Doug McDermott makes a three-pointer at MSG during the Big East Tournament. (Photo by Mike Spomer for WBR)
After passing a veritable who’s-who of college basketball this winter on the all-time scoring chart, Doug McDermott joined another elite club — players that have been named a first-team All-American by the Associated Press three times. It’s a list that includes just 11 names in the history of college hoops:
- Tom Gola, La Salle, 1953-55
- Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati, 1958-60
- Jerry Lucas, Ohio State, 1960-62
- Lew Alcindor, UCLA, 1967-69
- Pete Maravich, LSU, 1968-70
- Bill Walton, UCLA, 1972-74
- David Thompson, North Carolina State, 1973-75
- Ralph Sampson, Virginia, 1981-83
- Patrick Ewing, Georgetown, 1983-85
- Wayman Tisdale, Oklahoma, 1983-85
- Doug McDermott, Creighton, 2012-14
That’s some pretty good company. Perhaps most astonishingly, McDermott was a unanimous selection — all 65 voters, the same sportswriters that vote in the weekly Top 25 poll during the season and never seem to be able to agree on which teams should be rated or where to rank them — as Doug appeared on the first-team line on every single ballot. He’s just the third player since 2009 to be a unanimous selection, joining Blake Griffin and Thomas Robinson.
There had been speculation on the Underground that Creighton’s exit from the tournament in the Round of 32 would cost McDermott votes, but that was never a possibility — as always, votes were turned in on Selection Sunday so that a couple of performances in March wouldn’t overshadow a season’s worth of work, good or bad. There’s all-tournament teams for players who make their mark in March. All-American awards are for players who excel from the first game through the last.
He’s also a consensus All-American for the third straight year, a somewhat-misunderstood process that uses a point system to rank players who are named to the four “major” All-American teams. Those four are the Associated Press, The National Association of Basketball Coaches, the United States Basketball Writers Association and Sporting News magazine. Players receive three points for a first team nod, two points for second team and one point for third team, and the top five are named consensus All-Americans. McDermott was named first-team by all four teams, giving him 12 points to make him a shoo-in for the honor. The previous two years, he was a consensus All-American despite being on the second team in Sporting News’ list, as his 11 points were still enough to put him in the top five.
So overwhelming was his season-long greatness, so obvious was his candidacy, even the Sporting News had to finally relent and put him on their first team after two straight years as the lone holdout. McDermott leads the nation in scoring (26.7 ppg.) and points (934) through games of March 30th and barring something truly bizarre this weekend in North Texas, will end the season as the leader in those categories. He also ranks second in field goals made (330) and ninth in three-point percentage (.449), making his selection a no-brainer even before other factors are considered, such as leading his team to a 27-8 record in the Big East.
McDermott has already been named National Player of the Year by USA Today, NBCSports.com, BleacherReport.com, Basketball Times, Dick Vitale and even — shockingly — the Sporting News, which has heretofore been the dissenting opinion on McDermott’s greatness. The AP will name its National Player of the Year on Thursday, the Wooden Award for Player of the Year will be announced during the 11am (CST) SportsCenter on Friday, and the Naismith Award for Player of the Year will be announced at halftime of the national championship game next Monday. McDermott is a favorite for all three.