Althoff basketball program handed down from one legend to another
After 27 seasons on the bench, legendary coach Greg Leib retired as head boys basketball coach at Althoff Catholic in late March.
Last Friday, the school announced that one its most successful former players, Doug McMorris will be Leib’s successor.
McMorris, a 2000 graduate of Althoff, scored 1,000 points and averaged 24 points per game in his senior season. He currently ranks third on the all-time scoring list for the Crusaders.
He was an assistant coach under Leib from 2009 to 2016 and says he is thrilled to be his successor.
“It’s really an honor and something that I’m really excited about and my family’s excited about, and I just can’t wait to get started and get in the gym with the fellas and get to work,” McMorris said.
Althoff Athletic Director Austin Frazier said that over 20 candidates applied for the Crusaders opening, and after he and the search committee pared the list down to six candidates, McMorris emerged as the top choice for the program.
“He was a great player for us and was a key assistant coach on those state title run and runnerup back in 2015 and 2016, so he was a winner as a player, he was a winner as an assistant coach and he’s a guy of high moral character,” Frazier said. “He checked every box we were looking for.”
Frazier said that Leib’s retirement announcement surprised him a bit when it happened, given the team had just finished up its third state tournament run and first in nine years in mid-March.
“I knew that we were certainly on the tail end with him after 27 years, but I thought especially through the playoff run,” Frazier said. “I saw that rejuvenate energy, and I thought maybe he had a couple of more in him. But what an unbelievable and storied career, and I commend him for leaving Althoff basketball on the upswing. He steps down with the cupboard not necessarily being empty and being able to hand that off to one of his great ex-players is kind of the perfect ending to an unbelievable career.”
Leib, a member of the IBCA Coaches Hall Of Fame retired from Althoff with three state tournament appearances including a second-place finish in Class 3A in 2015 and a 2A championship in 2016 behind current NBA player Jordan Goodwin. Leib led the Crusaders to another second-place finish in the Class 2A tournament in March this season.
McMorris works in logistics for Lanter Trucking full-time, but had been coaching for the past eight years in the AAU ranks, working with mostly seventh- and eighth-grade teams.
He said his experience has prepared him well for what he will face at Althoff Catholic.
“I think just thinking back to my time with Coach Leib and just being under his mentorship and how he dealt with different situations, putting the players first, the program first overall, were the most important lessons I learned from him that I think will allow me to be successful moving forward,” McMorris said.
McMorris inherits a solid roster in the fall with returning players Luke Smith, Steven Brown and Kyle Johnson.
“I’m excited for those three for sure,” McMorris said.
This story was originally published April 22, 2025 at 11:08 AM.