Creighton coach Greg McDermott apologizes again for ‘awful mistake’
VILLANOVA, Pa. — Creighton coach Greg McDermott said he made an “awful mistake” for using language that caused pain for the players “that look to me as a mentor and as a leader.” He was on the benc…
nypost.com
Creighton coach Greg McDermott apologizes again for ‘awful mistake’
By Associated Press
March 4, 2021 | 2:23am
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VILLANOVA, Pa. — Creighton coach Greg McDermott said he made an “awful mistake” for using language that caused pain for the players “that look to me as a mentor and as a leader.” He was on the bench for the Bluejays for the first time since he apologized on social media for urging his players over the weekend to “stay on the plantation.”
“We need to get back to Omaha and regroup a little and have some more conversations which we need to have so that I can help them and they can help me,” McDermott said.
McDermott’s use of a phrase evoking slavery overshadowed what was expected to be fantastic showdown between the top two teams in the Big East.
Justin Moore scored 24 points and helped No. 10 Villanova capture the Big East title with a 72-60 win over 14th-ranked Creighton.
“The pain I saw in their eyes was immense,” McDermott said after the game. “That’s a cross that I’m going to have to bear for a while. I’m going to come out of this on the other end a better person because of it. But it’s going to be a process.”
McDermott did not answer any questions about his remarks and stood by an apology he issued on social media.
McDermott said on Creighton’s pregame radio show that he offered to resign. The coach said he had a long meeting with players on Sunday night and said he saw “pain in their face(s)” and hoped “one mistake doesn’t define you.”
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Creighton’s Greg McDermott apologizes for ‘plantation’ comment
McDermott said he wanted to make sure the Bluejays (17-7, 13-6 Big East) wanted him to remain as coach and apologized for the “distraction that I brought to this team for the choice that I made.”
McDermott said the Bluejays — whose players wear “equality” on the back of their jerseys — did not ask for him to resign.
“Our guys wanted me to coach and that’s my job,” McDermott said on the radio.
McDermott has been Creighton’s coach since 2010. McDermott, who is white, acknowledged saying: “Guys, we got to stick together. We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I can’t have anybody leave the plantation.”
The coach added that he apologized directly to Creighton’s president, the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, and athletic director Bruce Rasmussen.
Creighton assistant coach Terrence Rencher, who is Black, tweeted that he was “deeply hurt” by McDermott’s words.
The school said any disciplinary action would remain confidential.
McDermott was on the sideline and received a fist bump from seemingly all but one player as they ran off the court from pregame warmups.
McDermott isn’t off the hot seat yet. He’s faced mounting criticism and Creighton could have to make any kind of punishment public. The Big East released a statement Wednesday saying, “there is no place in our society for language that evokes painful chapters in our nation’s history.”
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl had 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Wildcats (16-4, 11-3), who raced to a 19-point lead and clinched their seventh regular-season title under coach Jay Wright in the last eight seasons.
The Wildcats lost Collin Gillespie, their star senior guard averaging 14.4 points, to a left knee injury in the first half. He writhed in pain on the court and immediately needed help to the locker room. Gillespie will have an MRI on Thursday.
“It’s serious. We don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s serious,” Wright said.
That is good enough for me. Beyond them it is all BS. They are with te guy every day and should know what kind of man he really is.
McDermott has been suspended. Creighton University bends to the woke mob. Absolutely pathetic.
Wow. He offered to resign and I heard he spoke for like 5 minutes at his presser after the game last night addressing the situation and showing contrition. I am sure if he had said guys I need everybody to stay on the ship they would have said he meant slave ship.
Meanwhile Cuomo says he didn't mean anything by his actions and now it seems there is a pattern and history of his actions, but he hasn't been under as much scrutiny as McDermott.
Creighton's Greg McDermott suspended after 'plantation' remarks
Creighton men’s basketball coach Greg McDermott has been suspended from all activities, effectively immediately the school announced Thursday night.
theathletic.com
I’ve been woke for years growing up in the hood of burlco. Seen stuff most haven’t. Soft served with jimmies
The guy freaking misspoke. It happens to all of us. The people blowing this out of proportion are absolutely nuts. That appears to now include the "leadership" at Creighton University. I hope their fans hit them where it hurts, in the wallet.
He apologized (as sincere as it gets), offered to RESIGN, the players said no we still want you as our coach, he coaches last night and NOW this? It makes no sense.
He apologized (as sincere as it gets), offered to RESIGN, the players said no we still want you as our coach, he coaches last night and NOW this? It makes no sense.
good move to offer to resign. he knows they would never. and the woke mob wants to run people out of town so now they get no satisfaction. plus makes him look good. smart move
They must have found out he was reading Dr. Seuss books and took a harder stand
Should he have escaped with nothing just because he said he was sorry?
Creighton was in a tricky spot, had they been home for the mid week game, this likely would have been the outcome first.
Maybe he feels he can't go on after this, I am sure they would arrange a settlement.
Lol, window dressing to appease one side. Shocking he wasn’t suspended immediately with Nova in sight but now he’ll just sit a home game vs Butler. He’ll be back for BET.
Love the monday morning qbing on here, cave to woke mob, appease one side, they are a Jesuit institution, the verdict was delayed but respect it.
Creighton’s Greg McDermott suspended indefinitely for ‘plantation’ comments
Creighton men’s basketball coach Greg McDermott has been suspended from all team activities indefinitely for his “plantation” comments last week, the school athletic director Bruce Rasmussen announ…
nypost.com
Creighton’s Greg McDermott suspended indefinitely for ‘plantation’ comments
By Joseph Staszewski
Creighton men’s basketball coach Greg McDermott has been suspended from all team activities indefinitely for his “plantation” comments last week, the school athletic director Bruce Rasmussen announced Thursday night.
“After our Creighton men’s basketball team returned to Omaha earlier today, [school president] Fr. [Daniel] Hendrickson and I engaged with other senior leaders in dialogue and discussion regarding appropriate sanctions for the remarks made by Head Men’s Basketball Coach Greg McDermott that were not in alignment with Creighton’s commitment to racial equity, diversity and respect,” Rasmussen said in a statement. “Coach McDermott and the team have accepted that, effective immediately, he is suspended from all team activities, including Saturday’s home season finale against Butler. Further sanctions remain under consideration, not all of which will be shared publicly. Assistant Coach AI Huss will serve as Interim Head Coach.”
After Saturday’s loss to Xavier, McDermott told his players, several of whom are black, that he needed them to stick together and that “I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I can’t have anybody leave the plantation.”
The 56-year-old, who is in his 11th season at the school, apologized in a statement on Tuesday for his “inappropriate” words that made reference to slavery. He added that he “immediately recognized my egregious mistake.”
“I have never used that analogy and it is not indicative of who I am as a person or as a coach,” wrote McDermott. “I am deeply sorry. I have apologized to our student-athletes and to our staff, as well as to President [Rev. Daniel] Hendrickson and Director of Athletics Bruce Rasmussen.”
McDermott said on Creighton’s pregame radio show before facing Big East leader Villanova on Wednesday that he offered to resign to his players, but “our guys wanted me to coach.” He apologized again after the loss to the Wildcats (17-7, 13-6). McDermott said the team needed to get back to Omaha and “have some more conversations which we need to have so that I can help them and they can help me.”
What awaited him upon his return was a suspension.
“Coach McDermott and our Athletics program must use this incident as an opportunity for growth and learning, as clearly more work needs to be done,” Rasmussen said.
The mob wants blood. Punishment. Termination of employment. See if he survives past this.
Guys that’s how the real world works. If you make a mistake at your job there are consequences period. Even if you apologize.This is not about the “left” or “woke mob” trying to run someone out of town. It’s not like he called a player the wrong name by accident he made a totally inappropriate analogy(a very odd one at that) and it was hurtful. I’m not calling him a racist but he needs to do some self reflection about where those words even came from. There are many people who are great people in public but we don’t have any idea what is said within their home.
Just because it didn’t resonate with you doesn’t mean it wasn’t offensive because to some people it was and it is wrong to discredit their feelings. His players and coaching staff were hurt not just one person. It is affecting them on the court.
Did you really think him just saying sorry was enough and outside of maybe attending a class on diversity that would be it. If that’s all he had gotten that is just another example of white privilege sorry to say. Creighton took the right steps(the loss probably didn’t help) and made the right decision. Hopefully during his time away from the team he can reflect on his actions and figure out how he is going to earn his team’s respect.
Just because it didn’t resonate with you doesn’t mean it wasn’t offensive because to some people it was and it is wrong to discredit their feelings. His players and coaching staff were hurt not just one person. It is affecting them on the court.
Did you really think him just saying sorry was enough and outside of maybe attending a class on diversity that would be it. If that’s all he had gotten that is just another example of white privilege sorry to say. Creighton took the right steps(the loss probably didn’t help) and made the right decision. Hopefully during his time away from the team he can reflect on his actions and figure out how he is going to earn his team’s respect.
One has to ask how will negative recruiting by others impact creighton for as many coached that knock shu and facilities or lack thereof how many coaches will tell african american players and their parents that Creighton under McDermott is not where they want to be
I don’t think this is Creighton caving to public pressure. I’ll bet there’s a player or coach who won’t let this drop. Probably the same person who alerted the media.
I agree with this but I thought it was McDermott himself who brought it to the media.
Yes I believe him apologizing and addressing the issue would be enough. Call it white privilege then, but I would apply the same to a black coach who says something out of line who seemingly has no track record of such. Our own coach once said he had the only white kids who couldn’t shoot. Should he have been suspended or fired? No. This practice of weeding out this notion of underlying white privilege in this manner is a slippery slope. I do think dialogue is more effective than branding those people racists and casting them aside because that’s the unintended outcome of this in our society right now and it’s causing even more tension.
They are being pressured. It may not be a big public spectacle driving it but there’s no reason to wait and suspend him, it should’ve been done immediately then.
They are being pressured. It may not be a big public spectacle driving it but there’s no reason to wait and suspend him, it should’ve been done immediately then.
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anon_ezos2e9wn1ob0
Guest
Disagree.
McDermott misspoke, he apologized and is suspended.
Jerry Stackhouse at Vanderbilt calls the fan base racists and somehow weaves in the election in defending his putrid record...and all is well. 😂
Double standard much?
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It’s not right to blame the players or coaches. They were not the one’s who said it. This is a big deal and this is a shout out to everyone no matter what your profession that inappropriate language will not be tolerated. You don’t know who was in that locker room. For all you know the athletic director was in the locker room. What was the AD supposed to do not say anything about it. Even if it was a player they have every right to report something to a supervisor if they don’t feel comfortable. We have seen too many times in college athletics of students and coaches not speaking up.
Creighton had to report this because if they didn’t it would look like they were trying to cover things up and they needed to be transparent. There were going to be consequences no matter what. The school can’t suspend the coach and offer no reason why.
Would love to see the players have his back like he always had their back and refuse to play until he’s reinstated.
Raftery "goes to bat" for everyone, though. On air, he supported bringing George Blaney back for a fourth year.
I disagree that it's a double standard because they are different institutions. If both happened at the same place and one was suspended while the other wasn't, then it's a double standard. That doesn't make either correct necessarily but different schools (companies et al) evaluate things differently.
Personally, I have no issue with what Creighton did. McDermott made a mistake (and owned up to it) but there are consequences. A short (hopefully) suspension gives the University cover that they've taken action. I certainly don't think he should lose his job over it. I'm not familiar enough with the Stackhouse situation but if it went down as it reads above, then yes he should probably be suspended as well.
We also have Jim Boeheim making fun of a reporter's physical stature as a reason why the reporter is not qualified to analyze his team. I'm surprised there isn't more being made of that.
I fear Jim's time may have come. This and the Jalen Johnson comments are a bad look. Even considering he's always been a prickly sort.
Old, cantankerous and frankly doesn't care what anyone thinks.
Boeheim has always played by his own set of rules and now everyone fears him and waits for him to set off into the sun.
Boeheim has always played by his own set of rules and now everyone fears him and waits for him to set off into the sun.
I was really wrong about the Creighton imbroglio: thought it would blow over.
Can't imagine the reaction if McDermott had committed Pitino-like miscues.
He'd either be executed by now or hired at a small Catholic college in the Northeast.
Can't imagine the reaction if McDermott had committed Pitino-like miscues.
He'd either be executed by now or hired at a small Catholic college in the Northeast.
Yes. He was contrite, recognized that some on his players were affected by what he said. I give the benefit of the doubt to someone who has been a coach for two decades teaching and mentoring mostly black men.
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anon_ezos2e9wn1ob0
Guest
A real hard hitting piece from Yahoo, and some author I assume has never been on a sports team.
Texas boosters, Greg McDermott and others in college sports are telling us who they are. I hope Black student-athletes listen
A couple boosters said if Black student-athletes don't like the Longhorns' controversial school song, they can go elsewhere. Take their advice.
sports.yahoo.com
Organizations like yahoo pay people like this person to publish articles like this, if you dont like the subject matter don't read it. Now you are just being like Boeheim, having played for a team sport is not a qualifier to this person publishing this.A real hard hitting piece from Yahoo, and some author I assume has never been on a sports team.
Texas boosters, Greg McDermott and others in college sports are telling us who they are. I hope Black student-athletes listen
A couple boosters said if Black student-athletes don't like the Longhorns' controversial school song, they can go elsewhere. Take their advice.sports.yahoo.com
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anon_ezos2e9wn1ob0
Guest
The only angle of the piece is racism, which is the buzz word of the last couple years. Her 3 examples, Eyes of Texas, McDermott and Strength coach walking across guys legs while they do wall squats, are not examples of racism.
