Martelli: Creighton's McDermott the best player in country

ANDREW WIGGINS, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle and basically the rest of Kentucky's rotation.

Freshman fever has swept through college basketball. Depending on your point of view, it has either been a refreshing tropical breeze or akin to living downwind of a landfill.

Creighton's Doug McDermott is an anomaly. He is one of the most prolific scorers in recent history and he stayed for all four seasons of his college career. How's this for a great stat? McDermott led the nation with 284 made field goals last year; 26 of them were lefthanded.

"Look, I'm not shy over expressing my opinion," Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said after his team went to 2-0 Wednesday night. "The country is gaga over these freshmen, [but] McDermott's the best player in the country. Tell me who does more for his team. They can give the awards at the end of the year to the freshmen because of the media blitz, but that kid is a magnificent, magnificent player."

Martelli knows firsthand.

McDermott had 26 last year when Creighton smacked visiting St. Joe's by 29. He had 23 the year before when the Hawks beat the Bluejays. Creighton visits Hawk Hill tomorrow night (7, TCN) in what might as well be called Round 3.

The Hawks are coming off a nice 19-point win over an inferior Marist team on Wednesday. McDermott prepped by dropping 37 on Missouri-Kansas City on Monday night.

Martelli said he won't watch the film of Creighton's (ouch) 80-51 win over St. Joe's last year, but would watch the Bluejays' two games from this season.

"We know exactly what happened [last year]," the coach said. "We participated in that. We got it handed to us across the board. Now we've warmed up [with two wins] and I'm sure that the student section will be excited. It's a great opportunity to play college basketball on a Saturday night."