Will Creighton's 'O' be enough?

Leading up to Midnight Madness in October, ESPN Insider's "Countdown to Madness" series is previewing the top five seeds in each of the four regions in Joe Lunardi's preseason 2013 NCAA bracket. To read about the key stats and freshman impact for each team as the previews are published, plus get expert predictions from Jay Bilas, Fran Fraschilla and Lunardi, click here. This is the entry for the Creighton Bluejays, No. 5 in the East (Washington).

The key: The coach's son

Stat to know: 63.2 percent

If it's possible for a first-team All-American to be underrated, Doug McDermott was underrated last year. Being classed alongside Anthony Davis, Thomas Robinson, Draymond Green and Jared Sullinger is nice, surely. But did I really hear enough about this remarkable season as it unfolded in real time?

I guess I'd phrase that year this way: McDermott took a higher share of the shots in Creighton's offense than Kemba Walker accounted for in Connecticut's offense in the Huskies' national championship season in 2010-11. Yet at the same time, McDermott was far more accurate inside the arc (63.2 percent) than was Ohio State's Sullinger last year, and he made 48.6 percent of his 111 3-point attempts. For good measure, McDermott also drew five fouls per 40 minutes and shot 80 percent at the line.

To read the full 2012-13 Creighton preview, including the Bluejays' season outlook from Fran Fraschilla, you must be an ESPN Insider.

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Email
• Subscribe