity, because I grew a lot. My kids, my husband, we all grew a lot from the experience.”
Irvin started her coaching career with two years under Doug Bruno at DePaul before taking the Whitney Young job. She won two conference titles in as many years as the head coach at Saint Xavier University, an NAIA program on the southwest side of Chicago, then was an assistant at Illinois for the 2021-22 season before heading much farther south.
The Bulldogs returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2023 with Purcell and Irvin after two down years before they arrived, and despite falling short of a return trip last season, still won 23 games and knocked off defending national champion LSU.
“We did a good job of quickly bringing attention back to the program,” Irvin said. “(Purcell) is a person full of energy and has a lot of ideas, so being part of that and seeing some of the things you need to do on and off the court as a head coach to get your program back was good for me.”
Chicago State is one of the hardest places to win in Division I basketball — the Cougars have not won more than six games in a season since 2011, and they spent the last two years as an independent before joining the Northeast Conference this year.
Still, Irvin jumped at the chance to be a head coach again, and for the job to bring her back home was an added bonus.
“The biggest thing was I did want to be a head coach again,” Irvin said. “A lot of the stuff that goes into leading the program, off the court stuff (like) attendance and fundraising and our budget and just trying to navigate all of that is probably the biggest difference. Not so much coaching and basketball-related stuff.”
MSU (7-1) had two players from the Chicago area on last year’s roster in Darrione Rogers and Jasmine Brown-Hagger, and even though both transferred out in the offseason, Irvin and Purcell started talking about scheduling this game shortly after Irvin took the Chicago State job. The only current Bulldog from near Chicago is freshman Tajh-Monet Bloom, who is out this year with an ACL injury.
The Cougars (0-10) have already played five high-major opponents this year and played Arizona at home on Nov. 16. Having another highly-regarded program play at Chicago State will bring more exposure to Irvin’s program.
“It’s great for our program in helping us rebuild things,” Irvin said. “We’re trying to increase our attendance and (grow) our fan base, so one of my things was to bring in teams that people want to also see play. It’s been a pretty good deal for us to have them come in. I’m really excited about it, and hopefully we get a good attendance for that game.”
Just three players — Jerkaila Jordan, Debreasha Powe and Quanirah Montague — remain from last year’s Bulldogs, and the coaching staff features several new faces as well. Irvin said she plans to talk with Purcell and the returning MSU players after the game and has been keeping tabs on the Bulldogs’ results this season.
“I still love the staff and the players I know who are there. I’m excited to get the chance to see them,” Irvin said. “I want to see (Purcell) do well. I want to see the staff do well. I have been following them, and hope they surprise a lot of people because I think they get overlooked. It’d be kind of exciting if they have an opportunity to surprise people throughout the year.”
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