The greatest scorer in Creighton basketball history, the placement of Doug McDermott poses a challenge to the "40 for 40" ranking.

One of just four Big East players ever to have been selected National Player of the Year, on sheer force of his career he should be rated near the top; however, McDermott played only one season in the Big East. Given this list's focus on Big East play, McDermott does not rank with the other three but his single season in the conference is nonetheless worthy of recognition.

The son of Creighton coach Greg McDermott, Doug grew up in and around the towns where his father coached. Born in Grand Forks, ND while his father was an assistant at North Dakota, McDermott played high school basketball in Ames, IA while his father was head coach at Iowa State from 2006-10. Despite averaging 20 points a game as a senior he was not heavily recruited, with many assuming he would stay with his father at Iowa State. Instead, McDermott opted to sign with Northern Iowa, but was released from his national letter of intent when the elder McDermott was named head coach of Creighton in the spring of 2010.

By the time Creighton arrived in the Big East in the summer of 2013, Doug McDermott was a legend. A three time all-Missouri Valley standout, he was already a two time consensus All-America after averaging 20.1 points a game over his career and leading the Bluejays to consecutive MVC tournament titles. With his expected move to the NBA after his junior season, Creighton's move to the Big East encouraged Doug to give it one more year, which posed a problem since his scholarship had already been allocated to an incoming recruit. McDermott gave up his scholarship and opted to walk on for his senior season, easily becoming the greatest walk-on ever to play in the Big East.

With McDermott among four seniors, the 2013-14 Creighton Bluejays were dominant in the first year of the reconstituted Big East. After losing an uncharacteristic pair of games early in the season at an in-season tournament in Anaheim, CA, Creighton won 18 of its next 20, going undefeated at home by an average margin of victory of 13 points. In its only matchup against ranked teams that season, Creighton destroyed #6 Villanova 96-68 in Philadelphia and 101-80 in Omaha. After a pair of road losses to Xavier and Georgetown, Creighton wrapped up the regular season title behind 45 from McDermott in an 88-73 win over Providence. A week later, that same Providence team was able to keep McDermott off the three point line and capture its first Big East tournament title in 20 years, while Baylor did the same to the Jays in the second round of the NCAA tournament, hitting 11 threes in an 85-55 rout.

McDermott ended his career with the fifth most points in NCAA Division I history, trailing only Pete Maravich (LSU), Freeman Williams (Portland St.), Lionel Simmons (LaSalle), and Alphonso Ford (Mississippi Valley St.). He was the first National Player of the Year recipient since Patrick Ewing to have been named first team All America three consecutive years. He holds the Creighton record for most points, field goals, three pointers and free throws in a career, and his 3,150 points are more than 1,000 points ahead of the next player on Creighton's career list.

Selected as the 11th pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, McDermott is now a role player, having only started 14 games in five NBA seasons among five different clubs.