Alan Huss promises to make Creighton leaders 'look smart' for making him successor to Greg McDermott

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Alan Huss knew he would be Creighton's head basketball coach eventually. He just didn't know when until Greg McDermott told him recently that he planned to retire after the Bluejays' final game.

Huss, who played for the Bluejays from 1997-2001 and was an assistant under McDermott for six years, returned to Omaha last April after two highly successful seasons at High Point in his first head coaching job.

McDermott had recommended to athletic director Marcus Blossom and school president the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson that Huss be made coach-in-waiting for the Big East team. Huss will take over leadership of the program whenever the Bluejays finish the season in the College Basketball Crown tournament, which starts with a game against Rutgers in Las Vegas on April 2.

“It’s not the typical way people do things,” Huss said at his formal introduction Wednesday. “It's greatly appreciated. Again, I promise you that I'll make you look smart.”

Creighton has been a model of consistency over McDermott's 16 years. He has had 14 seasons of 20-plus wins and taken the Bluejays to two Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight over 10 NCAA Tournament appearances. He has had one losing season, with a second one possible this year with the Bluejays sitting 15-17 entering the Crown.

Huss said he plans to continue running McDermott's “Let It Fly” offense, which emphasizes playing at a high tempo and an abundance of 3-point shots.

“Let It Fly is a huge part of why we’ve been able to develop our brand as one of the premier offenses in college basketball,” Huss said. “There's no reason to fix what's not broken. We will continue to recruit talented student-athletes that share the ball, are unselfish and that want to play at that tempo.”

Defensively, Huss said, the Bluejays plan to increase the pressure and be more disruptive. Huss said that's not an original idea. He said he and McDermott have been talking about tweaking the defense for weeks.

“So if it works, 100% my idea. If it doesn't, Mac's,” he said, smiling.

Huss, 47, said he was sorry to see McDermott leave after what's been a disappointing season. The Bluejays struggled with injuries and some challenges off the court.

“This group went through so many things — so many ups, so many downs — that we lost our joy a little bit at times,” Huss said. “We’ll get back to that."

Huss was 56-15 in two seasons at High Point, and he led the school to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in its Division I history in 2025. Blossom said it was an easy decision to rubber-stamp McDermott's choice for a successor.

“First off, Mac is a fantastic coach. For me and for Father to not take his insight would just not be smart,” Blossom said. “We just had conversations about where we wanted the program to go, who we thought would take the program to the heights we wanted it to take, and Al's name kept rising to the top.”

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