CBS Sports: North Texas at Creighton

Harry · November 8, 2012

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

UNT90 · November 9, 2012

Creighton is great... blah, blah, blah.. Creighton is great... blah, blah, blah... Creighton is great, oh, and by the way, they play UNT, which has a guy named Tony Mitchell who will be a draft pick.

The end.

Edited November 9, 2012 by UNT90

SHOSS · November 9, 2012

Creighton is great... blah, blah, blah.. Creighton is great... blah, blah, blah... Creighton is great, oh, and by the way, they play UNT, which has a guy named Tony Mitchell who will be a draft pick.

The end.

Yup. Win this one, and people will pay more attention. UNT hasn't done anything nationally..... Hopefully YET. Gmg