When Greg McDermott was thinking about taking the Creighton job, he called Rick Barnes
DETROIT — Greg McDermott was the head coach at Iowa State and had been there four years when Creighton came calling in 2010. When he pulled out of his driveway, headed to meet with Bluejay officials to discuss the job, McDermott picked up his phone and called Rick Barnes.
“Because I had questions for him about that point in my career,” McDermott said on Thursday, “this kind of move.”
Creighton at the time was in the Missouri Valley Conference and McDermott was going from Ames to Des Moines to meet former Creighton athletic director Bruce Rasmussen.
He estimated the drive to be 40-45 minutes. Barnes was on the other end of the line all the way through, until McDermott pulled into a hotel parking lot, arriving at his destination for the interview.
“He just drilled me with questions and things to think about short term, long term,” McDermott said. “That, I think, speaks to who Rick Barnes is.”
Now their roads cross again when Barnes and No. 2 Tennessee (26-8) face McDermott and No. 3 Creighton (25-9) in the Sweet 16 Friday night (10:09 Eastern Time, TBS/truTV) at Little Caesars Arena in the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Region.
“He’s been a great friend of mine,” McDermott said. “I’ve always respected the way he’s coached his teams and how he’s gone about it.”
The friendship originated in the Big 12, with McDermott’s four years at Iowa State overlapping with the later stages of the 17-year run Barnes had at Texas. They grew close at league meetings, at media days and by sitting side-by-side while evaluating talent on the recruiting trail.
“We just developed a friendship,” McDermott said, “and he’s someone that I respect.”
McDermott also knew Barnes knew what it was like to make career changes. Barnes had gone from George Mason to Providence to Clemson over a span of 11 seasons before getting hired at Texas in 1998.
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McDermott cut his teeth in Division II at Wayne State, winning 116 games over six seasons. He won 15 games in his lone season at North Dakota State in 2000-01, then won 90 games at Northern Iowa over five seasons.
He was 59-68 at Iowa State when he left the Cyclones for Creighton, where he has won 22 or more games 10 times in 14 seasons. He took the Bluejays to the Elite Eight last year, losing to Final Four-bound San Diego State, and went to the Sweet 16 in 2021, before losing to No. 1-seed Gonzaga.
“To his credit,” McDermott said, “(Barnes) asked a lot of the right questions and then I had the opportunity, I decided to do it, and it’s been a great run.”
He knows exactly what he’s up against if his team’s run is going to continue, if they’re going to get past Barnes and get back to the Elite Eight.
“He does that a lot with Dalton (Knecht),” McDermott said, “but defensively there’s a standard there that’s really impressive. How they play and how they compete and how disruptive they are every single play. And it can turn a game in a flash.
“That message has been drilled into our guys over the course of the week. Whether we’re ready for it, we’ll see.”
