A Lasting NicoLegacy: McDermott’s One of a Kind Career at Clarke
Sports society's ability to recognize greatness as it's happening usually revolves around two things, records and championships.
Everyone is quick to proclaim the next dynasty team or the next GOAT (Greatest of All Time) player in any given sport when plateaus are reached.
But great athletes who compete, perform, and win at a consistent level usually have to wait for their greatness to be recognized when their career nears or comes to its end, and that's the exercise we are participating in today.
Clarke University women's basketball's Nicole McDermott has done nearly everything a student-athlete can do in a four-year career and with three regular season games plus at least two more postseason games remaining during her senior season of 2023-24, she still has the potential to check off more accolades that she, surprisingly, hasn't yet.
The 5-7 guard from Cascade, Iowa chose Clarke from a variety of collegiate basketball options during a decorated youth and high school career and getting her to Clarke was a priority for the coaching staff of then head coach Courtney Boyd and current head coach, then assistant, Adam Hocking, as the family and local connection was a big sticking point not only for the sales pitch but for exactly what McDermott was looking for.
"As a coaching staff we put a big focus on local talent and she was always at the top of the list," Hocking said. "At the end of her sophomore year in high school she was somebody we really wanted to focus on as Coach Boyd and myself continued to maintain a good relationship with her, inviting her to camps, visit us for workouts, and we fit what she was looking for basketball-wise. So even though she was a talented enough player to get some bigger and better offers, staying close to home to have her family come to her games and support her helped make us really a complete package."
McDermott was set to join a Pride squad that was coming off of back-to-back appearances in the NAIA Tournament but at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 tournament was cancelled, and McDermott would have a more unique start to her career like a majority of the 2020-21 freshman student-athlete population in the country.
Playing her first games in front of no crowd and more strict health and safety protocols, McDermott came off the bench in all but one of the 25 games she played out of the team's 26 games that season to finish second on the team in scoring average (11.5) behind Makenna Haase in her senior season and fourth in rebounding average (5.2) behind Haase, the program's all-time leading rebound, as well as Morgan Pitz and Emma Kelchen, who are both also top-10 rebounders in program history.
That Pride team would reach win their first Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament Championship and reach the NAIA Tournament Quarterfinals for the second-straight tournament that took place before being eliminated by the eventual national champion that.
Now heading into a sophomore season where she would naturally slide into a starting role left behind by the graduation of Pitz, McDermott would begin a stretch where she would start 93-straight games before suffering a minor tweak to her foot 20 days ago that forced her to miss her first game since her freshman season.
The early portions of that sophomore season also began a period of Clarke women's basketball and her career that would establish a legacy that will likely be unmatched by any group and specifically any player that puts on the navy and gold of CU.
Starting with a trip to the west coast to compete in an exhibition contest against the reigning NCAA Division I National Champion Stanford University, over three seasons, the Pride would go on a three-year run that would include program-highs in all-conference selections, the first ever regular season conference championship, another conference tournament championship, the school's first ever national championship, and another high-profile head-to-head matchup against another team coming off of an NCAA DI Championship appearance in the University of Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark.
"As the season has kind of gone on, Taylor [Haase], Izzie [Peterson], and I have had those conversations that we are very fortunate to experience things that not a lot of NAIA players get to experience in our four years at Clarke," McDermott said. "It's been crazy to go from our freshman year not having any fans to play in the different types of games we have over four seasons."
Throughout all of these team highs, McDermott embraced a team mentality by fitting into her role with for her first three seasons filled plenty of scoring talent that included the top two scorers in program history (Makenna Haase and Tina Ubl) and four other 1,000-point scorers (Morgan Pitz, Emma Kelchen, Giana Michels, and Taylor Haase), McDermott just did her job and continued to work.
"Season after season Nic's role has changed and she has stepped into that role with confidence," Boyd said. "That is kudos to her accepting what her team needs from her and accepting the challenge. When you have a group that hates to lose more than they love to win, someone has to lead the charge in that, and that has been a constant in Nicole's role since she put on a Clarke jersey."
For Hocking, McDermott's effort, work rate, and competitiveness is everything a first-year head coach could ask for out of the former assistant coach's best player and leader.
"Nicole has just been a coach's dream to be honest," Hocking said. "I fell into a very unique situation where we were the defending national champions but we graduated four starters from that team so we definitely had a target on our backs. So to have someone like Nicole McDermott as a two-time All-American being a great worker and leader on and off the court gave me someone to lean on very heavily going into the season. Her IQ is like having another assistant coach on the bench because she can see stuff differently from the floor that I don't see so having her leadership and her personality from a character aspect was huge for me being a first year head coach."
Her ability to fill whatever role necessary and her hard work has never been more evident than her performances in some of the biggest games in Clarke women's basketball history including a game-high 18-point, 15-rebound double-double in the 2022 Heart Tournament Championship game against Central Methodist and leading the 2023 NAIA Championship game in points and rebounds with a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double less than 24 hours after suffering a sprained ankle in the semifinal game.
In addition to Hocking moving to the head chair on the bench in 2023-24, his new assistant coach in Haley Froelich created a new dynamic between she and McDermott as they learned a lot about each other early in the process about not only their similarities on the court but off the court as well.
"I tried to let our relationship happen as organically as possible," Froelich said. "I knew who our leaders were supposed to be, but I tried treat everyone the same as and I think mine and Nicole's personality both kind of clicked. We talk about The Bachelor, Iowa basketball, the NBA and those types of things so I think that relationship talking about things that we have in common helped us have more of that trust when it comes to the basketball court."
The connection between coach and player is seen right at the end of warmups prior to the national anthem of every game as the two perform a jumping high five before every game almost symbolizing a Space Jam-like transfer of powers from the two-time NAIA DII All-American to the soon-to-be three-time NAIA All-American.
Not that she has needed to absorb any of Froelich's talent, McDermott has put up career numbers and achieved accolades that are seemingly unmatched by any other perimeter player/guard in the program.
At the moment of publication, McDermott has 1,542 points (5th), 903 rebounds (6th), 328 assists (7th), and 208 steals (6th) with three regular season games remaining and however many games deep the Pride get into the Heart and NAIA tournaments.
She has reached these heights in part due to a dominant senior season where she is currently averaging a career-high 17.2 points per game on a career-high 57.1 percent shooting from the field, a career-high 9.6 rebounds per game, a career-high 2.8 assists per game, and, you guessed it, a career-high 2.0 steals per game.
This season's numbers put McDermott at, or at least towards, the top of the list of candidates for Heart Player of the Year, something she nor any other member of the Pride has not achieved despite the major players who have been in the program and McDermott herself being a three-time All-Heart selection with a Second Team selection as a freshman and two First Team selections as a sophomore and junior.
"It's all kind of just come to me this year, being a senior and having those around me look to me to be our go-to player," McDermott said. "A lot of what I'm doing is focused on the defensive end, sometimes guarding the opponent's best players and then on offense my teammates are just finding me and I'm shooting comfortable shots around the rim then when I'm open on the perimeter, I'm taking those with confidence knowing that my teammates want me to be shooting.
With the potential projections of how this season can finish in mind, McDermott can finish her four-year career with a list of individual and team accolades that are virtually unmatched.
NAIA National Champion, two-time Conference Regular Season Champion, two-time Conference Tournament Champion, three-time All-America selection, All NAIA Tournament First Team selection, NAIA Tournament Hustle Award recipient, Conference Player of the Year, four-time All-Conference selection, and place in the top-five for career points, rebounds, assists, and steals with an outside shot to be just the third 1,000-point, 1,000-rebound player and first guard to do so in Clarke history, not to mention she can also help lead the Pride to another Conference and National Tournament title this season if all goes well.
Is that good? We think so.
"I think she's at the top of the list [of players I've coached]," Hocking said. "It's hard to compare players who play different positions and play in different eras, but I think Nicole McDermott is at the very top of the list not only because of her stats but because of the impact she has on the floor. I think the value that Nicole brings to our team is not something that's always going to be shown on a stat sheet."
McDermott not only has stake to the claim of best player Hocking has ever coached but she will easily be in the conversation not only as the best women's basketball player to ever step foot on the floor for Clarke University but as the best athlete to ever put on a Clarke uniform, period.
"It's crazy to think about because of the players I've played with like Makenna Haase and Tina Ubl, to name a few, are up there on the stat sheets," McDermott said. "My teammates and coaches deserve a lot of credit for how they've supported me because for me to be mentioned with all of those players on that list is really special, I have a special relationship with all of them.
"I hope that people noticed that I gave everything to Clarke and this program that I have. That I worked hard to be where I'm at and what I've helped this team accomplish."
We noticed Nicole.
So let this be the first, but certainly not the last, moment to recognize the greatness that is the 5-7 guard from Cascade, Iowa, number five, Nicole McDermott.
Clarke GOAT