NBA!

McDermott  has been suspended men’s basketball coach Greg McDermott over racially insensitive remarks he made last today.

“After our Creighton men’s basketball team returned to Omaha earlier today, Fr. Hendrickson and I engaged with other senior leaders in dialogue and discussion regarding appropriate sanctions for the remarks made by Head Men’s Basketball Coach Greg McDermott that were not in alignment with Creighton’s commitment to racial equity, diversity and respect,” Creighton director of athletics Bruce Rasmussen said in a statement. “Coach McDermott and the team have accepted that, effective immediately, he is suspended from all team activities, including Saturday’s home season finale against Butler.

“Further sanctions remain under consideration, not all of which will be shared publicly. Assistant Coach Al Huss will serve as Interim Head Coach.

“Coach McDermott and our Athletics program must use this incident as an opportunity for growth and learning, as clearly more work needs to be done.”

On Tuesday, McDermott apologized for making “a terribly inappropriate analogy.”

“Specifically, I said: ‘Guys, we got to stick together,'” McDermott tweeted. “‘We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I can’t have anybody leave the plantation.'”

The word “plantation” carries racist overtones for its connotations of slavery and repression.

McDermott coached in Creighton’s 72-60 loss to No. 9-ranked Villanova on Wednesday night. The loss dropped the Bluejays to 17-7 on the season.

“The pain I saw in their eyes was immense,” McDermott said after the game. “That’s a cross that I’m going to have to bear for a while. I’m going to come out of this on the other end a better person because of it. But it’s going to be a process.”