McDermott & Gibbs Sweep MVC Weekly Honors
12/26/2011 4:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- After picking up wins against Tulsa and Northwestern last week, two members of the Creighton men's basketball team have been honored by the Missouri Valley Conference office. Doug McDermott was named MVC Player of the Week, while Grant Gibbs earned MVC Newcomer of the Week honors.
McDermott was also honored as Andy Katz's National Player of the Week on ESPN.com. He then earned the same honor courtesy of ESPN analyst Dick Vitale.
McDermott averaged 31.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game to earn his third weekly honor this season from the MVC.
McDermot made 26-of-37 field goals (70.3 percent), including 5-of-7
shots from three-point range (71.4 percent), and
was perfect in five free-throw attempts.
He began his week with a career-high 35 points on Monday as
Creighton handed Tulsa its worst home loss (83-64) since 2005-06. He
made 16-of-23 shots from the field, including 2-of-2 from long-range,
and also grabbed seven rebounds. His 16 field goals
were the most by a Bluejay since 1991, while his 35 points tied a
Reynolds Center record for an opponent and were the most by a Bluejay in
a true road game since 2005.
On Thursday against a 10-1 Northwestern team off to its second-best
start ever, McDermott had 27 points, five rebounds and a career-high
five assists. He sank 10-of-14 shots from the floor, including 3-of-5
three-point shots, and also drained all four free-throw
attempts. Making his performance all the more impressive is that he
spent the final 12:20 of the first half on the bench saddled with two
fouls and was limited to 28 minutes on the night.
For the week McDermott scored 62 points in 64 minutes of action to move
into a tie for the national scoring lead at 25.4 points per game. He is
the only player in the top-20 in scoring to play less than 30 minutes
per contest, and has increased his scoring
average after all 11 games this winter.
Gibbs averaged 11.0 assists, 7.5 rebounds, 6.0 points, 1.0 steals and
1.0 blocks per game last week. In doing so, he became the first Bluejay since
Duan Cole in 1990 with consecutive games of 10
or more assists.
He began his week by nearly posting CU's first point/rebound/assist
triple-double in school history in a 19-point road win at Tulsa. After
receiving two stitches in the game's first five minutes, Gibbs returned
to collect nine points and seven rebounds to go with
career-highs of 10 assists and two blocked shots.
On Thursday against a 10-1 Northwestern team, Gibbs had a CenturyLink
Center Omaha record 12 assists to go with his eight rebounds and three
points. His 12 assists were tied for sixth-most in CU history, the most
by a Bluejay since 2002, and topped his career-high
set three days earlier. The 12 assists led to 32 Bluejay points in the
87-79 victory.
Gibbs has now posted consecutive games of six or more rebounds and six
or more assists twice this season, a feat that hadn't been accomplished
by any player since 1988. He leads the MVC in assist/turnover ratio
(3.23) and is on pace to post CU's highest single-season
assist per game average (6.5) in 35 years.
This is his first MVC honor as a Bluejay.
Creighton (10-1) opens Missouri Valley Conference play on Wednesday with a 7 pm game against defending league champ Missouri State.
