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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Creighton matched its record for wins last season and won a game in the NCAA tournament. Coach Greg McDermott believes he has the makings of a team ready to reach a regional semifinal for the first time in program history, and he wasn't afraid to make his goal public. "We're certainly not going to hide from (our expectations)," he said. "At the same time we understand there is a target on our back and we have a lot of work to do between now and then if we expect to have an opportunity to have that happen." The 16th-ranked Bluejays and preseason All-American Doug McDermott - the coach's son - begin that quest against visiting North Texas on Friday night. The younger McDermott, Creighton's first-ever first-team All-American in 2011-12 and now a national player of the year candidate, is among four returning starters. In all, nine of the top 10 players are back from the team that went 29-6, finished second to Wichita State in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and won the league tournament. The Bluejays beat Alabama before losing to North Carolina in the NCAA tournament. Janhenns Manigat said the coach's confidence about the Bluejays' potential has rubbed off on the players. "He understands he needs to challenge us," Manigat said. "Saying something like that really just helps us and lets us know how good a team we could be. We could even go farther than the Sweet 16." Grant Gibbs agreed, saying his coach set the goal too low. "I know it sounds lofty, but I think everybody's goal this time of year should be to compete for a national championship," Gibbs said. "If you're not shooting for that, what are you playing for? We get to the Sweet 16, then what are we going to do?" The Bluejays were second in the nation in field-goal shooting, third in 3-point shooting and ninth in scoring. Their prolific offense covered a host of defensive deficiencies. Creighton was 222nd in field-goal defense, 242nd in scoring defense and 313th in steals. Greg McDermott said the team can't count on being "off the charts" again offensively. read more: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/gametracker/preview/NCAAB_20121109_NTEXAS@CREIGH/north-texascreighton-preview

There was nothing about Mary that left Creighton feeling overconfident Friday night as it moved within a week of opening its season. Sure, the Bluejays outshot, outrebounded and, for the most part, outhustled their Division II opponent from Bismarck, N.D., in posting an 89-51 exhibition game victory at the CenturyLink Center. But everyone on the Creighton side knew the Marauders bore little resemblance to the North Texas team that will show up Friday to tip off the season against the Bluejays. “The little I’ve seen of North Texas, they’re very, very talented and very, very athletic,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “They’re going to pose some problems that I don’t think we’ve seen in our scrimmage against Iowa or tonight. “Part of those are difficult to simulate in practice, because we don’t have a guy who is 6-9 and has a 40-inch vertical jump like Tony Mitchell. It’s going to be a challenge, and North Texas may very well be one of the more talented teams we play in the nonconference.” The University of Mary also didn’t have anyone 6-foot-9 with a 40-inch vertical. The Marauders’ tallest players were a trio of 6-6 guys. And athletic isn’t a description that often will be used to size up a squad picked to finish 14th in its 16-team conference. But former Bluejay Jevin Budde got his team to play hard for 40 minutes, which is exactly what Creighton wanted from its only exhibition-game opponent. After losing the first half 61-21, Mary outscored the Bluejays 30-28 in the final 20 minutes. “We got off to kind of a shaky start, but then put together a big run and were clicking,” Creighton forward Doug McDermott said. “In the second half, we could have done a much better job. They beat us by two in the second half, and we have to improve there.” Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20121102/BLUEJAYS/711029853/1707

Your dad didn’t offer you a scholarship when he was coaching in the Big 12 at Iowa State and you were in high school. How often do you remind him of that? I don’t really think about it anymore, and we really don’t talk about it much. A lot of old boosters joke with him about it, though. He always says that he thought I was good enough, but that he just didn’t want to waste a scholarship on me. We are where we are now, though, so why go back about it? I’ll probably have more fun with him about it after I’m done playing for him. Is it crazy to think you may start this season as a first-team preseason All-American? Crazy. I didn’t even start on my high school team in Iowa as a junior. My confidence was a little shaky, then all of the sudden I got a chance to play with Harrison (Barnes), I got to watch how hard he worked and it inspired me to where I am now. It’s nuts, though. I still can’t believe it. When did the light really go on for you? Probably my freshman year at Creighton. There were a couple injuries that happened on the team that put me in the mix, but the plan was for me to redshirt. I played fairly well and then my confidence really skyrocketed. Then after the season, I was on the U.S. team, and that helped me out as well. It showed me that I could play with just about anyone in the country. You had a terrific freshman season at Creighton, but you didn’t always see eye-to-eye with your coach/dad. What was the deal? We argued a lot that year. When I came in, I felt like I knew everything. We’d argue about what type of defense we were running. He’d say that I knew nothing about defense and that I was always guarding the other team’s worst offensive player. It was tough at times, but we’ve come a long way and we rarely argue now. read more: http://www.athlonsports.com/college-basketball/2012-13-college-basketball-preview-1-1-creightons-doug-mcdermott