Dana O'Neil

"It has never happened with a Wooden winner, but Doug McDermott might be on the verge of rewriting history in a decidedly twisted way. McDermott is continuing to put up huge numbers -- he is averaging 23 points per game and just eclipsed the 2,000-point plateau -- but his team isn't doing much to prove it belongs in the field of 68. The Bluejays rallied from a double-digit deficit to win 71-68 at Evansville and end their three-game skid. Feel free to celebrate the end of the losing streak, but then realize that Evansville is 14-13 overall and just 7-8 in the league, so skating to a three-point win doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence, does it? In the latest player-of-the-year straw poll of actual voters, collected by Michael Rothstein, McDermott was second behind Michigan's Trey Burke. He had 118 points and 21 first-place votes to Burke's 136 and 30 (the poll is done every two weeks), and the next-closest vote getter, Mason Plumlee, wasn't even in the neighborhood, with 35 points and only four first-place votes. Numbers matter in player of the year ballots, but don't think for a minute winning isn't (and shouldn't be) a factor. If Creighton doesn't right the ship well enough soon, it will be interesting to see whether McDermott is part of the collateral damage."