Just about the only person who suffers as a result of Doug McDermott teaming up with his father Greg at Creighton is Theresa McDermott, Doug's mother and Greg's wife.
While Greg has had a successful run in his three years as head coach, guiding the Blue Jays to second in the Missouri Valley Conference last year and winning it all this year, Doug has been a scoring machine, and in just three years he has become the school's leading scorer.
Unfortunately, none of that success has helped ease Theresa's nerves.
"It makes me nervous as heck because it's not just your husband and his job but now it's your son and his career, too," she told USA Today of watching her husband and her son. "So you have double stress and double intensity. It's great when you're winning, but when you lose it's a double loss."
Aside from turning Theresa into a nervous wreck, the McDermotts have done wonders in Omaha. Before both Doug and Greg arrived on campus in 2010 -- Greg as a first-year head coach and Doug as an overlooked freshman -- the Blue Jays hadn't won an NCAA tournament game in nearly a decade. The McDermotts accomplished that feat in their second year together.
After a largely disappointing stint at Iowa State, Greg has turned his career around at Nebraska, and he has his son to thank for much of his success. Doug has shattered numerous school records in his three years at Creighton, and with one year of eligibility left he has established himself as one of the best scorers in the country.
"I don't think it's any secret he makes me a much better coach,” Greg McDermott recently told the New York Times.
If things had gone differently for Greg at Iowa State, the McDermotts may not have even paired up. When Doug was a high schooler, his dad would not offer him a scholarship at Iowa State, as Greg thought it would be best that Doug went elsewhere. But after Greg left Iowa State in the spring of 2010, Doug backed out of a commitment to Northern Iowa so he could follow his father to Omaha.
And even though both men admit that they are better off with each other, there was a point where Doug knew he had to seek outside help in order to improve. So he went to work with Ed Schilling, a former D-1 assistant who now coaches high school basketball in Indianapolis and trains players preparing for the NBA.
"Speaking with his dad, [Doug] was like, it’s time for him to have somebody else coach him for a little bit,” Schilling told the New York Times. "He was looking for someone who didn’t have an agenda for him except trying to help. He wanted some skill training."
Thanks to Doug's extra work, along with his father's guidance, Creighton is likely to make some noise this March. And Theresa McDermott will just have to deal with it.
