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The Tewaaraton Foundation announced the final round of additions to its Tewaaraton Award Watch List today, upping the total number of candidates to 82 on the men's side. The watch list has officially crossed into "Certificate of Meritorious Participation" territory, which is nice and warms your heart but creates a bit of a secondary issue: Why not just save the ink and just consider everyone? Whatever; the really fancy doorstop is probably going to the most notable player on the roster of the 2012 national champion anyway.
This second round of inclusions put the following players in contention:
- Scott Ratliff (Loyola, long-stick midfield);
- Eric Lusby (Loyola, attack);
- James Kennedy (Holy Cross, attack);
- Will Mangan (Rutgers, midfield);
- Tuker Durkin (Johns Hopkins, defense); and
- Jesse Bernhardt (Maryland, long-stick midfield).
The inclusions are fine and shouldn't elicit a "HUH? NO LIKE!" from anyone that hasn't ridden in an ambulance for head trauma recently. Lusby should've been on the list from day-one and I can't believe that Durkin wasn't at least included on the first round of contender additions. The issue again, though, is that there still a few guys missing from the list that deserve serious consideration. After the first round of additions, I highlighted three guys -- Tucker Hull, Jeff Cohen, and Drew Tunney -- that aren't getting the high-fives that they deserve. They were, unfortunately, passed over once again. Outside of those three guys, here's three more head-scratching exclusions:
- Hofstra's Adrian Sorichetti: I understand that the Pride are a bit of a tire fire this year, but how is a junior that's ranked ninth in the nation in adjusted total offensive value (adjusted points per 100 offensive possessions) at 12.48 excluded from consideration? What would Hofstra be without Sorichetti this season? Joe Resetarits is on the list despite playing for a one-win Albany team, and his adjusted total offensive value is almost a full point behind Sorichetti. ROLL PRIDE!
- Binghamton's Michael Antinozzi: The Bearcats are a mess, but Detroit isn't much better and Joel Matthews made the list despite having an adjusted total offensive value almost a full two points fewer than Antinozzi (11.25 (15th nationally) to 9.50 (43rd nationally)). It's not like either is going to win the Tewaaraton, but at least put the right guys on the list that are truly producing this season.
- Air Force's Keith Dreyer: Look: Dreyer is only a freshman, so he obviously has a tough hill to climb. He's also out west, and despite playing in the ECAC, he's still going to have a hard time penetrating the mid-Atlantic brain trust that's putting all this material together. However, there are only 16 guys that are producing more on a per offensive possession basis than Dreyer this year. And if you're going to put 82 players on a list to, at a minimum, highlight their performances this year, why not include a guy that is doing man's work at a tough place to even concentrate on lacrosse?
What do you knuckleheads think? Any other snubs or odd inclusions that's eating at your brain?