BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Consistency often comes up when discussing the latest Indiana basketball coach search, and for good reason.

Indiana made progress in the early stages of the Mike Woodson era with two NCAA Tournament appearances, but that momentum slowed with a disappointing third season. And after failing to meet expectations in year four, Indiana announced on Feb. 7 that Woodson will step down after the 2024-25 season. His tenure has been anything but consistent.

That’s also part of the reason Indiana moved on from Tom Crean. After leading the Hoosiers to two Big Ten titles and three Sweet 16 appearances in nine seasons, Crean finished eighth and 10th in the Big Ten each year after his conference titles, respectively.

One coach whose best argument for the Indiana job could be his consistency is Creighton’s Greg McDermott, who’s won between 20 and 25 games each of the last nine seasons. He’ll do so again this year, barring a total collapse. 

So far, we’ve broken down potential candidates such as Dusty May, Mick Cronin, Bruce Pearl, Nate Oats, Scott Drew, Grant McCasland and Brad Stevens (who’s no longer an option), and we’ll continue to discuss more options in a coaching search that could last another month.

Here’s a closer look at McDermott.

What makes McDermott an attractive choice for Indiana

McDermott is coming off his most successful five-year run across 15 seasons at Creighton. He won his first Big East regular season title in 2019-20 and was in contention for a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament before it was canceled. He followed that up with an Elite Eight run, two trips to the Sweet 16 and a Round of 32 appearance the next four seasons. 

The Bluejays are tied for second in the Big East, which has been McDermott’s standard throughout his tenure. Creighton has finished in the top four of the Big East in each of the last eight seasons. Put simply, McDermott always has the Bluejays in conference title contention.

McDermott’s style of play is appealing, too. Despite being in a state historically known for having good shooters, one of the most disappointing aspects of the Woodson and Archie Miller eras was that Indiana rarely shot well from 3-point range in a full season. It’s highly unlikely that Indiana would have a shooting problem under McDermott.

In eight of the last 15 seasons under McDermott, Creighton has ranked top 10 nationally in effective field goal percentage, which adjusts field goal percentage to account for the added value of three-point shots. It led the nation in that category twice and ranked top three in two additional seasons. In the remaining seven seasons, Creighton ranked 32nd or better five times. It had two outlier seasons, ranking 145th and 152nd. 

He does so with a large sample size, too. In 12 of 15 seasons at Creighton, McDermott’s team has ranked in the top 100 nationally in 3-point attempt rate. The Bluejays were within the top 50 in eight of those seasons, and they’ve ranked eighth the last two years. 

So in a big-picture sense, McDermott excels at identifying good outside shooters during the recruiting process, developing them in college and putting them in the right positions to succeed. That’s been sorely missing at Indiana over the last eight seasons under Miller and Woodson, and it’d be a welcomed change. Creighton’s defense has been solid under McDermott as well, ranking 30th in adjusted efficiency this year and 32nd or better each of the last five seasons.

McDermott has also proven he can win in a variety of circumstances. Creighton was in the Missouri Valley Conference when he took the job, and he reached the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 twice in three seasons, including a conference regular season title and two tournament titles. The Bluejays finished second in the Big East 2013-14, its first year after making the jump from the Missouri Valley Conference.

Some coaches have failed to adapt to the transfer portal and NIL era of college athletics, but that hasn’t seemed to be an issue for McDermott. The deepest run of his career was an Elite Eight appearance in 2023, and Creighton went to the Sweet 16 last year as a No. 3 seed, tied for the best seed in program history with his 2013-14 team. The Bluejays are projected to get a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament, despite being tied for second in the Big East.

McDermott’s track record at Creighton is even more impressive considering he’s done so with a perceived lower level of talent compared to Indiana. His highest-ranked recruiting class was No. 9 nationally in 2021, which is the only year he’s had a top-25 class, according to 247Sports. Nine of his 15 recruiting classes have been ranked outside the top 50, including three outside the top 150. He has never brought in a five-star recruit.

Why McDermott wouldn’t come to Indiana

McDermott was thought to be a candidate for the Louisville and Ohio State jobs last year, but Creighton stepped up with a four-year extension through the 2027-28 season to help keep him in Omaha. Terms were not disclosed because Creighton is a private university, but CBS Sports reported the new contract put McDermott into the higher tier of Big East coaches.

“There is no place I would rather be for the rest of my career than Creighton,” McDermott said in the program’s news release.

That’s not the first time McDermott’s name has come up in coaching searches in recent years, but each time he’s decided to stay at Creighton. He’s built a steady winner there and the fan base loves him. 

Now in his 15th season with the Bluejays, he could likely finish out his career without much concern over being forced out. There’s something to be said about wanting to break through with a deep run at the school he’s coached for most of his career.

That’s also part of the reason Indiana may look elsewhere. At 60 years old, it’s hard to say how much longer McDermott would want to coach. Rick Pitino, 72, has St. John’s in position for a Big Ten title, but coaches like Jay Wright, 63, and Tony Bennett, 55, shockingly retired in the prime of their careers, citing disdain for the way the sport has changed recently with the transfer portal and NIL. 

Is McDermott a realistic candidate for Indiana?

From a roster standpoint, if McDermott was ever going to leave Creighton, the timing after the 2024-25 season would make sense. All-Big East center Ryan Kalkbrenner is set to graduate after climbing to second on Creighton’s all-time scoring chart, while second- and third-leading scorers Steven Ashworth and Jamiya Neal will be gone, too. 

McDermott has landed just one high school class of 2025 commit – Hudson Greer, a 6-foot-6 small forward from Montverde Academy, who’s considered a four-star recruit and ranked 56th nationally – so he doesn’t have a great deal of talent returning or coming in.

For a program desperate to return to being an annual NCAA Tournament participant and Big Ten title contender, there’s a lot for Indiana to like about McDermott. Creighton traditionally shoots the ball well and plays solid defense, and McDermott would certainly raise the Hoosiers’ floor year in and year out. 

But Indiana may also view McDermott as a coach with a certain ceiling. While his consistency is impressive – and he’s had far more recent success than the Hoosiers – he only has one Elite Eight run and two Sweet 16 appearances in 15 seasons, though all of that has occurred since 2020. 

Could Indiana worry that McDermott doesn’t have what it takes to make the Final Four or win a national championship? That’s ultimately what Indiana should be looking for in a new coach, and maybe McDermott could do that with more resources in Bloomington than Omaha. 

Hiring a new coach is just as much about projecting the future as it is about evaluating the past, and questions over his ceiling and longevity at 60 years old may put him below other candidates. But if Indiana misses on a couple of its top candidates, McDermott would be a very solid option, and he’s more realistic than the dream hires like Brad Stevens and several others.