Creighton head coach Greg McDermott is one of 24 Division I men's basketball coaches that has advanced in voting for the seventh annual Infiniti Coaches' Charity Challenge.
The Infiniti Coaches' Charity Challenge is a four-round online bracket tournament in which coaches represent charities and compete for fan votes.
McDermott is representing and competing on behalf of Abide, a charity that is an inner city nonprofit with a mission to serve Omaha one neighborhood at a time.
Infiniti is a official NCAA corporate partner and will donate a total of $349,000 throughout the competition. The winning coach will receive a total of $100,000 to benefit his charity of choice while Infiniti has guaranteed a donation of at least $1,000 to the charities of each coach involved in the program. By advancing to the second round McDermott has guaranteed at least $7,500 for Abide.
The donation to the respective charities increases as the coach advances in the competition. The charities of the coaches involved could receive donations of $1,000, $7,500, $10,000, $15,000 or the grand prize amount of $100,000.
The second round runs from Jan. 23-Feb. 12, the field will be cut to 16 coaches for the third round Feb. 13-26. Four coaches will advance to the fourth and final round which will run from Feb. 27-March 12. The coach with the most votes will be announced on March 12th.
Fans are allowed to vote once per day, every day, for their coach. Click here for more.
McDermott isn't the only Bluejay advancing in awards, Creighton's center Justin Patton has been named to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's midseason watch list for the Wayman Tisdale Award which is given to the National Freshman of the Year.
Patton ranks second in scoring on the Creighton team averaging 13.7 points per game and leads with 6.5 rebounds per game. Patton is third in the nation in field goal percentage with 71.8 percent and owns 50 dunks through 20 career games.
Here are the midseason watch list for the Wayman Tisdale Award.
Lonzo Ball, UCLA
De'Aaron Fox, Kentucky
Markelle Fultz, Washington
Jonathan Isaac, Florida State
Josh Jackson, Kansas
TJ Leaf, UCLA
Lauri Markkanen, Arizona
Malik Monk, Kentucky
Justin Patton, Creighton
Shamorie Ponds, St. John's
Dennis Smith, North Carolina State
Jayson Tatum, Duke
