Report: High Point coach Alan Huss joining Creighton staff as head-coach-in-waiting after Greg McDermott

Alan Huss got his first head coaching job with High Point after six seasons as an assistant at Creighton. Now, he’ll return to the Bluejays to eventually get his second head job.

Reporting out of Omaha is that Huss will be returning to Creighton as an assistant on staff under Greg McDermott. Then, upon McDermott’s anticipated retirement, Huss will be the next head coach of the program.

“BREAKING: High Point head coach Alan Huss, a Creighton alum, is finalizing a deal to re-join Greg McDermott’s staff immediately as the coach-in-waiting, sources told @thefieldof68. McDermott, 60, hasn’t put an exact timeline on his retirement, but sources said that it’ll likely be in the next two seasons,” Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68 tweeted on Thursday. “The plan allows McDermott to have Huss on staff to ease the transition, allows Huss to be the next head coach at his alma mater and also enables the school to have a plan in place for continuity.”

“This has been in the works for a while, for a while, a couple weeks here and I actually thought it was going to happen a couple weeks ago. They were trying to figure everything out at this point, whether Greg McDermott was going to retire after next season, whether it was a little bit more open-ended,” Goodman went on to say on the latest episode of ‘The Field of 68’. “My sources say that’s what it’s going to be, you know – either a year or two for Greg McDermott and then, you know, he’s 60 years old, he retires and gives it to Huss. And this is a win for everybody.”

Huss, a Creighton alum who played there from 1997 to 2001, was an assistant at his alma mater under McDermott from 2017 to 2023 with a promotion to associate head coach over his final three seasons there. He also had college experience as an assistant at New Mexico for three seasons after working at the prep level at Decatur Christian (IL), Culver Military Academy (IN), and La Lumiere School (IN).

High Point was 56-15 over Huss’ two seasons leading the program. That includes going 27-5 in the Big South in winning the conference’s regular season title in both years, as well as winning the Big South Tournament for the first time this year to get the Panthers their first-ever berth in the NCAA Tournament. They’d play No. 4 Purdue well in the Round of 64 but would go on to lose 75-63 to the Boilermakers. Those campaigns were led by a pair of Top 25 offenses as High Point averaged 82.8 points per game.

McDermott has been the head coach at Creighton since 2010 having just finished the 15th season of his tenure. The Bluejays are 350-171 (175-104) overall having won 20-plus games in 14 of the 15 years. They’ve been in the AP Poll in eleven of those seasons, won four conference titles with three in the Missouri Valley and one while in the Big East, and made a school record of 10 appearances, including five consecutive berths, in the NCAA Tournament.

As reported, McDermott has no official timeline on a decision as far as his retirement. Still, at the age of 60 and with this news regarding Huss, it doesn’t seem to be too far into the future, with Goodman’s sources suggesting it’d “likely be in the next two seasons”.

Huss proved himself as a head coach himself after the last two seasons. He did so to the extent that, despite giving up his current role, he’ll have another in one or two years’ time at Creighton with the Bluejays now knowing who their next coach will be after McDermott.

“Ultimately, Alan Huss made all the sense in the world and he gives up, for at least a year here, a head coaching job at High Point to, to be the coach-in-waiting, to be the associate head coach and coach-in-waiting,” Goodman said. “I think this is a great move for everybody involved.”