McDermott?

[OmahaGuy]

Thought I'd bring this up too. What the hell does Creighton do with Greg McDermott? It's a trend that his teams die a slow, painful death and when it matters most...they crash, burn, and embarrass themselves (Baylor 2014, RI last year and K-State this year). Injuries to Mo Watson and Krampelj definitely haven't helped but every team has injuries and K-State just dominated the Jays all without their best player. Is it time for a change? Keep him?

[Omaha1]

Too pissed right now to make an appropriate comment. I'm going to bite my tongue on all CU hoops talk for a few days to simmer down.

[MUBoxer]

I get the desire to make the second weekend but how do you fire a guy that accounts for nearly 25% of your program's NCAA bids? If I was a coach and saw you'd fired him after that I'd say hell no with that being the precedent. But you think you're unhappy now wait till you're in a 4 year rebuild while a new coach puts his system in and you've alienated your best college basketball alum of all time by firing his dad.

I can understand the frustration, but do you really want to chase the second weekend so bad that you make a bad hire and crash and burn?

[anXUfan]

McDermott is a great coach. Sometimes you lose those coin flip games.

Creighton consistently over performs vs my expectations at least.

McDermott seems like a good recruiter and a great guy.

[Bill Marsh]

TBH, I thought that Creighton overachieved this year. By a lot. Once Krampelj was injured, I thought your guys had no shot. But McDermott brought them into the BE tournament as a 3-seed. An amazing coaching job IMO.

I think that every year he does a great job in player development, getting the most out of his talent year in and year out. It’s easy to take the good things about him for granted after a disappointing loss. I’d suggest that Creighton fans appreciate that he got the team to the tournament in the first place.

Considering firing McDermott is a big overreaction to a tournament loss. 34 teams lost games over the past 2 days. 9 of those 34 were favored to win. Virginia is going home, Arizona is going home, Wichita State is going home. My undefeated local high school team is going home after getting knocked out of the state tournament by a lower seed. It happens. The Friars are going home, so should Providence be talking about firing Ed Cooley?

My regrets to you on the loss. A crushing end to the season is always hard to take. I feel your pain. I really do. I was crushed when our local high school kids were deprived of an historic season. I blame the coach. So I know exactly how you feel, but there will be a brighter day for both of us.

[mel ott]

TBH, I thought that Creighton overachieved this year. By a lot. Once Krampelj was injured, I thought your guys had no shot. But McDermott brought them into the BE tournament as a 3-seed. An amazing coaching job IMO.

I think that every year he does a great job in player development, getting the most out of his talent year in and year out. It’s easy to take the good things about him for granted after a disappointing loss. I’d suggest that Creighton fans appreciate that he got the team to the tournament in the first place.

Considering firing McDermott is a big overreaction to a tournament loss. 34 teams lost games over the past 2 days. 9 of those 34 were favored to win. Virginia is going home, Arizona is going home, Wichita State is going home. My undefeated local high school team is going home after getting knocked out of the state tournament by a lower seed. It happens. The Friars are going home, so should Providence be talking about firing Ed Cooley?

My regrets to you on the loss. A crushing end to the season is always hard to take. I feel your pain. I really do. I was crushed when our local high school kids were deprived of an historic season. I blame the coach. So I know exactly how you feel, but there will be a brighter day for both of us.

Agree. However, we just looked lost not knowing what to expect in our last two NCAA games with R.I. and KSU.

[jfan]

It's good to hear what other HLOH posters think of our coach. I think the talk of firing Mac is an overreaction. I'm as disappointed as anyone in our tournament performances. We suck in the Tournament and there is no way around that. Before the game started, I thought that the league had a chance to go 5-1 in the opening round. But nope, we let the league down again! Injuries have played a big part in this the last two years, but I think what bothers the Creighton fans the most is the way we are losing in these games. The team looks like a deer in the headlights and that has happened three straight years. However, Mac has had two excellent recruiting classes in a row and help is on the way. I think if we can get consistent and strong play at the PG position, that will go a long way in rectifying our problems. We really haven't seen that since Mo Watson was hurt. There have been good games from PG play, but no consistency at all. I am optimistic for the future!!

[xusandy]

If you want an example of what happens when a great program fires a really good coach because the fans want/need/crave a wee bit more every year, I suggest you consider the Pitt story. The administration there basically encouraged Jamie Dixon to leave for TCU, then hired capable nice-guy Kevin Stallings away from Vandy, and presto chango, Pitt went 0-18 in the ACC this year and was probably the single worst team in any major conference.

So now Pitt has fired Stallings -- thus ruining the legacy of a pretty damn good coach who made the NCAA tourney more often than not. The entire team has been given permission to transfer. And of course there's the ACC league schedule to face next year. So what good coach is going to want to step into that nightmare? Talk about a potential career killing move! IMHO, Pitt is a now a job for a respected caretaker who is at least going to get things going in the right direction. Maybe a Dave Leitao kind of coach, but not a really top guy. We'll find out pretty soon, I guess.

Anyway, if I were a Creighton fan (and I kinda am, at least during the pre-conference and post-season), I'd do whatever it takes to keep McDermott.

[xuwin]

Thought I'd bring this up too. What the hell does Creighton do with Greg McDermott? It's a trend that his teams die a slow, painful death and when it matters most...they crash, burn, and embarrass themselves (Baylor 2014, RI last year and K-State this year). Injuries to Mo Watson and Krampelj definitely haven't helped but every team has injuries and K-State just dominated the Jays all without their best player. Is it time for a change? Keep him?

When you lose a key player at a position that you don't have a lot of depth I think you should be pleased to be one of the teams to make the NCAA tournament. I think you would have a hard time replacing a coach of McDermott's calibar.

[Xudash]

Greg McDermott strikes me as being a class act.

Creighton is a fine program. It has everything except for notable NCAAT success.

We all know the NCAAT is a crapshoot. And we all know it is about matchup's.

I hope that Creighton's tournament experience isn't about it being "in its head". That shouldn't be the case.

Stay the course.