McDermott leaves Iowa State for Creighton

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I think it is a good move for McDermott, more money, better arena, and from the reports I had read he was not exactly seeing eye to eye with the Iowa State A.D.
 


Creighton is a much better situation than at Iowa State, no matter what McDermott's status was. Creighton has averaged almost 16,000 per game at the Qwest Center Omaha for the past four or five years, and Dana Altman was being paid $1,130,250 as of 2007, so McDermott will easily get a raise from the $900,000 he was making at ISU.

Personally, I think the job should have gone to Indiana State's Kevin McKenna, who is a Creighton alum and spent nine seasons as an assistant for Altman before leaving for Indiana State three years ago.
 

I've been keeping close tabs on this situation since my boss from this past year was hired as Associate Head Coach by McDermott within the past week. I've been camped out on the ISU forums for most of the day, and they seem thrilled to have Mac gone. It'll be interesting to see which direction they go. My old boss is Nick Nurse, who has won championships around the world as a head coach, and there seems to be a faction of ISU fans supporting him as the next head coach. He hasn't coached in college since the 90s and he'd have to hire some heavy recruiters to be on his staff. Billie Gillespie is a name being thrown around a lot on their message board, and Steve Forbes will probably become a candidate as well.
 


Yikes! Will Iowa State field a team next year? This is bad. I can't wait to see the defections. Players leave the Iowa State program all the time even without coaching changes.
Question: Would an "All-Star" team of Iowa State players and Iowa players finish in the middle of the Big Ten or Big 12?
 

Apparently, Greg McDermott's son, Doug, who has a 91 rating via ESPN and is listed as the #29 SF in the country, has been released from his LOI to Northern Iowa, and will now play for his dad at Creighton. That's a big coup for the Bluejays in this whole deal. I'm sure it wasn't among the reasons that Greg McDermott was hired, but still.

Too bad the Big Ten isn't more like the Missouri Valley when it comes to allowing players out of their LOIs and able to go someplace within the same conference.
 


BigGopherFan said:
I can't wait to see the defections. Players leave the Iowa State program all the time even without coaching changes.
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I have no idea if there's any Gopher interest at all, but ISU has a signed LOI from Melvin Ejim, a 6-6 small forward (3-star recruit according to Rivals). He was a teammate of Mo Walker's at Brewster and is from Canada. I wonder if he asks for a release from ISU and if he does if there is any interest in Minnesota. SF is a potential need for the Gophers. I have no idea if he's any good or what Tubby/staff think of his game.
 



tjgopher said:
I have no idea if there's any Gopher interest at all, but ISU has a signed LOI from Melvin Ejim, a 6-6 small forward (3-star recruit according to Rivals). He was a teammate of Mo Walker's at Brewster and is from Canada. I wonder if he asks for a release from ISU and if he does if there is any interest in Minnesota. SF is a potential need for the Gophers. I have no idea if he's any good or what Tubby/staff think of his game.
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You have no idea if he's any good?! That video made him look pretty solid. With the coaching change, he can ask out of his LOI.
 

Forget for a second if this is a good hire for Creighton. What does this say national about ISU. I know Creighton is a good mid major, but a Big 12 team losing it's coach to one? To me, this would be like Brewster going to coach NDSU. I don't know if I could still be a gopher football fan, and I'm not sure how ISU fans can take this even if they didn't like the coach.
 

gaunt006 said:
Forget for a second if this is a good hire for Creighton. What does this say national about ISU. I know Creighton is a good mid major, but a Big 12 team losing it's coach to one? To me, this would be like Brewster going to coach NDSU. I don't know if I could still be a gopher football fan, and I'm not sure how ISU fans can take this even if they didn't like the coach.
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That's an uninformed assumption you're making. Even though it plays in the Missouri Valley Conference, Creighton is a very attractive basketball job for many reasons.

--First of all, Creighton doesn't have football, so men's basketball is king at the school, hands down. There is no competing with football for budget needs, or attention.

--The fact that Dana Altman had upped the ante to the point where he was earning $1,130,250 in 2007 also means that the job pays as much or more than many jobs at second-tier BCS schools. I think McDermott had been earning a reported $900,000 at ISU, so Creighton is actually able to offer him a significant pay raise. Also consider that Altman had walked away from $1,500,000 at Arkansas, which probably led to an even higher salary the past couple years at Creighton.

--And, as McDermott mentioned in his press conference this morning, the Bluejays have one of the best fan bases in all of college basketball, and they play in a facility (Qwest Center Omaha) that is as good or better than any arena in the Big XII or most other major conferences. Creighton has averaged almost 16,000 fans per game for the past four or five years, so it's not too hard to bring high-profile kids in, and sell them on the program, in addition to the high-quality education they can get at the school.
 

Minnie Soda said:
That's an uninformed assumption you're making. Even though it plays in the Missouri Valley Conference, Creighton is a very attractive basketball job for many reasons.

--First of all, Creighton doesn't have football, so men's basketball is king at the school, hands down. There is no competing with football for budget needs, or attention.

--The fact that Dana Altman had upped the ante to the point where he was earning $1,130,250 in 2007 also means that the job pays as much or more than many jobs at second-tier BCS schools. I think McDermott had been earning a reported $900,000 at ISU, so Creighton is actually able to offer him a significant pay raise. Also consider that Altman had walked away from $1,500,000 at Arkansas, which probably led to an even higher salary the past couple years at Creighton.

--And, as McDermott mentioned in his press conference this morning, the Bluejays have one of the best fan bases in all of college basketball, and they play in a facility (Qwest Center Omaha) that is as good or better than any arena in the Big XII or most other major conferences. Creighton has averaged almost 16,000 fans per game for the past four or five years, so it's not too hard to bring high-profile kids in, and sell them on the program, in addition to the high-quality education they can get at the school.
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I'm not say going to say your wrong on any count. I'm just saying this looks bad for ISU. It is a great job and people around this area know it's a better job, but what does this say to recruits in Indiana?
 



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