Greg McDermott shares retirement timeline, explains coach-in-waiting decision by Creighton

Back in April, Creighton announced a coach-in-waiting plan for their men’s basketball program to eventually transition from the tenure of Greg McDermott to Alan Huss. That’s not happening soon, though, with the Bluejays’ current head coach updating when his successor will officially take his place in Omaha.

In an interview on ‘Inside College Basketball Now’ with Jon Rothstein at CBS Sports, McDermott spoke on when his retirement would be and what that would look like for Huss to take his job as Creighton’s coach. However, even he doesn’t yet know when he’ll actually stepping down as he gave a timeframe of two to three seasons, so at earliest as of now in 2027 or 2028.

“You know, sometime in the next two to three years. I don’t know when it will be,” said McDermott. “When it feels like it’s time.”

A coach-in-waiting isn’t often what programs do in moving from one to the next. That said, with McDermott not done yet, he felt it was important to go about it this way, specifically with a former assistant of his, to preserve what he has built over a decade and a half at Creighton, having gone 350-171 (.672) as the school’s all-time winningest coach with 10 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, for his successor in this new era of college athletics.

“Well, you know, I think, you look across the country. And, you know, Darian DeVries obviously worked for me for a long time and is a good friend. You know, he takes the Indiana job, which is, you know, one of the better jobs in the country, and, four days after he takes the job, he doesn’t have a roster, you know. Everybody’s gone,” explained McDermott. “You know, you work hard to develop a culture and I think culture is still important. I think it’s more challenging to hold onto that culture in the current environment. And, you know, when the time comes that I decide to step aside, I don’t want that to go away because this program is really important to me.”

With that, Huss has returned to McDermott’s staff, as a previous part of it for six years before two seasons spent as head coach of High Point, as the associate head coach and his replacement on the sidelines someday for the Bluejays. He, also as an alumni, was the pick by the program with McDermott looking forward to working with him again and, at some point, passing off his team to him.

“I always have wanted one of my guys to replace me if that was possible. And, obviously, (DeVries) got the Indiana job so he was probably off the market. So, Coach Huss and I had some conversations and, fortunately, the university got on board with that,” said McDermott. “He’s a terrific coach, was a great assistant coach during his time with me. And, obviously, what he did at High Point speaks for itself and I think he’ll be able to do that here at Creighton when that time comes.”

“But, you know, obviously, I, you know, owe it to Al to make sure it’s a good situation when he takes it over. So, you know, he’s involved, he was involved in a lot of the decisions when he was here as an assistant coach on a daily basis and, obviously, we’ll continue to work hand in hand with every decision we make with the program,” McDermott said.

Creighton will still get a couple more seasons out of McDermott with the program still looking to get past the second weekend for the first-time ever in reaching a Final Four. Then, whenever he decides he’s done, that job will fall to Huss as he slides a seat over on the bench in trying to follow McDermott’s job done with the Bluejays.