The best player in college basketball doesn’t fit the mold of a typical star.
He wasn’t a McDonald’s All-American coming out of high school. He doesn’t play for a traditional power. And more surprising than all, he’s still in college for his senior year.
He plays small forward for a private school in Omaha, Neb., with an undergraduate enrollment of just over 4,100. And his father happens to be his head coach.
Creighton University’s Doug McDermott is the nation’s best college basketball player.
Overshadowed at times by star freshmen Andrew Wiggins (University of Kansas), Jabari Parker (Duke University) and Joel Embiid (Kansas), along with seasoned stars like Marcus Smart (Oklahoma State University) and Russ Smith (University of Louisville), McDermott is once again having an All-American caliber season.
He was named to the Wooden Award watch list last week, and rightfully so. McDermott is averaging 25.0 points per game while shooting an astounding 50.0 percent from the field. He also makes 43.9 percent of his three-pointers and 89.3 percent of his free throws while hauling in 7.1 rebounds per game and nearly two assists per game.
In Creighton’s first season as part of the new-look BIG EAST Conference, McDermott has led the Bluejays back to national prominence once again. Creighton is currently ranked No. 20 in the nation and is in first place in the BIG EAST with an 8-1 mark.
McDermott has played 131 games in his career at Creighton. Of those 131, he’s scored 20 or more points 73 times and tallied 30 or more 21 times. McDermott ranks 18th overall in NCAA history with 2,741 total points.
But what he’s known for is how he scores them.
McDermott already has two game-winners this season – against St. Joseph’s University Nov. 16 and more recently, a 25-footer to beat St. John’s University Jan. 28.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYpqRfGdXFk
McDermott is Creighton’s go-to guy in clutch situations. But more than that, he’s a consistent threat in more than one facet of the game. His consistency is something that makes him stand apart from others.
He started producing from his first day on campus at Creighton, setting a record for most points scored by a freshman in Missouri Valley Conference history at 581. Since then, he’s only gotten better.
McDermott was one of 12 players selected to play for the USA U19 team at the FIBA World Championships following his freshman year, and has been named a consensus First Team All-American in his two years since.
During his senior year of high school, McDermott signed a letter of intent to play for Northern Iowa University, but his father, Greg McDermott, was fired as coach of Iowa State University and took the Creighton job. Doug was released from his commitment, and went to play for his father.
Not only has McDermott stayed loyal to his father, but he’s aided the university this year. When Creighton senior Grant Gibbs was granted a sixth year of eligibility this past summer, the Bluejays went over their allotment of 13 scholarships.
The McDermott’s decided that Doug would be designated as a walk-on for his senior year, forgoing a scholarship that he earned every bit of.
So, the nation’s best player and his family are paying more than $44,000 this year to play the game of basketball. That’s pretty unique if you ask me.
https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/424741022321901568
McDermott put the team first in that situation and has done the same in many other situations. The commitment to bettering his own game and to Creighton basketball is one that so many other players lack. All of the stars who play one year in college and bolt for the glamour of the NBA do not necessarily relish in the little things about basketball that McDermott does. He plays for love of the game and the desire to improve in every way at each opportune moment.
There’s a lot of basketball to be played this season, and none of us know how anything will turn out.
But barring anything extreme, I expect to see Doug McDermott holding the Wooden Award for the nation’s best player during Final Four weekend.