Greg McDermott is a Midwestern guy. He has spent the past 27 years of his life playing and coaching college basketball in Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota. McDermott, who coached the Iowa State Cyclones last year, has now brought his talents to the Creighton Bluejays.

Growing up in a town of about 2,000, McDermott played high school basketball for Cascade High School in Iowa. McDermott, a former all-state center, played well enough to garner the attention of the University of Northern Iowa, where he was named second team all-conference as a junior. His collegiate career ended when McDermott looked for something else to sink his teeth into. That’s when an assistant coaching job at the University of North Dakota caught his eye.

“I was fortunate Rich Glas [former head coach at the University of North Dakota] was there,” McDermott said. “He was looking for someone young who had contacts in the state of Iowa and knew how to work with post players. I just happened to fit what he was looking for.”

McDermott spent the next five years on the Division ll UND bench. Under Glas and McDermott, the Fighting Sioux made the NCAA Division ll Men’s Basketball Tournament five times, including two Elite Eight appearances.

After five strong seasons with UND, McDermott agreed to take over the head coaching duties for Wayne State College.

“It was a terrific experience,” McDermott said. “I couldn’t have picked a better place to start my head coaching career. They hadn’t had much success, so I was able to try some new things. If I made some mistakes, like most first-time head coaches do, it wasn’t looked at as harshly. And I was really able to grow as

a coach.”

Wayne State managed only a 26-28 record the first two years that he was there. However, things began to click for McDermott’s Wildcats the next season when they posted a 21-7 record. McDermott went on to a 90-25 record the last four years he coached at Wayne State. In McDermott’s last year with the Wildcats, they were crowned the conference tournament champions in the Northern Sun

Intercollegiate Conference.

From Wayne State, McDermott moved to Fargo to coach the North Dakota State Bison, but he was only there for one season. Following his first year at NDSU, McDermott was offered the head coaching position at the University of Northern Iowa, and it was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.

“I think every coach aspires to coach their alma mater,” McDermott said. “It was an exciting time for me as a coach.”

When McDermott took over in 2001, he wasn’t exactly inheriting a stellar program. UNI had not had been to the NCAA Tournament since 1990 and hadn’t had a winning season since 1997. But McDermott had plans to rejuvenate the program and knew exactly how he wanted to do it.

“You have to get people to buy in to what your philosophy is,” McDermott said. “I was fortunate early on in my tenure. I had some seniors who bought into my philosophy, and they passed it onto the younger guys. There are also things you need outside the players though. Number one, you have the support of the administration. Number two, you have to surround yourself with a good coaching staff and have them buy into what you’re trying

to do.”

The players and coaches bought in to McDermott’s system as he led the Panthers to three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. McDermott and the Panthers were even able to crack the Associated Press Top 25 poll, something that had never happened in school history.

McDermott’s success caught the eye of some of the top college basketball programs in the country. He was even offered the head coaching job at Iowa State University, and the chance to coach a top basketball program was enough to lure McDermott away from his

alma mater.

“It was a very difficult decision but I do not regret it,” McDermott said. “I never really thought about coaching at the BCS level, but when the opportunity presented itself I had to go for it. I wanted to see if my system would work at the highest level of college basketball. Unfortunately there were some things that presented themselves after I started coaching that I wasn’t aware of before I took the job. We were pretty much rebuilding the whole time that I was at Iowa State.”

Iowa State struggled in the brutal Big 12 Conference during McDermott’s time there. The Cyclones managed only a 15-17 record last year in a conference where seven of the 12 teams made the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

After four years in Ames, McDermott decided it was time for a change of scenery. On April 26 McDermott was named the head coach of the Bluejays.

“The opportunity that Creighton presented was something I couldn’t pass up,” McDermott said. “Bruce Rasmussen had a big effect on me coming here; I have great respect for him. Now I have the responsibility to build on what Coach Altman did here.”

Like the other programs McDermott coached, he has big plans for Creighton.

“I hope we’re consistently competing for championships in the Missouri Valley Conference,” McDermott said. “I hope we represent Creighton and the state of Nebraska in a first class manner both on and off the court.”

Hopefully McDermott has the same success in the Missouri Valley Conference this time around that he did with Northern Iowa.