1. Doug McDermott – Creighton
There was no contest this time at the top slot. A 6’8 forward from Grand Forks, McDermott was a star for four seasons at Creighton, playing under his father Greg. He wasn’t just a force in the MVC (and later Big East), but he became one of the best college basketball players in the nation by the end of his career.
McDermott was a force for Creighton from the beginning. He averaged at least 22 points per game in each of his final three seasons while averaging at least 7 rebounds a game every year of his career. He led the Bluejays to the CBI title game as a freshman, a pair of MVC Tournament titles, and three straight first-round wins in the NCAA Tournament. He scored a career-high 45 points against Providence as a senior and put up 30 points in the Big Dance that year against Louisiana.
McDermott was a three-time First Team All-American, a two-time MVC Player of the Year, the Big East’s Player of the Year in 2014, and the AP Player of the Year that season as well, winning a plethora of awards and accolades in his career. He led the entire nation in scoring his final two seasons, ranking 6th all-time in points scored, while also leading his conference in field goals and field goal percentage all four seasons. There isn’t enough room to effectively convey how dominant a player McDermott was, and his career continues now eight years into his NBA career.
We are now finished with our deep dive into the best college basketball players of the last ten years from the state of North Dakota; how do you think these rankings look?