We are still a couple of months away from the tip-off of a new college basketball season, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Creighton associate head coach Alan Huss, who talked about returning to his alma mater last spring and his expectations for this season.
You made 3 NCAA tourneys as a player for Dana Altman at Creighton: what makes Dana such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? His organization/process. Even more than most coaches, he does not deviate from what has worked for him over the years. Even if things start to go awry, he will stay with it. He holds you to the standard becuase he has found consistent success with it.
From 2010-2014 as head coach of 1 of the top high school programs in the nation at La Lumiere School you went 62-0 at home: did it reach a point where you just expected to win every time that you stepped onto your home court? Whenever you coach at a place like that you usually have the most talent in the game, so we were often the heavy favorite no matter where we played. High school basketball is different than college: there were only about 7-8 games/year where our opponent was evenly matched with us.
As head coach at High Point, you were named conference COY during each of the past 2 years: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? It means that we had good players and a great staff! Head coaches often get too much credit and too much blame. The staff did a great job of helping the guys with their strengths/weaknesses and got them to buy into something bigger than themselves.
You also won 3 postseason games during each of those 2 years: what is the key to winning games in March? You must start with good fortune: so much of it is about matchups, being healthy, having the right mojo, ensuring that your leadership has some urgency regarding the name on the front of their jersey, etc. We had all that in abundance: it is certainly more about the players than the coach at that point in the season.
Last April you returned to your alma mater as “head coach in waiting” under Greg McDermott (for whom you spent 6 years as an assistant from 2017-2023): why is it your “dream job”, and any idea what year you will get to stop waiting? When you are as successful as Coach McDermott and are a transformational presence like he is, you get to decide your own timeline. I am ready to take the 2nd seat and watch him work wonders. I wanted to return here because Creighton has been such a big part of my life. They deserve a lot of credit for helping humble me. The best thing that Coach Mac did was to teach me that I did not have a future as a pro basketball player, so I hope that I can give back and help others experience the same great things that I did during their time here.
You are part of a sensational staff that includes a pair of guys with multiple NCAA tourney appearances as head coaches (Derek Kellogg/Steve Merfeld) and a guy who played pro basketball in 9 different countries (Trey Zeigler): what is it like to have all that experience together on 1 sideline? That is the beautiful thing about high-major college basketball. When you get to a place like this you get a great diversity in thought. Guys who have navigated the world of pro basketball have a slightly different perspective than people like me who have only worked in amateur basketball. We are fortunate to have a bunch of guys who bring a lot of different things to the table, and I am excited to learn from each of them.
Last year the team had its highest GPA ever: how do you ensure that your players can balance their work on the court with their work in the classroom? That starts with recruiting: you need to get the right people into your program. 1 of Greg’s non-negotiables when it comes to expectations is that he demands unselfishness, whether it is in the classroom or on the court. Unselfish people naturally do well in those situations, and Greg is hyper-focused on that quality, which sets us up to do exceptionally well.
1 of your new additions this year is transfer PG Blake Harper, who was 2025 conference POY/ROY at Howard: how is he looking so far? He has been tremendous. He had a unique journey because he was not highly recruited out of high school, but really changed his body before entering college. He can make plays for others, make his own plays in the post, and is an elite facilitator who makes everyone better.
In November Creighton will be 1 of 18 teams participating in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, with back-to-back games against a pair of 2025 NCAA tourney teams in Baylor/Iowa State: what do you think is the best part (the NIL money/stiff competition/other)? I would go with D: all of the above! When you pair the high-level competition with our guys getting compensated and the chance to be in Vegas, it makes the decision a no-brainer for us.
What are your goals for the upcoming season, and what are your expectations for the upcoming season? Our deal is simple: we have so many new pieces that we are trying to remake our program on both offense/defense. Now that the 4-time conference DPOY (Ryan Kalkbrenner) is gone, we need to find ourselves and figure out what fits this group on defense and what our ceiling is. We are excited about our offensive possibilities, but we need to be a bit more creative. We need to win a few battles internally and see how our group comes together.
