Indiana basketball coaching search profile: Greg McDermott – in the hall

Mike Woodson will resign as a IU basketball coach after the 2024-25 season. Sports director Scott Dolson is currently looking for the 31st head coach of the program.

In the hall, many of the candidates who will be discussed for the job in the coming days and weeks are examined. Our fourth profile take a look at Creighton coach Greg McDermott.

Previously: Dusty May, Scott Drew, Mick Cronin

In his 24th season as head coach at Division I level, Greg McDermott built a constant winner in Creighton.

The 60-year-old McDermott comes from Cascade, Iowa, from 1984 to 1988 in North Iowa and scored an average of 9.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 110 career games for the Panthers.

After playing Iowa in Northern, he switched directly to coaching and competed as an assistant from 1989 to 1994.

After a season as head coach of the state of North Dakota (2000-01), McDermott received the call from his Alma Mater and took over from 2001/02.

In five seasons in Northern Iowa, McDermott achieved the NCAA tournament three times and won 20 games in each of his last three seasons. This success at the Missouri Valley conference made McDermott an attractive goal for the state Iowa, which hired it in spring 2006.

For McDermott in Ames, things were never on the way because he had a loss of record in each of his four seasons and never took better in the Big 12 than seventh place. After Creighton trainer Dana Altman went to Oregon in spring 2010, McDermott took up his office in the state of Iowa and accepted the job in Omaha.

“What I disappointed the most is that we just didn’t win as many games as I like,” said McDermott when he left Iowa State. “It will always be in mind that I went before the job was totally over. But they have no control over when there are opportunities, and they got a certainty from the left field. “

Now in his 15th season in Creighton, McDermott led the Blue Jays through a transition from MVC to Big East at the beginning of his term and now leads one of the most constant programs in the league. At the beginning of Creighton, McDermott coached his son Doug, a three-time all-American and the international of the year in 2014. McDermott continued to investigate 20-victory season and follow-up appearances in a competition league in a competition league.

McDermott has reached the NCAA tournament in Creighton in the last four seasons, including a round of 32 phenomena, two sweet sixties and a trip to the elite eight in the 2022-23 campaign. McDermott won the Big East Regory season championship in 2020 and was also appointed Big East coach of the year.

Last autumn McDermott Altman said goodbye to most victories in Creighton’s Program History (328). Many of McDermott’s Creighton teams have agreed aggressively as an elite. According to Kenpom.com, the Blue Jays ended five times with a top fairy-adapted offensive efficiency. And they also defended very well. According to Kenpom.com, Creighton has ended in the top 32 in the adapted defensive efficiency in the last four seasons and has been up to date again this season.

After he had been associated with the opening of the coaching in Ohio last spring, McDermott agreed to extend a contract with the Blue Jays, the conditions of which are not public because Creighton is a private university. However, McDermott expressed his wish to end his career in Omaha.

“There is no place that I would rather be than Creighton for the rest of my career,” he said in a publication in which the expansion was announced.

Despite the expansion, McDermott was discussed as a potential candidate for the IU job and for a good reason. He has consistently won in a Power Five job in the last 15 seasons. The challenge of restoring a prestigious program for success could be appealing as the last chapter of his career.

Category: Coaching search

Filed to: Greg McDermott