In his 15th season at the helm for the Jays, men’s basketball coach Dana Altman received his 300th win with Creighton against conference-rival Drake on Feb. 4 with a 79-68 win in Des Moines, Iowa.
Altman, who is in his 20th year as a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 head coach, is the second coach in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference to win 300 games with a single team.
Henry Iba is the only other MVC coach to reach that plateau, winning 300 games with Oklahoma State from 1934-1957.
Altman, who is Creighton’s winningest coach, has led the Jays to 11 consecutive postseasons as well as to seven NCAA tournaments. Additionally, he has been named the coach of the year at the national, regional, conference or district level 10 times
in his career.
None of the players were aware of the fact that the game had any meaning for Altman.
“He isn’t really about individual achievements but more about the team,” sophomore guard Kaleb Korver said. “He wants to win as much as anyone, but he doesn’t think it’s all about him.”
However, Korver doesn’t think it would have made a difference if the team had known how close Altman was to 300.
“It was bound to happen either way since he was so close, so we wouldn’t have worried about it.”
Even after the game was over, Altman didn’t tell the team about the achievement.
“He is only concerned about the team,” said assistant coach Todd Eisner. “Coach Fish mentioned it to the team in the locker room after the game.”
For the Jays, the game was important because Drake is a conference rival, and the Jays had lost the previous four games.
“We somewhat felt a sense of urgency because we had lost to them at home and three times last year,” Korver said. “Plus, we want to have as good of a seed as possible for the conference tournament. But every conference game is important so we didn’t treat it any different.”
Coming into the game, the Jays had won only 31 of 66 games in Des Moines all-time.
“I think they didn’t tell us because they didn’t want to add pressure on us to win the game,” junior guard Cavel Witter said. “We were already playing in a hostile environment like Drake where every possession counts.”
With the season winding down, the team was happy that Altman achieved such a career highlight, but the Jays are more focused on their play heading into March and the MVC Tournament in St. Louis.
“We just want to find ways to win, especially when we play on the road,” senior guard Josh Dotzler said.
“It was a great thing to be a part of, though, and we were very happy for coach.”
After Creighton’s win over Bradley on Feb. 11, Altman holds a 302-158 record with CU.
Altman is currently the third winningest coach in MVC history, trailing Henry Iba and Eddie Hickey, who have 486 and 337 wins respectively.