Creighton senior forward Doug McDermott made it unanimous: he is the national player of the year in college basketball.
McDermott swept every major award he was up for this year. On Sunday, McDermott was named the winner of the Niasmith Trophy. This was the final player of the year award for McDermott, who already had the USBWA Oscar Robertson Trophy, the John R. Wooden Award and the Lute Olson Award lining his trophy case.
In addition to the four tophies, McDermott was also named the top player in the game by nine websites, publications and media members, including CBSSports.com, Sporting News, USA Today, NBCSports.com, BleacherReport.com, Basketball Times, Dick Vitale, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Associated Press.
That’s 13 player of the year awards if you don’t feel like counting. That doesn’t even include the Senior CLASS Award (honoring his achievements on and off the court), Big East Player of the Year or his numerous First Team All-American selections.
McDermott won every award he was eligible for. He was the consensus player of the year in college basketball. However, one AP voter did not believe he deserved to be the unanimous pick.
McDermott received 64 of 65 possible votes for the AP’s Player of the Year award. The other vote went to Louisville senior guard Russ Smith and was made by a Louisville-based columnist named Rick Bozich.
When I first heard that Smith got a vote, I disagreed but didn’t think too much of it. McDermott won, and he won handily. However, after reading Bozich’s column defending his pick, it bothers me a bit more.
I can see an argument for Smith. He’s a First Team All-American who has had a tremendous season and a great career. He’s a versatile player that impacts the game at a high level in many ways. However, McDermott’s case is stronger, and Bozich did nothing to disprove that.
I considered not dignifying Bozich’s vote and column with as a response, as I thought he might be going against the grain to use his vote to draw attention to himself. But in the end, I felt like the case was so poorly argued that a response was necessary.
Bozich more or less completely disregards McDermott’s accomplishments in his argument, he makes inaccurate statements and he comes off as an uneducated voter rooting for the local guy.
Bozich’s full column can be found at http://www.wdrb.com/story/25159380/bozich-why-i-voted-for-russ-smith-as-national-player-of-the-year.
I’m going to go through his column and respond to each individual part. Bozich’s arguments are in quotation marks.
“I did not expect Russ Smith to win the Associated Press national college player of the year award Thursday.
I also did not expect to be the only one of 65 AP voters who picked Smith instead of Creighton forward Doug McDermott.
But that’s what happened.
“And I’m fine with it. I understand why McDermott won. I don’t understand why Smith, the Louisville senior, only earned one vote — mine. Or why Shabazz Napier of Connecticut did not earn any.”
The reason those two players did not get votes from anyone other than Bozich is simple: all the other voters recognized that as great as those guards were, McDermott was more deserving.
Smith averaged 18.2 points, 4.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds and two steals per game while shooting 46.8 percent from the field, 38.7 percent from 3-point range and 70.5 percent from the free-throw line. He’s a tremendous defensive guard who led his Louisville team to a 25-6 regular season record as well as the AAC regular season and tournament titles.
Napier averaged 18 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 42.9 percent from the field, 40.5 percent from 3-point range and 87 percent from the line. Napier is also a talented defender who did it all for his Connecticut team that finished third in the AAC with a 24-7 regular season record. He also just led his team to the national title, but that did not play into the voting.
Those two are very talented players who do a lot for their teams.
McDermott is simply better.
He led the country in scoring at 26.9 points per game and did it on 53.6 percent field goal, 44.9 percent 3-point and 86.4 percent free throw shooting while also leading the Jays in rebounding at seven per game. Behind McDermott’s scoring prowess, Creighton had the best season in school history with a 24-6 regular season record and a second place finish in both the regular season and the conference tournament in the school’s first year in the Big East.
“You didn’t have to watch either Smith or Napier play as many times as I did to understand this was hardly the year for a unanimous call.”
This line sounds a lot like a writer campaigning for the local guys, yet doesn’t add anything substantial to the discussion. The exact same thing could be said about McDermott in order to argue the opposite. This also hits on the point that Bozich seems to be stuck on: the term “unanimous.”
“You’d expect a unanimous vote for guys like Anthony Davis (Kentucky, 2012), Kevin Durant (Texas, 2007) or Tim Duncan (Wake Forest, 1996).
Except those guys weren’t unanimous picks. In fact, I asked Jim O’Connell, the Hall of Fame, national college basketball writer from the AP, for the name of the last unanimous winner of the AP player of the year award.
O’Connell said there was no record of a unanimous winner – at least not back to 1985, the last record that he could uncover.
Like I said, McDermott is good. He made my first-team all-American ballot. But Doug McDermott wasn’t unanimous good. That’s Magic Johnson, Bill Walton or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar territory.”
Just because Davis, Durant and Duncan were not unanimous, that doesn’t disqualify McDermott from being one.
McDermott did not have to be as good as Magic Johnon, Bill Walton or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (or more accurately, Lew Alcindor, as the basketball legend did not change his name until after he had left school) to be hamed the unanimous player of the year.
He only needed to be better than his competition – which he was.
“This wasn’t one of those baseball Hall of Fame protest votes to make sure nobody was a unanimous pick. Smith earned his way to the top of my ballot, the way he earned everything he achieved at Louisville.”
Wait. Bozich spent 138 words talking about McDermott not being worthy of a unanimous selection, but then said that is not why he did not pick him? In that case, what was the point of this part of the column?
Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com wrote an excellent story (http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24432947/trek-to-3000-doug-mcdermotts-historic-hunt-at-college-hoops-infamy) on McDermott and his background, and shows just how hard he has worked to get to where he is now. McDermott earned everything he achieved at Creighton as well, and he earned every major national award.
“McDermott was a better scorer. Smith was a better player — on a bigger stage.
Sure, he took an occasional silly shot. But he made the guys he guarded take crazy shots and dribble away the basketball. Smith left U of L with the school record for steals. He ran the pick and roll.”
McDermott wasn’t just a better scorer – he was the best scorer in the game. He led the country in offensive win shares and the combination of production and efficiency he provided offensively is truly rare.
Just as Bozich seems content to disregard McDermott’s accomplishments and ability, he seems equally fine with sweeping Smith’s flaws under the rug. The nickname “Russdiculous” does not refer only to the great plays he makes but rather his crazy style of play.
As for McDermott, the silliest shot he takes is the Dirk Nowitzki-esque one-legged fadeaway – which has become on of his most ustoppable tools. McDermott’s effective shooting percentage was 60.3 while Smith’s was 54.1, showing the difference in both shot selection and shooting ability.
I am pretty sure I saw McDermott run the pick and roll at least once or twice as well.
“He led this U of L team to a share of the American Athletic Conference regular-season title, the AAC Tournament title and the Sweet Sixteen. McDermott and Creighton came up empty in the diminished Big East — and exited the NCAA Tournament on the first weekend.”
Smith did help his team to accomplish these things, and nobody can take that away from him. However, he once again is diminishing McDermott, Creighton and the Big East as a whole.
While the Jays didn’t win the regular season or conference titles, they came up just short and finished second in both. To finish second, the Jays won 14 games and lost four in conference. The record that won the AAC for Louisville? Fifteen and three.
As for the Big East, it may not be what it was, but it was still a better conference than the AAC this season. The Big East was fourth in RPI as a conference and finished with a 94-31 record, while the AAC was eighth with an 88-35 record. The Big East was 3-0 against the AAC. The Big East had two teams below .500 on the season, while the AAC had four. The Big East got four bids in the NCAA Tournament and the AAC got three. If the Big East was diminished, what does that say about the AAC?
“Let’s be honest. The 2014 player of the year race was over in February. Maybe January. I’m not sure what the tipping point was, but the national chatter was all McDermott, McDermott, McDermott.”
Once again, there was a reason everyone was talking about McDermott: he earned the attention with outstanding and entertaining play.
“Considering McDermott plays at Creighton and many of the Bluejays’ games were not carried on national TV, my guess is that was primarily a fascination with his scoring average.”
This is simply not correct. All of Creighton’s games this season were on national TV save one. Fox Sports 1 may not be ESPN, but it is available across the country. Bozich – one of 65 AP voters – apparently did not care enough to look for Creighton games if he believed they were not televised.
“McDermott scored. He scored a lot.
He averaged 26.7 points per game, tops in the nation. He put 45 on Providence. He scored 39 on St. John’s. He made seven three-point shots against DePaul. He averaged seven rebounds. He made 45 percent of his three-point shots and better than 84 percent of his free throws.”
Yes, he scored a lot. However, the 26.7 figure itself is not what captivated the masses. It is the way he reached that number with his versatile and consistent scoring that had fans and analysts across the country singing his praises.
“He’s an excellent player, likely a first-round pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. But I’m convinced the national media fell in love with the narrative that McDermott was this guy doing big things from a school that normally does not produce a player of the year candidate.”
Once again, the national media fell in love with McDermott because he was the best player in the country. Playing for his father and his class on and off the court would mean nothing if he was not as good as he is.
“McDermott is also white. Did race have something to do with it?”
No.
“Who knows? Probably not with most voters, but you never know. It’s happened before with Jimmer Fredette and J. J. Redick. This year McDermott was absolutely the media darling.”
To bring race into this is ridiculous. McDermott was the media darling because he was one of the most unstoppable and entertaining players in the game.
“But Smith is a terrific player, too, every bit as essential to Louisville basketball as McDermott was to Creighton. Check Ken Pomeroy’s national player of the year standings at his web site, kenpom.com.
Number 2 is Doug McDermott.
Number 1 is Russ Smith.
I’ve got no problem standing with Ken Pomeroy.
Ask Mick Cronin of Cincinnati about the dagger 18-footer that Smith made to beat the Bearcats in Cincinnati. It was the first game Cincinnati lost at home this season.
Ask Larry Brown of Southern Methodist about Russ Smith. The Mustangs were this close to finishing out their season with an unbeaten home record, too. Then Smith hit six straight three-point shots in the second half of a Louisville victory.
That was the game when Smith spent the night before the game – and the final three minutes of play – with his arms wrapped around a trash can as he vomited.
Then there was the night Smith dropped 42 points on Houston in the AAC Tournament in Memphis. He could have finished with 50 – or at least 46, which would have been the U of L scoring record. But he sat for the final five minutes.”
This is an impressive list of highlights, but McDermott has one as well.
Ask Phil Martelli of St. Joseph’s and Steve Lavin of St. John’s what it is like to have their hearts ripped out by McDermott at the end of games (or catch Fox Sports 1’s coverage of the Final Four – Lavin has already talked about McDermott’s game-winner against his team on the air).
Ask Villanova’s Jay Wright about what McDermott and his team did against the top 10 Wildcats this season – twice.
Ask Providence’s Ed Cooley how helpless he felt as McDermott eclipsed 3,000 career points and hung 45 on his Friars in the final game of the regular season.
“But some big scoring games and a big-time shot are not the only reasons I voted for Smith.
Russ Smith defends like crazy. Ask Napier, who struggled to go crazy against Louisville the way he did against other teams.
Smith showed that he could play either guard position. His scoring average dropped this season from 18.7 to 18.2. But his assists increased from 2.9 to 4.6, his shooting percentage improved 41.4 to 46.8 and he made nearly 39 percent of his three-point shots.”
Smith’s defensive impact is the greatest argument for him over McDermott, and Bozich did not focus on this enough. Yet immediately after making the defense case, he turned immediately to per game numbers and shooting percentages. As I’ve stated above, nobody in the country can touch McDermott in those categories.
Although he did not make nearly the defensive impact Smith did, in a game about scoring points McDermott’s offensive ability more than made up for his defensive faults. McDermott was second in the nation in win shares per 40 minutes and everything Creighton did relied on his versatility and consistency.
McDermott, a big man who relies on other players at times to get him the ball, put up consistently great numbers despite facing double- and triple-teams all year long. His ability to draw help defense opened up the floor for the rest of the team to make plays and hit shots. He may have only averaged 1.6 assists per game, but his mere presence created so many more shots than that figure indicates.
Louisville certainly relied on Smith a great deal, but the Cardinals won the national title last year and returned Final Four Most Outstanding Player Luke Hancock and likely first round NBA draft pick Montrezl Harrell among other players. McDermott’s supporting staff was recruited for and played in the MVC until making the jump to the BIg East this year. The other Bluejays were good players, but Smith clearly had a more talented team around him.
“He became an all-around player, the fifth all-time leading scorer at Louisville.”
McDermott is the fifth all-time scorer in NCAA history.
“I’m sure some will howl that this was strictly a vote for the hometown guy. I get that.
There’s some truth to that. I covered more than a dozen Louisville games this season and watched most of the others on television. I believe I saw McDermott play three times — all on TV. I know what Smith can do – and I saw him do it over and over and over.”
This is the root of the issue here: Bozich – one of just 65 individuals tasked with naming the best player in the country – did not do his homework. He seemingly did not make an effort to familiarize himself with and learn about each of the canidates, choosing instead to remain in his comfort zone and vote for the guy he knows best.
“Russ Smith was deserving of my player of the year vote, more deserving than Doug McDermott was of being a unanimous player of the year selection.”
If Bozich truly believed Smith was the best player in the country (not an unreasonable opinion if he failed to see much of McDermott as he made clear above), I can accept that. But instead of letting it remain there, he returns to the “unanimous” argument. In the process, he sets unreasonable expectations for McDermott, comparing him to Magic Johnson rather than Russ Smith.
Doug McDermott is not Magic Johnson. He’s not Larry Bird (despite the Sports Illustrated cover photo). He’s not even Anthony Davis or Kevin Durant.
No, Doug McDermott is Doug McDermott. He is the best player in college basketball this season. He is the consensus national player of the year. And for those that were fortunate enough to watch him this season, it was unanimous.