Today, we begin our brief profiles of each member of the 2010-11 Creighton men’s basketball team. Join us each weekday from now until the men’s exhibition game against Northern State for an introduction to each of this year’s Bluejays, from freshmen to seniors.
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It has to go down as one of the oddest ways to secure a commitment from a recruit. You know, hire his dad to coach your basketball team.
Dana Altman recruited Doug McDermott to play for Creighton well before Bruce Rasmussen recruited Doug’s father, Greg, to replace Altman as the head Bluejay. But so did a lot of schools. The younger McDermott is a first-team All-Iowa forward, a key player on an Ames High team that won 53 consecutive games and back-to-back state titles. He had plenty of scholarship offers, but decided that instead of going to Creighton and other schools, he would play for Ben Jacobsen, his Godfather, at recent NCAA Tournament sweetheart Northern Iowa. That was his plan, of course, until late last April.
It only took a couple of days, Altman leaving the program he resurrected and former Valley adversary Greg McDermott coming to coach at Creighton. But in that span, the Bluejays gained not only a new head coach, but also a coveted member of a recruiting class who had originally decided to play for the Panthers. Talk about a successful recruiting weekend visit and a swing in momentum in the Missouri Valley Conference.
“I was completely shocked by what happened,” said Doug McDermott, who was in Cedar Falls watching his future teammates lift weights and signing his student housing paperwork just a few days before he stood next to his dad during the introductory press conference in Omaha. “I was excited when my dad told me the opportunity he had a Creighton, and it took me only minutes to decide to join him.”
The younger McDermott said it was hard to tell Jacobsen and the rest of his future UNI teammates-to-be about his decision to come to Creighton, but that he is glad he is in Omaha and that he can’t wait to start the season.
The feeling is mutual among Bluejays fans, in part because of potential McDermott brings as a versatile forward. At 6-7 and 210 pounds, one of the most successful players in Iowa high school basketball history averaged 20 points and almost 8 rebounds a game as a senior. He is a natural four who likes to play on the block, but who can stretch defenses to the perimeter because of his shooting ability. “I really like to pick and pop and get my teammates open,” McDermott said.
When asked about what aspects of his game need the most work, McDermott is honest. “My greatest areas of improvement are my ball-handling and my strength,” he said, adding that he’s added 20 pounds since coming to Omaha for strength and conditioning work. “All perimeter four-men should be able to put the ball on the floor a little. And I am also working on my lateral quickness.”
McDermott is one of five new Bluejays to the program this year, and one of a dozen underclassmen on the Creighton roster in 2010. But he feels that there is great leadership from the five returning seniors, and that the team has good chemistry and is getting ready for a great season.
“We have been working extremely hard; as a team we expect a lot,” McDermott said. “We have pieces like Kenny (Lawson) and Greg (Echenique) that not a lot of other teams have, and we know that puts some big expectations on us.
“But hopefully we can achieve our goal and make it to the NCAA Tournament, which is something these seniors have never experienced. I look forward to being part of something special.”