Tewaaraton Award 2024

[Comeonman]

Brandau deserves his nomination. Kirst got jobbed. As did Malone. The bid stealer is Entenmann. Press fawns over him since he has a Natty and U21 gold. Tewaaraton bought in. This year he is only .563 (good for 9th in the country) 9.34 (sixth). Not Tewaaraton worthy by historical or even his own standards. If America’s team wins it, he will split with Kavanaugh.

[NYlax222]

Kavanagh is going to win the award if ND - as I think most of us expect - wins the tourney, and, to quote William Munny, "deserve's got nothing to do with it."

On a more general topic, I do think Yale would benefit from toughening up their OOC schedule a bit, assuming anyone wants to play them.

I think they do a good job of scheduling to maximize RPI. I dont think anyone is ducking them. Cornell doesnt have issues finding OOC games.

Here are their OOC games - Villanova, Colgate, PSU, Denver, LeMoyne, BU, Hofstra, Albany. No ACC schools and one B1G. I don't think that's strong enough, and it makes them very reliant on being successful in conference, especially when the RPI of the other conference teams isn't great (like this year). Just my $0.02.

I agree with you. To other posters: I wasn't cherry picking schedule, add ND Marquette and Cleve State, and then Maryland (Zap) and Georgetown. That schedule blows away Yale's. Given he played much weaker schedule, and he's on a team with much less offensve talent/depth than ND, it doesn't surprise me he has higher PPG than Kav (or, Shelly, O'Neill, Kirst). Play vs. weaker opponents, and be on team more reliant on you, and you will get more points. Again: Brandau is an amazing talent, with epic year. Just fatigued by the constant focus on PPG differences to support the award.

[Finster]

Kavanagh is going to win the award if ND - as I think most of us expect - wins the tourney, and, to quote William Munny, "deserve's got nothing to do with it."

On a more general topic, I do think Yale would benefit from toughening up their OOC schedule a bit, assuming anyone wants to play them.

I think they do a good job of scheduling to maximize RPI. I dont think anyone is ducking them. Cornell doesnt have issues finding OOC games.

Here are their OOC games - Villanova, Colgate, PSU, Denver, LeMoyne, BU, Hofstra, Albany. No ACC schools and one B1G. I don't think that's strong enough, and it makes them very reliant on being successful in conference, especially when the RPI of the other conference teams isn't great (like this year). Just my $0.02.

I agree with you. To other posters: I wasn't cherry picking schedule, add ND Marquette and Cleve State, and then Maryland (Zap) and Georgetown. That schedule blows away Yale's. Given he played much weaker schedule, and he's on a team with much less offensve talent/depth than ND, it doesn't surprise me he has higher PPG than Kav (or, Shelly, O'Neill, Kirst). Play vs. weaker opponents, and be on team more reliant on you, and you will get more points. Again: Brandau is an amazing talent, with epic year. Just fatigued by the constant focus on PPG differences to support the award.

I wouldn’t focus on it if there wasn’t such a large spread between him and the next guy. I don’t know the historical comps, so maybe others have outperformed like this?

Ok, did some digging. Take a look yourselves.

https://www.lax.com/stats/mens/division/1/

Do other yesrs. Brandau is in elite elite company. Very few come close.

To my eyes, that spread is Tewaaraton worthy. Yale’s schedule isn’t cupcake. And the team did well.

Add it up and I think the kid gets the award, UNLESS one of the others excels the next few games.

[blue angels]

Kavanagh is going to win the award if ND - as I think most of us expect - wins the tourney, and, to quote William Munny, "deserve's got nothing to do with it."

On a more general topic, I do think Yale would benefit from toughening up their OOC schedule a bit, assuming anyone wants to play them.

I think they do a good job of scheduling to maximize RPI. I dont think anyone is ducking them. Cornell doesnt have issues finding OOC games.

Here are their OOC games - Villanova, Colgate, PSU, Denver, LeMoyne, BU, Hofstra, Albany. No ACC schools and one B1G. I don't think that's strong enough, and it makes them very reliant on being successful in conference, especially when the RPI of the other conference teams isn't great (like this year). Just my $0.02.

I agree with you. To other posters: I wasn't cherry picking schedule, add ND Marquette and Cleve State, and then Maryland (Zap) and Georgetown. That schedule blows away Yale's. Given he played much weaker schedule, and he's on a team with much less offensve talent/depth than ND, it doesn't surprise me he has higher PPG than Kav (or, Shelly, O'Neill, Kirst). Play vs. weaker opponents, and be on team more reliant on you, and you will get more points. Again: Brandau is an amazing talent, with epic year. Just fatigued by the constant focus on PPG differences to support the award.

I wouldn’t focus on it if there wasn’t such a large spread between him and the next guy. I don’t know the historical comps, so maybe others have outperformed like this?

Ok, did some digging. Take a look yourselves.

https://www.lax.com/stats/mens/division/1/

Do other yesrs. Brandau is in elite elite company. Very few come close.

To my eyes, that spread is Tewaaraton worthy. Yale’s schedule isn’t cupcake. And the team did well.

Add it up and I think the kid gets the award, UNLESS one of the others excels the next few games.

Yale played no ACC teams and 1 Big 10 team. Their out of conference schedule wasn't as good as it might have been. Maybe he wins, but I wouldn't say he is a favorite. The others are all still in play.

[lorin]

Kavanagh is going to win the award if ND - as I think most of us expect - wins the tourney, and, to quote William Munny, "deserve's got nothing to do with it."

On a more general topic, I do think Yale would benefit from toughening up their OOC schedule a bit, assuming anyone wants to play them.

I think they do a good job of scheduling to maximize RPI. I dont think anyone is ducking them. Cornell doesnt have issues finding OOC games.

Here are their OOC games - Villanova, Colgate, PSU, Denver, LeMoyne, BU, Hofstra, Albany. No ACC schools and one B1G. I don't think that's strong enough, and it makes them very reliant on being successful in conference, especially when the RPI of the other conference teams isn't great (like this year). Just my $0.02.

I agree with you. To other posters: I wasn't cherry picking schedule, add ND Marquette and Cleve State, and then Maryland (Zap) and Georgetown. That schedule blows away Yale's. Given he played much weaker schedule, and he's on a team with much less offensve talent/depth than ND, it doesn't surprise me he has higher PPG than Kav (or, Shelly, O'Neill, Kirst). Play vs. weaker opponents, and be on team more reliant on you, and you will get more points. Again: Brandau is an amazing talent, with epic year. Just fatigued by the constant focus on PPG differences to support the award.

I wouldn’t focus on it if there wasn’t such a large spread between him and the next guy. I don’t know the historical comps, so maybe others have outperformed like this?

Ok, did some digging. Take a look yourselves.

https://www.lax.com/stats/mens/division/1/

Do other yesrs. Brandau is in elite elite company. Very few come close.

To my eyes, that spread is Tewaaraton worthy. Yale’s schedule isn’t cupcake. And the team did well.

Add it up and I think the kid gets the award, UNLESS one of the others excels the next few games.

I don’t care who is around you no talent great talent if you are a generational talent like all 3 of them you should be able to get 2/3 or 3/2 every game, all 3 will end career with under 5 PPG, I love how people get fatigued when their guys don’t have the stats. Again all great players but there are also other great players like MB

[mdk01]

Not knocking Brandau in any way - exceptional player with a historic year given injuries at Yale , and I'm not even suggesting Kav should win the award. but my issue with PPG as determining factor is it can't factor in opponents. Past nine games for each team:

Yale: Princeton (2), Albany, Hofstra, Dartmouth, Boston, Penn, Brown, LeMoyne.
ND: Duke, UVA (2), Carolina, Cornell, Duke, Syracuse, Michigan. Ohio State

Past 9 games? Why just 9? You didn't want to include the games ND scored over 20?

Pat scored 60 of ND's 324 points in 13 games so far this season.

Brandau played in 14 of Yale's 15 games so far this season and has 113 of the team's total 351 points.

Both guys are attackmen and presumably benefit from # of offensive possessions created by teammates and benefit from excellent shooting and scoring threats from their fellow players. Which guy saw more offensive possessions per game? Which guy had better shooting teammates, better scoring threats to take attention away from him?

ND has had higher offensive efficiency and higher shooting % overall than Yale, surely benefiting Pat over Matt, right?
Maybe Matt was taking too many shots? no, his shooting % was 36.1 compared to 32.4 for team. Pat's was 34.3 while team was higher at 37.3%.

This isn't a remotely close call.

That said, odds are that one of the other four has a stellar tournament and that trumps Brandau not being there.

The numbers are eye-catching and certainly support Brandau’s candidacy.

Having said that … there just hasn’t been the perception that Brandau’s the best player in college lacrosse. O’Neill, PK, and Shellenberger have all been praised as possibly the best player in college lacrosse. It’s not a statistical thing, but rather a matter of perception.

That reputation for greatness takes time to build and is difficult to overcome. I have watched O’Neill several times this season. There is no way he is the current best player in college lacrosse. He flashes moments of greatness here and there, but he has disappeared a few too many times this season. Yet … here he is … certainly more favored as a Tewaaraton candidate than Brandau.

Brandau had a great season, but there are other players with longer-established reputations for greatness (O’Neill, PK, and CS). The Tewaaraton is almost a career award these days, and Brandau just hasn’t had the high-profile career the other candidates have had.

DocBarrister

That's letting Quint, Carc and the ACC shills decide who wins.

[UMDLAX]

Hey guys.......

Why did Brandau only have limited points vs Princeton?

Hmmmmmm............

Could it be in both matchups they won about 7 or 8 out of 28 or so faceoffs? Hard to score if you never never ever ever have the ball!]

Think about it.....

[UMDLAX]

Hey guys.......

Why did Brandau only have limited points vs Princeton?

Hmmmmmm............

Could it be in both matchups they won about 7 or 8 out of 28 or so faceoffs? Hard to score if you never never ever ever have the ball!]

Think about it.....

[NeOhLaxFan]

How many ranked opponents did Yale face compared to , Duke, UVA and ND? What was the SOS and RPI of those programs? No offense to the Ivy League, but this wasn’t a good year from top to bottom. Plus Yales OOC schedule frankly sucked compared to the ACC schools. Just my .02

[lorin]

How many ranked opponents did Yale face compared to , Duke, UVA and ND? What was the SOS and RPI of those programs? No offense to the Ivy League, but this wasn’t a good year from top to bottom. Plus Yales OOC schedule frankly sucked compared to the ACC schools. Just my .02

Bottom line it’s not hard to win games against Acc teams, and you don’t lose any ground in RPI if you lose to ACC team, UNC please Cuse had 4 hard OOC games lost 3 of them, Virginia lost 4 in a row still gets home game, no other rank team in any other conference can lose 4 in a row and get a home game, if I am a coach I would kill to be the six team in ACC you win 2 semi hard OOC games and win 2 ACC games you will make the dance.

[wgdsr]

How many ranked opponents did Yale face compared to , Duke, UVA and ND? What was the SOS and RPI of those programs? No offense to the Ivy League, but this wasn’t a good year from top to bottom. Plus Yales OOC schedule frankly sucked compared to the ACC schools. Just my .02

Bottom line it’s not hard to win games against Acc teams, and you don’t lose any ground in RPI if you lose to ACC team, UNC please Cuse had 4 hard OOC games lost 3 of them, Virginia lost 4 in a row still gets home game, no other rank team in any other conference can lose 4 in a row and get a home game, if I am a coach I would kill to be the six team in ACC you win 2 semi hard OOC games and win 2 ACC games you will make the dance.

acc doesn't take associate members.

[Finster]

Hey guys.......

Why did Brandau only have limited points vs Princeton?

Hmmmmmm............

Could it be in both matchups they won about 7 or 8 out of 28 or so faceoffs? Hard to score if you never never ever ever have the ball!]

Think about it.....

True.

[Farfromgeneva]

How many ranked opponents did Yale face compared to , Duke, UVA and ND? What was the SOS and RPI of those programs? No offense to the Ivy League, but this wasn’t a good year from top to bottom. Plus Yales OOC schedule frankly sucked compared to the ACC schools. Just my .02

Bottom line it’s not hard to win games against Acc teams, and you don’t lose any ground in RPI if you lose to ACC team, UNC please Cuse had 4 hard OOC games lost 3 of them, Virginia lost 4 in a row still gets home game, no other rank team in any other conference can lose 4 in a row and get a home game, if I am a coach I would kill to be the six team in ACC you win 2 semi hard OOC games and win 2 ACC games you will make the dance.

acc doesn't take associate members.

Because conference and university leadership is so awesome there that they’d never do anything different and there such a massive distinction with what they do with ND in football.

Doesn’t isn’t the same as hasn’t historically obviously.

[Farfromgeneva]

Hey guys.......

Why did Brandau only have limited points vs Princeton?

Hmmmmmm............

Could it be in both matchups they won about 7 or 8 out of 28 or so faceoffs? Hard to score if you never never ever ever have the ball!]

Think about it.....

I mean you seem to be mic dropping off a contractual argument. Old kabuki theater but not compelling.

It’s significant no doubt but if you have to swing from the jock if one datapoint and fend off 40 others that’s problematic.

[wgdsr]

How many ranked opponents did Yale face compared to , Duke, UVA and ND? What was the SOS and RPI of those programs? No offense to the Ivy League, but this wasn’t a good year from top to bottom. Plus Yales OOC schedule frankly sucked compared to the ACC schools. Just my .02

Bottom line it’s not hard to win games against Acc teams, and you don’t lose any ground in RPI if you lose to ACC team, UNC please Cuse had 4 hard OOC games lost 3 of them, Virginia lost 4 in a row still gets home game, no other rank team in any other conference can lose 4 in a row and get a home game, if I am a coach I would kill to be the six team in ACC you win 2 semi hard OOC games and win 2 ACC games you will make the dance.

acc doesn't take associate members.

Because conference and university leadership is so awesome there that they’d never do anything different and there such a massive distinction with what they do with ND in football.

Doesn’t isn’t the same as hasn’t historically obviously.

a 6 team acc is something plenty of people other than those that actually make decisions bring up.
there is no real legitimate reasoning for it on a plus minus scale.

and nd playing half a season to draw revenue and then being in for all other sports, vs "getting a non-necessary aq" for lax is about as big a distinction as you can have.

[Farfromgeneva]

How many ranked opponents did Yale face compared to , Duke, UVA and ND? What was the SOS and RPI of those programs? No offense to the Ivy League, but this wasn’t a good year from top to bottom. Plus Yales OOC schedule frankly sucked compared to the ACC schools. Just my .02

Bottom line it’s not hard to win games against Acc teams, and you don’t lose any ground in RPI if you lose to ACC team, UNC please Cuse had 4 hard OOC games lost 3 of them, Virginia lost 4 in a row still gets home game, no other rank team in any other conference can lose 4 in a row and get a home game, if I am a coach I would kill to be the six team in ACC you win 2 semi hard OOC games and win 2 ACC games you will make the dance.

acc doesn't take associate members.

Because conference and university leadership is so awesome there that they’d never do anything different and there such a massive distinction with what they do with ND in football.

Doesn’t isn’t the same as hasn’t historically obviously.

a 6 team acc is something plenty of people other than those that actually make decisions bring up.
there is no real legitimate reasoning for it on a plus minus scale.

and nd playing half a season to draw revenue and then being in for all other sports, vs "getting a non-necessary aq" for lax is about as big a distinction as you can have.

Notre dame gives them more than revenue that would be a very narrow and incomplete presentation of the benefits to the conference. “All in” - until the wind blows a different direction.

Point being you claim never and that’s just silly. I know for a fact that there’s been serious close discussion for non full members in non revenue sports from as good a source (primary) as you’d get. The idea that they have any conversation and treat it as non necessary AQ is interesting. Assumes fixed rules for playoff participation too and I know they don’t view it that way and expect changes. Suis time wasted and a lot of administrative nonsense-yes. They don’t do that on the record much though which has happened. The extreme confidence of your position-Doc like and we know that’s riskless theater. So good luck.

[wgdsr]

How many ranked opponents did Yale face compared to , Duke, UVA and ND? What was the SOS and RPI of those programs? No offense to the Ivy League, but this wasn’t a good year from top to bottom. Plus Yales OOC schedule frankly sucked compared to the ACC schools. Just my .02

Bottom line it’s not hard to win games against Acc teams, and you don’t lose any ground in RPI if you lose to ACC team, UNC please Cuse had 4 hard OOC games lost 3 of them, Virginia lost 4 in a row still gets home game, no other rank team in any other conference can lose 4 in a row and get a home game, if I am a coach I would kill to be the six team in ACC you win 2 semi hard OOC games and win 2 ACC games you will make the dance.

acc doesn't take associate members.

Because conference and university leadership is so awesome there that they’d never do anything different and there such a massive distinction with what they do with ND in football.

Doesn’t isn’t the same as hasn’t historically obviously.

a 6 team acc is something plenty of people other than those that actually make decisions bring up.
there is no real legitimate reasoning for it on a plus minus scale.

and nd playing half a season to draw revenue and then being in for all other sports, vs "getting a non-necessary aq" for lax is about as big a distinction as you can have.

Notre dame gives them more than revenue that would be a very narrow and incomplete presentation of the benefits to the conference. “All in” - until the wind blows a different direction.

Point being you claim never and that’s just silly. I know for a fact that there’s been serious close discussion for non full members in non revenue sports from as good a source (primary) as you’d get. The idea that they have any conversation and treat it as non necessary AQ is interesting. Assumes fixed rules for playoff participation too and I know they don’t view it that way and expect changes. Suis time wasted and a lot of administrative nonsense-yes. They don’t do that on the record much though which has happened. The extreme confidence of your position-Doc like and we know that’s riskless theater. So good luck.

dude, the guy was on here trolling and i light- jabbed him back for it. what are you even talking about?

[Hooz123]

Mr. May Shelly rolling. 1/3 after one.

[DocBarrister]

Anish and QK never even bothered running a highlight reel for Brandau when discussing the Tewaaraton finalists. Barely even mentioned Brandau.

Come on guys … at least show a highlight reel before dismissing his candidacy.

DocBarrister

[lorin]

How many ranked opponents did Yale face compared to , Duke, UVA and ND? What was the SOS and RPI of those programs? No offense to the Ivy League, but this wasn’t a good year from top to bottom. Plus Yales OOC schedule frankly sucked compared to the ACC schools. Just my .02

Bottom line it’s not hard to win games against Acc teams, and you don’t lose any ground in RPI if you lose to ACC team, UNC please Cuse had 4 hard OOC games lost 3 of them, Virginia lost 4 in a row still gets home game, no other rank team in any other conference can lose 4 in a row and get a home game, if I am a coach I would kill to be the six team in ACC you win 2 semi hard OOC games and win 2 ACC games you will make the dance.

acc doesn't take associate members.

Because conference and university leadership is so awesome there that they’d never do anything different and there such a massive distinction with what they do with ND in football.

Doesn’t isn’t the same as hasn’t historically obviously.

a 6 team acc is something plenty of people other than those that actually make decisions bring up.
there is no real legitimate reasoning for it on a plus minus scale.

and nd playing half a season to draw revenue and then being in for all other sports, vs "getting a non-necessary aq" for lax is about as big a distinction as you can have.

Notre dame gives them more than revenue that would be a very narrow and incomplete presentation of the benefits to the conference. “All in” - until the wind blows a different direction.

Point being you claim never and that’s just silly. I know for a fact that there’s been serious close discussion for non full members in non revenue sports from as good a source (primary) as you’d get. The idea that they have any conversation and treat it as non necessary AQ is interesting. Assumes fixed rules for playoff participation too and I know they don’t view it that way and expect changes. Suis time wasted and a lot of administrative nonsense-yes. They don’t do that on the record much though which has happened. The extreme confidence of your position-Doc like and we know that’s riskless theater. So good luck.

dude, the guy was on here trolling and i light- jabbed him back for it. what are you even talking about?

Trolling confused, what are you doing?