Prior to this year, Creighton had not lost three straight Big East games since February of 2019. That team actually lost four in a row on two separate occasions between January 5 and February 17 (including three in overtime). The 76-68 loss to Georgetown saw the Hoyas flip the game with a 12-0 run early in the second half, turning a 34-33 Jays lead into a 45-34 deficit. After defending the paint extremely well in the first half, the game-changing run looked similar to what the Hoyas did in Omaha — eight of the 12 points came in the paint, with CU seemingly unable to stop it. And they were chasing the separation created by that run the rest of the night.
But after the final horn sounded and the distraction from real life that sports provides was over, Josh Dix and his Creighton teammates had a lot to process. Too much for young men their age, honestly.
Early Wednesday morning, Dix learned by phone that his mom Kelly had lost her three-year battle with colon cancer. And as he broke the news to Bluejay fans, an audibly emotional Greg McDermott struggled to get words out at several points during a wrenching postgame radio interview.
“It’s been a hard day for our team. A really difficult day for our team,” he told John Bishop. “In this era of NIL and the transfer portal, I think sometimes people wonder how much these programs mean to these people. The fact that Josh Dix played that game tonight is absolutely, absolutely unbelievable.”
McDermott said that Creighton lined up a flight to return Dix home to be with his family, but he declined, insisting on playing and being there with his basketball family as they grieved together.
“I’m not sure I could have done that. I’m not sure many people could do it. But he’s a special young guy,” McDermott said. “That’s the thing people don’t understand sometimes, some of these challenges these guys are going through off the floor, and too often, they’re judged for whether the shots go in or don’t go in. He truly cares about this program, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had a player show it in the way that he did tonight.”
One of the big reasons the Council Bluffs native had transferred to Creighton in the offseason was to be able to spend as much time as possible with her, and as her health deteriorated over the past couple of months, he was able to do that.
“God works in mysterious ways,” McDermott said. “If Fran McCaffrey doesn’t lose his job at Iowa, Josh Dix probably isn’t here and doesn’t get to spend this time with Kelly that he’s going to treasure for the rest of his life. It’s been amazing to watch him show up every day and go to work and engage with his teammates and be a great teammate with what he’s got going on at home, what he was experiencing as the oldest child of a family that he needs to get back to here tonight.”
On Friday before the Pink Out game, Dix opened up a little, saying McDermott has been great about being flexible and allowing him to make the most of the time he had left with him mom.
“Mac’s been great about it. You know, if there’s something going on that I need to go to with my mom, he always lets me. They know that that’s bigger and more important than basketball right now. They all help me through it. My teammates are super supportive, always asking like how she’s doing and stuff.”
He talked about how much the Pink Out meant to his family, and and said he was grateful so many of them would be able to be there to experience it in person. “But a lot of people go through the same situation dealing with cancer and stuff like that,” Dix was quick to add, deflecting attention from himself. “It affects a lot of people and I think that this basketball game just brings a lot of people together.”
Blake Harper lost his mom, Linda, to breast cancer in 2023. Harper and Dix quickly bonded over their shared experiences.
“I feel for Josh because I was just in the same predicament. I mean, that’s my boy,” Harper said on Friday. “We’re so vulnerable with each other. And just in this past year, we became so close that I feel like I can talk to him about anything. He can talk to me about anything. We’ve got that brotherhood relationship. I love Josh.”
The Pink Out hit Harper harder than he expected it to. He broke down in the locker room in between shootaround and taking the floor.
“I feel like the guys helped me. Coach Mac picked my head up. That’s why I came here to Creighton,” Harper said after the UConn game. “That’s what I came here for, just for the guys to pick me up, the brotherhood. We’re all we got.”
Four days later, Harper repaid the debt.
“It was an early call this morning,” McDermott said on his postgame show. “Josh hasn’t slept a whole lot, probably the last couple months. There’s certainly a lot on his shoulders. But his teammates rallied around him. Obviously, Blake’s been through it, Blake understands the pain that goes with that, and he was certainly very emotional today. It’s been a rough day. It was really hard on our team. They’re really close with Josh.”
***
Creighton led 29-27 at halftime Wednesday night in Washington despite ice cold three-point shooting by beating Georgetown at their own game. They were effective in the paint, held their own on the glass, and defensively kept Georgetown’s frontline from dominating them inside.
As the score would suggest, it was a grinder — eight minutes in, CU led 10-8. They’d made 5-of-14 from the floor and missed their first five 3-pointers, while Georgetown was 3-of-11 with five turnovers. With 3:10 to go, Creighton finally hit their first (and only) three of the half, with Hudson Greer knocking it down off a handoff from Fedor Zugic.
Hudson for 3️⃣!#GoJays // 📺 Peacock pic.twitter.com/dptVQ3X1Kw
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) February 5, 2026
Two consecutive lobs from Nik Graves followed, one to Greer and one to Jasen Green for a vicious alley-oop in traffic. The 7-0 run gave CU a 27-24 lead, and though the Hoyas tied it, Graves hit a turnaround jumper at the buzzer to send the Jays into the locker room ahead.
Watch out below 😤#GoJays // 📺 Peacock pic.twitter.com/VR7A9itwo3
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) February 5, 2026
Nik Graves beats the first half buzzer!#GoJays // 📺 Peacock pic.twitter.com/DQaHnErWCT
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) February 5, 2026
But after Greer hit a three early in the second half to give CU a 34-33 lead, Georgetown scored 12 straight to seize control. Malik Mack hit a three, Vince Iwuchukwu scored through contact and made the and-one, Mack had a steal and dunk in transition, KJ Lewis buried a short jumper, and Iwuchukwu threw down a putback dunk.
“Given the events of the day, what I was worried about is the start of the game,” McDermott said. “It was such an emotional day for all of us in our program. I think the thing we needed the most was probably for the game to get here, but I didn’t know what to expect. We fought tooth and nail and while we gave up some offensive rebounds the first half, we didn’t give up any second chance points. As a staff we really felt pretty good with the shots we got the first half, we just couldn’t make any. It was the start of the second half, that first three or four minutes, that ended up being the difference in the game.”
With the loss, Creighton fell to 12-11 overall and 6-6 in the Big East. After starting 4-1 in league play, seconds away from being 5-0, they’ve gone 2-5 in their last seven. But all of that is for another day. This one was all about Josh Dix and his family — his dad Nate, his younger siblings Lydia, Joey and
Grayson, and everyone in their extended family.
“We’re gonna need (our fans) right now. This isn’t going to be easy for Josh over the course of the next weeks and months, you know, as he adjusts to a new normal with his family,” McDermott said. “We’ve got to be here to support them and help them in any way possible. We have some issues on the court that we’re trying to fix, things we’re trying to get better at, but I assure you, there are 16 really good people in that locker room. And when you see their interaction with their teammate today, it was really amazing. Incredible.”
Inside the Box:
In the first half, Creighton outscored Georgetown 22-6 in the paint, and though the Hoyas had nine offensive rebounds, they scored zero points off of those second chances. The second half was a different story. Georgetown outscored CU 20-8 in the paint, scored 11 second chance points on eight offensive rebounds, turned five steals into 11 points, and drew 14 fouls and went 20-of-27 from the free throw line.
KJ Lewis (22) and Malik Mack (20) combined to score 42 of Georgetown’s 76 points. Lewis drew seven fouls and made 11-of-14 from the line; Mack drew five fouls and went 10-of-11 at the line. Their ability to get downhill and either score at the rim or draw fouls had five Bluejays in foul trouble, limiting the minutes for Austin Swartz and Blake Harper while compromising the aggression that Jasen Green and Hudson Greer played with.
But for maybe the first time in almost two decades of writing these, stats do not matter, nor do they come anywhere close to understanding what happened in this game. After successfully, and privately, balancing the realities of major conference college basketball while his mom fought for her life at home, Josh Dix’ mom lost that fight while he was halfway across the country. To decline a flight home, and not just decide to play but to give everything he possibly could to try and win a basketball game? To battle alongside his teammates and give his all on a night where basketball was — understandably, and correctly — not the most important thing in his world?
Beyond comprehension. He played 30 minutes, scoring nine points with two rebounds and a steal. But that’s not what anyone will remember from this one. It was obvious from Harper’s comments over the weekend. You could hear it in the way McDermott struggled to get words out in his postgame interview without breaking down into tears. And you could see it in the way Bluejay fans on social media talked about him after the game — and especially in the way Iowa fans talked about him, not with the kind of dismissing condescension that players who transfer out usually receive from fans of their former school, but with respect and reverence.
What people will remember is how much Dix cares about the program he plays for, the teammates he plays with, and the impact he’s made on both.
His mom Kelly is no doubt smiling down at him from up above, proud of her son and the man he’s grown up to be.
Highlights:
Press Conference:
Greg McDermott’s postgame radio interview:
An incredibly difficult day for the Dix family and for @BluejayMBB. Coach Mac discusses that on our postgame show. https://t.co/Y4FEVYSZ7k
— John M. Bishop (@JohnBishop71) February 5, 2026