Creighton men’s basketball dropped its third straight game on Wednesday, 76-68 at Georgetown, but the on-court result was secondary to far worse news impacting the program.
Senior Josh Dix received a phone call Wednesday morning informing him that his mother, Kelly, had passed away after a three-year fight with colon cancer.
“It’s been a hard day for our team, really difficult day for our team,” Coach Greg McDermott told John Bishop on 1620 the Zone after the game as he fought back tears. “In this era of NIL and 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.”
Creighton lined up a flight for Dix to return home to be with his family, but he opted to stay in the nation’s capital. He wanted to play the game and be there for his teammates, and he did just that — logging 30 minutes despite battling the flu over the past few days.
“I’m not sure I could have done that,” McDermott said. “I’m not sure many people could do it. But he’s a special young guy. 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.”
The loss took a heavy toll on everyone in the program around Dix, particularly sophomore Blake Harper, who also lost his mom, Linda, to breast cancer in 2023. On Saturday, Harper, who wore Linda’s name on his warmup shirt for Creighton’s Pink Out, struggled with the emotions that welled up inside him before the game. McDermott praised his players for the way they rallied around Harper and helped him through that moment in the locker room, and they all did the same for Dix on Wednesday.
“It was an early call this morning,” McDermott said. “Obviously, Josh hasn’t slept a whole lot, probably the last couple months; 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. He was certainly very emotional today.”
In life, things often don’t go according to plan, and you don’t always get what you deserve.
Dix broke his leg in gruesome fashion during his senior year at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, but he overcame that setback to have three good years at Iowa, making significant strides individually every year to become one of the most efficient perimeter players in the Big Ten as a junior. Iowa won 19, 19 and 17 games during his three seasons, going one-and-done in the NCAA Tournament his freshman year and failing to make the field in the other two. Iowa made a coaching change after the 2024-25 season, and Dix entered the transfer portal.
He chose to transfer close to home to play for Creighton, a program that had made five straight NCAA Tournaments with two Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight. Dix grew up going to Creighton games, and years later, he returned to CHI Health Center Omaha with big goals.
“I haven’t won at the highest level yet, and that’s something I want to do,” Dix told me before the season began. “Especially with this being my last year, I feel like this is my best chance to do it. With the talent that we’ve got, there’s no doubt in my mind that we can.”
Injuries have dramatically impacted the talent Dix spoke of, and the season hasn’t gone the way most around the program anticipated. The loss to Georgetown dropped Creighton to 12-11, well outside NCAA Tournament projections. Dix is leading the team in minutes, points, field goals, steals and free-throw percentage, and he’s second in assists. He’s done everything McDermott has asked of him, from playing point guard to taking on the toughest defensive assignment every game.
Yet the 6-foot-6 guard, a career 41.9% 3-point shooter at Iowa, fell to 29.9% from deep on the season after a 1-for-6 day against the Hoyas. The one make came late in the game, a beautiful swish on a step-back in front of his own bench to end a streak of 19 straight misses spanning four games. It a more just world, the shots would have fallen and Dix would have led Creighton to a victory, perhaps providing some solace for a player, family and program that could have really used some. But that didn’t happen.
Dix has proven himself to be an elite shooter at the college level, and you won’t find someone who would question his work ethic. Yet the shots haven’t fallen, and the wins haven’t come.
I first saw Dix play as a sophomore in high school. I tracked him closely the rest of his high school career, watching him compete for the Omaha Sports Academy Crusaders against some of the top high school talent in the country. I talked with some of his coaches at Abraham Lincoln and Iowa, and I know the amount of work that went into Dix becoming the player he is today. This season, I’ve seen shots he’s practiced thousands and thousands of times that have always gone down for him refuse to do so for whatever reason. Yet he’s pressed on.
Basketball can be a cruel sport sometimes. But it can also open many doors.
As much as Dix saw Creighton as an on-court fit, the ability to move back closer to his home as his mother’s health continued to deteriorate played a significant role in his decision. He made the most of the opportunity, spending plenty of time with her over the last four or five months, with the support and understanding of his new coaches throughout the process.
“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.”
Wednesday was an extreme example of what Dix has done all season. I can’t imagine trying to balance something so demanding — and public — as playing high-level college basketball while my mother was at home fighting for her life.
“It puts it in perspective what we do,” McDermott said. “Obviously, what we do is really important. A lot of people care about it. You’re at Georgetown; this place used to be full, and there’s hardly anybody in the building. We certainly appreciate that our fans keep showing up through thick and thin, and we’re going to need them right now. This isn’t going to be easy for Josh over the course of the next weeks and months as he adjusts to a new normal with his family, and we’ve got to be here to support him and help him in any way possible.
“We have some issues on the court that we’re trying to fix, 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 incredible.”
