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Brooke Pryor, ESPN Staff Writer
PITTSBURUGH – Greg McDermott went to the golf course at Omaha Country Club nearly 15 years ago expecting to win a little cash off Dana Altman and Bruce Rasmussen.
McDermott, now Creighton’s head coach, was meeting up with Altman and Rasmussen, then the Bluejays’ head coach and athletic director, respectively, while his son Doug was in the thick of recruitment.
Instead, McDermott left that outing with a lighter wallet and a story that still makes him laugh as his No. 3-seeded Creighton team prepares to take on Altman’s No. 11-seeded Oregon squad in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
“I don’t know what the scores were, but I know the cash exchange afterwards was not in my favor,” McDermott said Friday. “They took me to Omaha Country Club, and you’re thinking, God, they really want my kid, this oughta be a profitable day.
“You know, technically would have been NIL before there was NIL, should I be fortunate enough to win. But I was not fortunate enough to win. I felt like I got double teamed, actually, that day. But we had a great day.”
Soon after, in April 2010, Altman took the head coaching job at Oregon, and McDermott left his post at Iowa State for Altman’s vacated job at Creighton and Doug soon followed his dad to Omaha. Since that whirl around the coaching carousel, the pair continued to build on success at their respective programs and now meet in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in a game with plenty of history and personal connections.
“He’s a really good guy, really good basketball coach, and a lot better golfer than I am,” Altman said of McDermott. “I love the job he’s done at Creighton. It’s so good to watch from afar. … I still cheer for them. My family is all back in Nebraska.
“Oregon might be 1, but Creighton is 1A.”
Altman, who joked that McDermott left his six-iron club in the back of his SUV after their golf game, acknowledged Saturday night’s game is going to be a complicated one for him and for his old community in Creighton.
“It’s tough to play Creighton,” Altman said. “I wish the committee wouldn’t have done that. There are other threes we could have played. But they did and so we’ll have to play a game. But my focus is on [N’Faly] Dante and Jermaine [Couisnard] and the fellows I got now. And I’m sure Creighton feels the same way.”
Oregon assistant coach Kevin McKenna also has his own connections to the program, playing for the team from 1977-81 before being selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1981 NBA Draft. And, Rasmussen, who played in that fateful golf game with McDermott and Altman, also traveled to Pittsburgh to support two coaches he knows well.
“Besides being our boss and the guy that gave us an opportunity, he was a mentor to me and became a great friend,” McDermott said of Creighton’s former athletics director. “And I think you can see a lot of what’s happening in Oregon’s program and our program and the way that people are treated is probably a direct result of Dana’s relationship and my relationship with Bruce because of what we learned from him and his ability to have absolutely no agenda for himself.
“…I haven’t seen him face to face, but he made it clear in a late-night text — because neither of us sleep after a game — I’m supposed to kick Oregon’s ass, as he said.”
Oregon and Creighton’s coaching staffs aren’t alone in having special people in the crowd. The games in Pittsburgh are also extra meaningful for Oregon guard Jermaine Couisnard. His grandmother, Claudette Jackson, attended Thursday night’s win against South Carolina where Couisnard dropped 40 points, marking the first time she’s seen her grandson play in college. Jackson, who Couisnard said has a fear of flying, made the 6.5-hour drive to Pittsburgh from her home in East Chicago, Ind.
“I met her last night, and I told her, where the heck have you been?,” Altman said. “She doesn’t like to fly, and if I’d have known that, we’d have had the bus pick her up in Chicago and drive her all the way out to Eugene. … Grandma had a big smile. That was one of the great things you get to see, and that’s a night he’ll never forget, his grandma and mom and family will never forget. “If I’d have known that result was coming, we could have got her to the games a lot quicker.”