Can you believe we only have a week left until Selection Sunday? It feels like ages since the season started back in February and just as the weather has started to heat up, so to has the games we’ve seen and the players performances. Miles Thompson continues to pile up the points in chuncks, Jordan Wolf looks to be playing his best lacrosse when his team needs it most and two players are starting to make late runs with some big time performances.
As the season ends, the Tewaaraton nominees are also dwindling down. There were many players worthy of the award at the beginning of the year but now the list has been reduced to 28 players. For the full list, you can look here.
Who are the favorites to be named finalists for the award? Here are your candidates.
For the purpose of this article, I will group the 28 candidates together similar to what I did in this article.
Thanks for Trying
Niko Amato, Maryland—Sr., G
Jesse King, Ohio State—Jr., M
Kevin Massa, Bryant—Jr., F/O
Scott McWilliams, Virginia—Sr., D
Myles Jones, Duke—Soph., M
Nikko Pontrello, Loyola—Jr., A
All the players grouped in this category have some solid statistics but there is a combination of reasons for why they have no shot. Amato started off on fire by helping lead a stifling defense for a young Terp squad. After posting huge save numbers over the first five games of the season, Amato has fallen to earth and so have his Terps. Other goalies are more deserving of a shot at the Tewaaraton such as Bryant’s Gunnar Waldt and Loyola’s Jack Runkel.
Jesse King also had a hot start but Ohio State got off to a horrendous 2-6 record. King has 45 points on the season but the majority of those have come against weak opponents in the ECAC. King is a talented player but his team’s record and play in big games hurts him.
In terms of Massa, Pontrello, McWilliams and Jones they are all having nice individual seasons but have major red flags going against them. Jones has candidates ahead of him on his own team such as fellow midfielder Deemer Class and attackman Jordan Wolf. Pontrello might not have the success he is having without Justin Ward and McWilliams and Virginia’s defense ranks 44th in the nation. Massa leads the nation in faceoff winning percentage but doesn’t do much else on the field.
Long Shots
Gunnar Waldt, Bryant—Soph., G
Connor Buczek, Cornell—Jr., M
Wesley Berg, Denver—Jr., A
John Glesener, Army—Jr., A
John LoCascio, Villanova—Sr., LSM/D
Jeremy Noble, Denver—Sr., M
Ben McIntosh, Drexel—Sr., M
Waldt has been one of the reasons why Bryant has one of the nation’s best defenses. Waldt has emerged into a star in the cage and ranks fourth in the nation in save percentage as he stops a little over 60 percent of the shots he sees.
Glesener probably doesn’t get as much publicity as he should as Army is a good, but not great team. However, he showed what he could do by himself in the Patriot League Tournament against Lehigh. He has an absolute rocket of a shot. He has 50 points on the season and had five points in Army’s loss to Lehigh.
McIntosh continues to fly under the radar for a nationally ranked team as he has 49 points on the season. Unfortunately, his biggest games have come against some of the weakest opponents.
Meanwhile, Noble and Berg are some of the best players in the nation but their lack of strong opponents really hurt them. The Pioneers have not played anyone in the Top 20 in the nation since playing Notre Dame back on March 8. Pretty easy to see why the Pioneers are ranked third in the nation and have won nine straight games.
Buczek also had a really nice season as Cornell was a nice surprise early on this season as they were the only undefeated team before falling to Harvard. However, the team hit a losing streak and Buczek’s performance also slipped. In the final five games of the season, he went scoreless twice. That can’t happen.
Finally, I gushed on LoCascio in my previous Tewaaraton watch, however, his team is 5-9 on the season and eeked out a spot in the Big East Tournament. While LoCascio’s versatility is impressive, his team is dragging him down.
Dark Horses
Mike Chanenchuk, Maryland—Sr., M
Deemer Class, Duke—Soph., M
Mark Cockerton, Virginia—Sr., A
Joe Fletcher, Loyola—Sr., D
Matt Kavanagh, Notre Dame—Soph., A
Randy Staats, Syracuse—Jr., A/M
Kevin Rice, Syracuse—Jr., A
A lot of really good candidates here, especially with the recent play of Kenry Staats and Matt Kavanagh. Kavanagh has been the only bright spot on an otherwise pretty ordinary offense. Kavanagh has 52 points on the season while the next highest on his team has 33. He scored the game winning goal against Maryland after being held scoreless the entire game and then went off against Syracuse with six points as the Fighting Irish fought their way off the bubble and into the NCAA Tournament.
Staats had an impressive ACC Tournament as well. Staats has really hit his stride starting against Cornell on April 8. He has compiled nine, one, eight, two and five points in games against Cornell, UNC, Hobart, Duke and Notre Dame. Don’t forget this play to tie the game against Duke in the final moments.
Meanwhile, Class has really emerged for the Blue Devils alongside with Myles Jones at the midfield for the Blue Devils. He has been on fire since going off for 10 points in Duke’s dismantling of Syracuse back in March. Since then he has 23 points in five games.
Fletcher is the nation’s best defender and could be considered as one of the best players in the nation as well but as some have pointed out, the Tewaaraton is more about numbers than it is about true impact, which is why he is a dark horse but not in the favorites category. Fletcher doesn’t have big offensive numbers like LoCascio or takeaway numbers like Bucknell’s Jackson Place. However, his team is No. 1 in the nation and he is the best defender in the nation.
Finally, Chanenchuk and Cockerton fill the same roles for their teams. When the team wins, it is because they are having big days. They initiate everything for the offense and therefore, when they are shut down, their teams usually lose. Cockerton has more points than even some of the finalists but his team’s record along with he has been held scoreless in their team’s loss to Virginia and no showed against Duke as well with only one point.
The Favorites
Kieran McArdle, St. John’s—Sr., A
Miles Thompson, Albany—Sr., A
Joey Sankey, North Carolina—Jr., A
Tom Schreiber, Princeton—Sr., M
Wells Stanwick, Hopkins—Jr., A
Each one of these players is the most important player on their squad with the exception of Miles Thompson. McArdle has 79 points on the season which ranks third in the nation behind both Myles and Lyle Thompson. It is really scary to think what St. Johns would be like without him but I guess we will find that out next year.
Sankey is a great attackman but ranks as the lowest on this list because of a couple of one goal efforts against Syracuse and Notre Dame. Sankey has the potential to blow up at any time though, as evidenced by his seven points against Johns Hopkins or his four point effort against Maryland. Bottom line is his team is one of the dark horses in the tournament and he is the catalyst.
Stanwick is similar to Sankey but may be even more valuable because he is the distributor on this team and they use him in a lot of two man games behind the net. Stanwick is sixth in the nation with 38 assists and has 55 points on the season.
Schreiber falls from the Top Dog category because he has really no showed over the last two games. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Tigers are a four win team without him, maybe even less but when the Tigers really needed him to make a late push for the Ivy and NCAA Tournaments he mustered only one point in the final two games.
Finally, Thompson can’t be put ahead of the next three guys on the list simply because his team isn’t good enough and he ranks as the second best player on the team.
Top Dogs
Lyle Thompson, Albany—Jr., A
Justin Ward, Loyola—Sr., A
Jordan Wolf, Duke—Sr., A
Honestly, this is a three man race in my opinion. Wolf has been playing his best lacrosse for Duke and it is no accident that this has coincided with a nine game winning streak before they lost to Syracuse in an instant classic this past weekend. Wolf has 72 points on the season and during their winning streak, he only had one game of two points or less. Every other game, he had monstrous point totals.
It may be surprising to see Ward this high on the list but he has 68 points on the season which is good for No. 7 in the nation. His team is No. 1 heading into the NCAA Tournament and he is second in the nation with 51 assists! Ward can play and he sets up everyone else on this team.
Finally, while Albany is a threat to miss the NCAA Tournament save for winning the NEC Tournament, Thompson’s statistics are simply too good to ignore. Thompson’s lowest point total this season has been four points and that occurred twice. Otherwise, he has at least six points in every other game! Some could use the lack of tough opponents on the schedule, which is a good point until you look behind the statistics. Albany’s defense is not good enough to hold opponents below 10 goals and Thompson has needed to put up those points in order for the Great Danes to compete.
