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The Tewaaraton Foundation announced today the five finalists for the 2012 Tewaaraton Award:
- Peter Baum, Colgate
- C.J. Costabile, Duke
- Will Manny, Massachusetts
- Mike Sawyer, Loyola
- Steele Stanwick, Virginia
I find this a little presumptuous on the Tewaaraton Foundation's part as the NCAA has yet to bestow a tournament most valuable player yet. (TOPICAL HUMOR! GET SOME!) Anyway, it's a fine finalists list and not that all different from the five guys that I graced with my seal of approval a few weeks ago. It kind of stinks that guys like John Kemp (Notre Dame), Scott Ratliff (Loyola), and any cat in a non-Division I subdivision won't have the opportunity to win an oversized doorstop, but that's why the world isn't perfect. (It also isn't perfect because I'm not in charge of everything yet.)
At this point, if I had a vote, I'd probably throw it at Peter Baum. Baum is first nationally in Total Offensive Value (points per 100 offensive possessions, adjusted for defenses faced), just barely outpacing Will Manny and almost a point better than Stanwick. Plus, there probably isn't a guy in the country that is as important to his team as Baum is to the Raiders. Stat Ranking still has Manny on top of Baum in the attack calculations, with Stanwick coming in third and Sawyer down at sixth. Costabile, in the same metric but for midfield players, tops the that position's rankings but comes in behind Manny, Baum, and Stanwick (he sits atop Sawyer) in the overall Player Statistical Index. So, that's how the pure statistical-based production measures stack things up. You can fill in the blanks with respect to intangibles and your thousand-dollar sense of player evaluation.
Anyway, who are you knuckleheads voting for? Leave your vote in the poll and/or in the magical commenting interface.