Creighton’s most prolific low post scorer through 8 games this season isn’t a seasoned, fifth year senior. Rather, it’s the coach’s son, a lanky freshman with skilled moves around the rim and knack for finishing plays.
Doug McDermott currently leads the Creighton men’s basketball team in scoring, averaging 14.5 points per game. Sure, it is a small sample size, not even one-third of the way through what surely promises to be a grueling season for the true freshman from Ames. But the rate at which McDermott is scoring puts him on pace to meet or exceed some of the more prolific point totals in Creighton hoops history for a freshman.
Rodney Buford, Creighton’s all-time leading scorer, tallied 421 points in 29 games as a freshman, a 14.5 ppg average. More than a decade before Buford began his historic CU career, Benoit Benjamin scored 400 points in 27 games during his freshman season, a 14.81 ppg average. More recently, P’Allen Stinnett burst on the scene, beginning his Creighton career with a monster game against DePaul and finishing his freshman season with 416 points in 33 games, a 12.6 ppg average.
Benjamin was a physical specimen. Buford and Stinnett, high-flying off-guards. McDermott is scoring with a magnificent touch and heady positioning, not to mention solid efforts on the glass. And he’s getting ample time to help offensively, as he averages the second most playing time of any Bluejay (30.8 minutes per game). Compared to guys like Stinnett (24.4 mpg), Kyle Korver (18.2 mpg), and Dane Watts (18.8 mpg) before him, McDermott is on pace to log quite the playing time.
But Bluejays fans won’t complain. Every situation, every season, is different, and frankly the Bluejays would be hurting without McDermott’s effective, if not excessive, court time to this point. Buford played nearly 26 minutes per game and had to lead the team in scoring his freshman season because, frankly, there wasn’t much other consistent firepower on Creighton’s roster that year. Dana Altman didn’t need to rely on Korver or Watts to be a focal point offensively during their freshman seasons, because guys like Ben Walker, Ryan Sears, Nate Funk, and Johnny Mathies could carry more of the load.
McDermott’s won the past four Valley Newcomer of the Week awards. He very well may start collecting Player of the Week honors, too. That is, if Kenny Lawson continues to underwhelm in the post offensively, and if the Bluejays can’t find a consistent scoring presence from the wing. But you’d have to believe that the Jays can right the ship a bit offensively. Lawson, for his career, shoots almost 20 percentage points better from the field than he is this year. Ethan Wragge is rounding into shape, and CU fans hope his outside shot follows closely behind. And, if you haven’t heard, Gregory Echenique makes his debut in the white and the blue on December 18.
Something tells me McDermott would be more than happy to see his minutes and points decline a bit if it meant other guys were stepping up … and the Bluejays started winning again.