Creighton coach Greg McDermott has decided to retire, sources told CBS Sports. McDermott is informing his team at a Monday morning meeting.
Fortunately for the program, the next coach up in Omaha is already in the building: Alan Huss will be promoted as a result of McDermott’s decision to step away. Huss is a longtime assistant under McDermott. He took the High Point job in 2023 and brought the Panthers to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, then returned to Creighton in April of last year after Huss, McDermott and Creighton athletic director Marcus Blossom agreed on a succession plan.
McDermott’s final season is not ending a high note, alas. This year’s team did not have an NCAA Tournament-level roster for the first time since 2019. The Bluejays finished 15-17, which was the second-worst campaign under McDermott. Creighton’s season ended with a 72-61 loss to Seton Hall in the Big East Tournament.
Bad final year aside, the 61-year-old McDermott leaves as the most accomplished coach in program history. In addition to overseeing Creighton’s valuable upgrade from the Missouri Valley to the Big East in the early 2010s, McDermott coached 11 NCAA Tournament-level teams at Creighton — the Jays would’ve easily made the 2020 Big Dance — and made two Sweet 16s (2021, 2024) along with an Elite Eight (2023). McDermott went 365-188 at Creighton, and when factoring in his time as coach at North Dakota State, Northern Iowa and Iowa State, the guy other coaches call “Mac” steps away with a career record of 645-383 with 13 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Another momentous achievement: coaching son Doug into being an NBA player and a college basketball legend. Doug McDermott was a four-year star for Creighton, a three-time First Team All-American and left college basketball as the No. 5 all-time leading scorer in 2014 (3,150). The 34-year-old McDermott was the 2013-14 National Player of the Year in his final season and has built out a solid NBA career since, lasting a dozen seasons in the NBA. It was Doug’s presence and prominence as an increasingly rare four-year college basketball star that helped validate Creighton’s standing in the sport while Greg built Creighton into a year-over-year contender in the rebuilt Big East.
McDermott won five regular-season and postseason championships across his 26 seasons as a D-I coach. In 2020, he was named Big East Coach of the Year. Last season, a CBS Sports survey of more than 100 coaches across D-I listed McDermott as the No. 3 overall X’s-and-O’s coach in the game.
Huss — who was approached for other opportunities both this year and last — has seven seasons worth of experience in Omaha. The Bluejays aren’t expected to rank in the top half of the Big East in NIL resources, per sources, but the team’s home arena (CHI Health Center Omaha) provides a legitimate home-court advantage. Fundraising is critical for the Jays to be competitive in the portal next month.
The Huss era also means Creighton will be on just its third coach in the past 32 years. Prior to McDermott, Dana Altman coached the Jays from 1994-2010.