New Creighton University head men’s basketball coach Greg McDermott has announced his coaching staff. Darian DeVries will remain on staff as an assistant coach and be joined by newcomers Steve Lutz and Steve Merfeld. Erik Crawford will serve as the program’s Director of Basketball Operations, while Nathan Wieseler will serve as Creighton’s video coordinator. Biographies for each man are below:
Erik Crawford joins Creighton’s staff as director of basketball operations after spending the previous four years with McDermott at Iowa State. Crawford spent the previous two seasons as assistant director of operations at ISU, where he assisted the basketball staff in day to day basketball operations, including on-campus recruiting, academic mentoring, team travel and scheduling. He also handled the majority of the program’s graphic design work.
Darian DeVries will return to the Creighton bench for a 13th straight season, including his 10th as an assistant coach. He was also a graduate manager from 1998-2001 at Creighton before accepting his current post.
DeVries has helped the Bluejays reach the postseason each of the last 12 years, including seven NCAA Tournament bids. Creighton has also won 20 or more games in 11 of those 12 campaigns.
Steve Lutz (pronounced LUHTZ) joins Creighton as an assistant coach after spending the previous four seasons as an assistant coach under Matt Doherty at SMU.
Lutz was recruiting coordinator for the Mustangs during his time there, as his first two recruiting classes were ranked in the top-35 nationally by Hoop Scoop Online. Those recruiting classes included Conference USA All-Freshman honorees Paul McCoy (2008-09) and Papa Dia (2007-08). In his fourth season SMU finished with their most wins, best finish and best conference tournament seed since joining Conference USA for the 2005-06 season.
Steve Merfeld gives Creighton the unique distinction of having two staff members who have reached the NCAA Tournament as a head coach. Merfeld boasts 24 years of NCAA Division I basketball coaching experience, including 10 seasons as a head coach: at Hampton from 1997-02 and at Creighton’s Missouri Valley Conference rival Evansville from 2002-07.
In his 10 years as a college head coach, Merfeld collected 144 victories, two regular-season conference championships, two conference tournament titles and two NCAA Tournament appearances. That first postseason appearance in 2001 led to one of the signature moments in NCAA Tournament history as the video of his players lifting him up in celebration following No. 15 seed Hampton’s upset of No. 2 seed Iowa State in the 2001 tourney remains a popular March Madness clip.
Nathan Wieseler (pronounced WEES-ler) also comes from Ames after being a part of the Iowa State program under Greg McDermott. The North Platte, Neb., native will serve as Creighton’s video coordinator.
Wieseler spent last season as a graduate assistant for the Cyclones after serving as a student manager in 2008-09. As a junior year he was also heavily involved with Cyclone Alley Central, the student section for Iowa State basketball.
