NCAA tournament: Evolution of Creighton's Marcus Foster comes full circle

CHARLOTTE — When the matchup came on the television screen last Sunday night, there was always a chance it could end like this. Creighton star Marcus Foster knew that; so did his coach, Greg McDermott. 

Two seasons of excellence on and off the court had put a rocky departure from Kansas State in 2015 in Foster’s past, but suddenly, with one fateful decision by the NCAA tournament committee, he was going to have to relive all of it going into the biggest postseason game of his life. 

“You know, it probably wasn’t his top choice of who he would like to play when the pairings came out,” McDermott said on Thursday. 

It was either going to be the ultimate moment of basketball redemption for Foster, or it was going to be a disaster, with very little possibility of landing in between. 

With 52.8 seconds left in Creighton’s 69-59 loss, the answer to that had long been obvious. For 2½ hours against Kansas State, Foster had vacillated between passive invisibility and out-of-control aggression. The result was a mess: a 20-point per game scorer rendered utterly ineffective and the team that relies on him now hopelessly beaten. 

But as Foster checked out of a college game for the final time, a remarkable thing happened. Bruce Weber, the coach who had to suspend Foster three years ago during a turbulent sophomore season and ultimately kick him off the team, called him over.

And suddenly, as they briefly embraced, an otherwise nondescript first-round game became the kind of shining moment that transcends any trophy.

“I just congratulated him,” Weber said. “I said all along, you know, I have nothing against him. I was a fifth-grade teacher. I coached kids on the playground. It’s about kids, and that’s why I’ve stayed in it. And I want guys to be successful.

"I just said, ‘Congratulations. I’m happy (for you). I hope you got your head on straight. And he had a heck of his career. I’m proud that I recruited him, coached him. And I’m proud that, you know, I maybe helped him get in the right path or right direction.”

Foster, of course, would have preferred to play better. He didn’t score a point in the first half. He made just 2-of-11 shots for five points, three of which came in the last couple minutes after the result had effectively been decided. All the different looks Kansas State threw at Foster, from crowding the paint to cut off his drives to having Barry Brown push him back beyond the three-point line so he couldn’t get a clean look at a jumper, every one of them worked.

And for Foster, who tried to press the issue a few times but shot airballs and off-balance leaners that disrupted his rhythm, it was bitterly disappointing. 

“After this game, I’ll look back at the film and I know I’m going to kill myself because there’s things I could have changed,” Foster said.

But there was solace, too, because the person who leaves Creighton is far different from the player whose promising career at Kansas State got derailed by behavioral, attitude and work ethic issues, to the point where Weber decided the program was better without him than with him. 

Not every story works out that way. 

There are more than 800 transfers in Division I basketball every year now, a good number of them rooted in the same kinds of issues that threw Foster off track. Not all of those situations end with a player making the most of his second chance, resolving to mature and become a different person and better teammate. 

By all accounts, Foster had done that at Creighton, experiencing fatherhood last year and revitalizing his game by shedding bad habits and taking on more of a leadership role. Maybe he had been a head case by the end of his time at Kansas State, but McDermott had saved him, taking on a project a number of other coaches had declined. 

“We all make mistakes when we’re 18, 19 years old,” McDermott said. “And he’s taken ownership of those mistakes. And to his credit, he’s made the changes in his life to be the person that he is today. And that may not have happened had he not made those mistakes.”

The reward for Creighton was two consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament, and the storybook ending would have been some kind of deep run, or even just one win. 

That’s why it was so difficult for them to watch his game break down so badly given the stakes and, of course, the opponent. 

“They met him early and made his catches very difficult and obviously any time you put it on the floor they were rotating with help,” McDermott said. “They’re very physical and Marcus at times can overwhelm you with his physicality and they were able to match that and we were trying to maybe too hard to get him something easy to get him going and we just couldn’t get him started.”

But a new chapter in his life started when he checked out Friday night, turning around after the embrace with Weber and into the arms of McDermott, then hugging every player, coach and staff member as he walked to the end of the bench. 

“Coach McDermott a lot to me and my family,” Foster said. “He didn’t have to let me come here after the situation at Kansas State. A lot of teams dropped out, didn’t want to offer me anymore after they found out what happened. He stuck with it and he made a promise to my mom that he’d get me back on track and now I’m sitting back here the man I always wanted to be.”

That’s bigger than any tournament win.

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