Doug McDermott spent his senior season passing a lot of big names on the career scoring list. He is now among some very select company.
Doug McDermott spent his senior season passing a lot of big names on the career scoring list. He is now among some very select company.
The senior forward from Creighton was a unanimous choice for The Associated Press All-America team on Monday. He is the first three-time choice in 29 years and the 11th player overall.
McDermott, who led the nation in scoring at 26.9 points a game, joins Oscar Robertson, Lew Alcindor, Pete Maravich and Bill Walton among others. The last three-time All-Americas were Patrick Ewing of Georgetown and Wayman Tisdale of Oklahoma from 1982-85.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine being with names of that caliber,” McDermott said. “Truly an honor to be an All-American three straight years. It’s hard to wrap my mind around being in the company of those guys.”
McDermott was one of four seniors on this year’s team, which included freshman Jabari Parker of Duke. The other seniors all came from the first-year American Athletic Conference: Russ Smith of Louisville, Shabazz Napier of Connecticut and Sean Kilpatrick of Cincinnati.
It’s the first time one conference had three players picked since the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2001-02 with Duke’s Shane Battier and Jason Williams and North Carolina’s Joseph Forte.
McDermott received 65 first-team votes and 325 points from the same national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25.
Parker drew 55 first-team votes and was second with 303 points. Smith had 54 first-team votes and 298 points, 44 more than Napier, who got 37 first-team votes. Kilpatrick was a first-team pick 37 times and had 243 points.
The voting was done on Selection Sunday.
McDermott led Creighton to a successful first season in the Big East but the Bluejays lost by 30 points to Baylor in the third round of the NCAA tournament.
“You can’t take away from what we did this year. We made some noise in the first year of the Big East, and we beat some great teams and got a three seed for the first time in school history,” he said. “All that is very special, something we’ll never forget.”
Parker was one of the heralded freshmen this season, and he was the one who crashed the seniors’ All-America party. The 6-8 native of Chicago averaged 19.3 points and 8.8 rebounds, taking over the scoring load for the Blue Devils down the stretch of the season.
He is the first Duke first-teamer since Nolan Smith in 2010-11 and the first freshman since Anthony Davis of Kentucky two years ago.
Smith brought the term “Russdiculous” into the national spotlight as he followed his national championship season with Louisville by averaging 18.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.1 steals while shooting 40.5 percent from 3-point range. There was a lot of speculation that Smith was going to leave after his junior season.
Napier led Connecticut in scoring (17.4), rebounds (5.9) and assists (4.9) and it was his buzzer-beating jumper that gave the Huskies the win over Florida on Dec. 2, the Gators’ last loss. Napier was the leader of a team that managed to reach the Final Four after being picked as a No. 7 seed.
Kilpatrick, Cincinnati’s first All-America since Steve Logan in 2001-02, averaged 20.7 points for the Bearcats, who shared the American’s regular-season title. Wiggins to NBA
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins made official Monday what he’s been telling folks all along: He’s headed to the NBA after his only season with the Jayhawks.
The 6-foot-8 forward, who was voted second-team All-America earlier in the day, is expected to go in the top three picks in the June draft. Many believe he could go first overall.
“It wasn’t an easy decision because the fans showed me so much love here,” said Wiggins, choking up briefly during a news conference at Allen Fieldhouse. “I just wish I had more time. College goes by so fast. I can see why people stay all four years.”
Wiggins was the top-rated recruit when he arrived at Kansas, and his brief career was a bit of a roller coaster. He struggled early in the season, caught fire midway through, and then flamed out when it mattered most in an NCAA tournament loss to Stanford.
Wiggins only scored four points on 1-for-6 shooting in the third-round defeat. Afterward, he said despondently that he let his team down with his poor performanc
“When you have to mention such a Hall of Fame guy like Oscar Robertson and what he’s done at the university, now you have to mention my name as well.” he said. “I appreciate it a lot.”
Nick Johnson of Arizona was the leading vote-getter on the second team and was joined by freshman Andrew Wiggins of Kansas, Nik Stauskas of Michigan, Melvin Ejim of Iowa State and T.J. Warren of North Carolina State.
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AP Sports Writers Eric Olson in Omaha, Neb.; Joedy McCreary in Raleigh, N.C.; Eddie Pells in Denver; and Joe Kay in Cincinnati contributed to this report.