[Game] 76/82: Kings @ Nets 29 MAR 2026, 3pm PT/6pm ET

It's National Neighbor Day. Who is your favorite neighbor?

  • Malcolm Ducasse

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Wilson Wilson, Jr.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Harry Bentley

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Ed Norton

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Bob Pinciotti

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    18
  • This poll will close: .
I'm more impressed that Greg McDermott got to keep his job at Creighton after Doug graduated, since getting his son to go there is probably the reason he got the job in the first place.
He probably has the best case for "Best Coach In Creighton History".

The only challengers are either Dana Altman or a dude from the 1920s. McDermott coached Creighton one season fewer than Altman, but ended up with more wins and a better overall winning percentage. His winning percentage in-conference was .005 lower than Altman's, but Altman coached his entire Creighton career in the MVC while McDermott only had three years in the MVC before moving up to the Big East. Altman made 7 NCAA tournaments in 16 years and only got to the second round twice while McDermott made 10 of 14 NCAA tournaments (and was 24-7 in the Covid season before the NCAAs were cancelled), and was only bounced in the first round twice while getting one Elite Eight and two more Sweet Sixteens on top of his five second-round exits.

I really don't think Altman even has a real case for it. So maybe it's the dude from the '20s who had a better record over his 13 seasons (but whose win total was literally less than half of McDermott's - in only one season did his team play over 20 games total, so it was a very different era).

But anyway, it's not much of a mystery to me why Creighton kept him around.
 
Is France the only country besides United States that has enough active NBA players to field two Olympic teams? How many does Canada have?
 
He probably has the best case for "Best Coach In Creighton History".
Perhaps. I just happened to look at his record and I noticed that, in 25 years, he's only had two winning seasons when he didn't have a future NBA player on his roster. Unless you're the sort of elite recruiter that gets multiple NBA-caliber guys every year, that doesn't exactly signify 'good coach' to me.
 
The more I watch Carter the more I am not sure if he has what it takes.

He does. And most certainly when he's allowed to play his game. Speed, contact, pace. That's his game. This Kings offense of walking the ball up and calling mid post entry is not going to make any guard their $$$.
 
Got a ways to go with the "passable scoring", but it's easy to see how he impacts the floor all over.
I feel like, at full strength, the Kings need a "Josh Hart type" more than they need another "passable scorer." But who knows what they'll look like in October?
 
Perhaps. I just happened to look at his record and I noticed that, in 25 years, he's only had two winning seasons when he didn't have a future NBA player on his roster. Unless you're the sort of elite recruiter that gets multiple NBA-caliber guys every year, that doesn't exactly signify 'good coach' to me.
I imagine fringe NBA players go to a place like Creighton hoping to become stars and get a crack at the NBA though? It's not a one and done destination so wouldn't coaching get some credit for their development?

I have no dog in this hunt and think 4 losing seasons at Iowa State before a 16 year at Creighton and never getting called up to a bigger school suggests he's just a guy who found his perfect career lane.

I do feel like Altman's name came up the year the Cats hired Sean Miller, does a coach's future body of work not count in "best coach a school ever had" talk? Mike Jarvis was probably more successful in the same # of seasons as Rick Pitino at BU (101-51 vs 91-51) but I think "whoah I can't believe Rick Pitino coached here" was a thing I said on more than one occasion back in the day.
 
I have no dog in this hunt and think 4 losing seasons at Iowa State before a 16 year at Creighton and never getting called up to a bigger school suggests he's just a guy who found his perfect career lane.
This is probably true, but it also can easily coexist with my original point, which was that whatever Creighton's motivation in hiring him was, there was no reason for them to let him go once McBuckets graduated (and in fact, his record would reflect that Creighton continued on an upwards trajectory).
I do feel like Altman's name came up the year the Cats hired Sean Miller, does a coach's future body of work not count in "best coach a school ever had" talk?
Hard no. Altman got to Oregon and shone in that program, in no small part by being way ahead of the curve in sniping older transfers, but his record at Creighton is what it is. Very good, but not better than McDermott. (And again, kind of tangential to the original point, but that's cool.)
 
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