NCAAM: Finding the next Doug McDermott

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Mar 23, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; Creighton Bluejays forward Doug McDermott (3) gets a rebound in the first half of a men /

There’s a roughly 90 percent chance the Cinderella’s 1988 power ballad, “You Don’t Know What You Got (Till it’s Gone)” was about Doug McDermott and his time playing college basketball.

It’s amazing an 80’s hair band was able to encapsulate EXACTLY HOW I FEEL 26 years in advance.

McDermott will go down as one of the greatest college basketball players to ever play. In his four years at Creighton, he finished his career seventh all-time in points and was a consensus first team All-American three times. In his senior season, McDermott won every prestigious “MVP”-type award college basketball has to offer, including AP Player of the Year, the Naismith Award, and Wooden Award.

With possible rule changes coming to the NCAA, it’s conceivable there may never be another Doug McDermott to play college basketball. It’s already incredibly rare a player of his caliber would stay all four years in college. Who knows what will happen with all the potential unionizing and paying players?

Season	School	Conf	G	MP	FG%	2P%	3P%	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
2010-11	Creighton	MVC	39	29.1	.525	.571	.405	.746	7.2	1.2	0.3	0.1	2.2	2.1	14.9
2011-12	Creighton	MVC	35	31.9	.601	.633	.486	.796	8.2	1.1	0.2	0.1	2.3	1.7	22.9
2012-13	Creighton	MVC	36	31.6	.548	.573	.490	.875	7.7	1.6	0.2	0.1	2.6	1.6	23.2
2013-14	Creighton	Big East	35	33.7	.526	.567	.449	.864	7.0	1.6	0.2	0.1	1.8	1.9	26.7
Career	Creighton		145	31.5	.550	.587	.458	.831	7.5	1.3	0.2	0.1	2.2	1.8	21.7

Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CBB: View Original Table
Generated 7/28/2014.

McDermott, also known as Dougie McBuckets for his ability to fill it up, was a very underrated rebounder and playmaker, who created many more opportunities for his teammates than he was given credit for. Players don’t come around very often with a sweet stroke like McDermott’s but also the ability to impact other areas of the game, too. That’s what made McDermott the player he was and why it’s likely college basketball won’t see another of his kind for a long time.

It’s not likely we’ll find a replacement for McDermott next college basketball season. He was just too good. No one can replace everything he brought to the game, the points, the assists, the rebounds, all of it. Someone has to replace the story lines, though. For that reason, I’ve picked three players who have the ability to possibly reach McDermott status.