Villanova prepares to face 'the best player in the country'

Before he buckled down studying tape to work out strategies Villanova will need for Monday night's game against Creighton at the Wells Fargo Center, coach Jay Wright enjoyed watching the Bluejays and their all-American forward, Doug McDermott, just as a basketball fan.

He conceded that what he saw left him a little nervous. He was asked Saturday how to stop McDermott and his teammates.

"I've got no clue yet," Wright said minutes after his sixth-ranked Wildcats' 88-62 victory over DePaul. "I have ideas. It's great to have ideas, but then when you've got to make the decision to do it, that's not so easy."

The game had been billed as a battle of the final two unbeaten teams in Big East Conference play, but that headline was thrown out after No. 20 Creighton (15-3, 5-1 Big East) lost Saturday night, 81-68, at Providence. The Friars shot nearly 51 percent from the field and held the Bluejays, one of the best three-point-shooting teams in the nation, to 4 of 19 from beyond the arc.

That defeat may be bad news for the Wildcats (16-1, 5-0), who have won their five conference games by an average of better than 16 points, including the DePaul game in which they shot 55 percent from the field and committed just five turnovers.

"We have to have a short memory, because we're going to be playing one of the best teams in the country," said McDermott, quoted in the Omaha World-Herald after Saturday night's game. "I'll make sure my team will be ready to go on Monday. We'll be prepared, and it's going to be a good game."

A 6-foot-8, 225-pound senior, McDermott scored 21 points against Providence while playing with an upset stomach, which neither he nor his father, Creighton coach Greg McDermott, offered as an excuse.

He is first in the Big East in scoring (24.9 points per game) and free-throw percentage (90.1) and ranks in the top 10 in rebounds (7.2), field-goal percentage (49.7), three-point shooting (42.6), and threes made (2.4). On Saturday night, he passed Wayman Tisdale and moved into 24th place on the all-time Division I men's basketball scoring list with 2,665 points.

But Wright, who called McDermott "the best player in the country," said there is so much more to him than stellar numbers.

"No player has an impact on his team like he does," Wright said. "Nobody in the country is playing better.

"I love his combination of skill and intelligence. It seems like he rarely takes a bad shot. And sometimes if he takes a tough shot, it's at a good time. It keeps the defense honest at the end of the shot clock."

Creighton's Doug McDermott ranks 24th on the all-time Division I basketball scoring list. Among the top scorers:

1. Pete Maravich, LSU, 83 games, 3,667 points

2. Freeman Williams, Portland St., 106 games, 3,249 points

3. Lionel Simmons, La Salle, 131 games, 3,217 points

18. Hank Gathers, USC/Loyola Marymount, 117 games, 2,723 points

19. Reggie Lewis, Northeastern, 122 games, 2,708 points

20. Daren Queenan, Lehigh, 118 games, 2,703 points

21. Byron Larkin, Xavier, 121 games, 2,696 points

22. Bo McCalebb, New Orleans, 128 games, 2,679 points

23. David Robinson, Navy, 127 games, 2,669 points

24. Doug McDermott, Creighton, 128 games, 2,665 points

SOURCE: NCAA.org

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