Comments on: Baum Vs. Pannell: By the Numbers

By: J_Hubes

J_Hubes — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 03:33:00 +0000

If only the award were given out on the basis of who had the best stats. (Un)Fortunately (depending on your opinion of the selection process), this is and has never really been the case. In years past, the common theme of all Tewaaraton winners has been that they generally evoke a “good” story within the lacrosse community.

In 2011, Steele Stanwick “statistically” was not even close to being the best player in the country. Yet, when the time for a decision came, the committee went with the player who had taken his team from the brink of collapse, a team under national scrutiny for both the tragedy involving Yeardly Love and the dismissal of two of the most hyped players to ever enter the college game, to the promise land of winning a national championship. Ask many people and you will hear that Rob Pannell SHOULD have won the Tewaaraton that year. After all, was it not Pannell who represented College Lacrosse at that year’s ESPY awards for Best Male Athlete? Track the award further back in time and the trend is very apparent. Ned Crotty for leading a championship-starved Duke team suffering from a Duke Rape Scandal sized curse to win the national championship. Max Seibald for his heroic on-field acts of self sacrifice that helped a relatively undervalued Cornell team to Memorial Day weekend. Mike Leveille for captaining the Orange’s return to victory and glory after not even making it to the tournament the season prior. I can go on and on and on.

I would like to clarify by saying that I am by no means taking away how great these players are and how they truly deserved to win the awards that they did. I admire every one of them and consider myself lucky to have witnessed their domination of the college game. I am only attempting to show that, in reality, statistics and numbers have nothing to do with who wins the Tewaaraton Award, and that if Rob Pannell comes anywhere close to putting on a show like he did back in 2011, and if Peter Baum falls anywhere short of taking his team to Memorial Day Weekend, then the award will surely end up in #3′s hands .

Senior year season-ending injury…unselfish semester-long trip to help underprivileged children in Uganda…(possibly (and probably)) rising from the ashes to lead the Big Red to national prominence once again… In my opinion, it is Pannell’s award to lose.

Either way, I am extremely excited to either be proven wrong or right, and to see both of these great players light up the field once again this season.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:58:00 +0000

My point was that position is a huge variable that you didn’t eliminate. When you compare apples to apples you actually see a slight trend in the opposite direction.

Either way Baum and Pannell are both amazing players and it’s going to be fun to watch this season.

By: Markus McCaine

Markus McCaine — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 01:20:00 +0000

“That may not be staggering odds but it may show that the voting committee slightly favors goal scorers.”
I was not trying to say that that is definitely the way the committee swings. I was only try to shed light on how it might be a plausibility that they ever so slightly favor scorers.

I tried to make the assumption (to eliminate variability), that a scorer was someone who scored more goals than recorded assists and a feeder was the opposite. I did not factor in two way middies, more complete players, etc. so that I could categorize the Tewaaraton winners. I tried to measure scoring ability vs. feeding ability while eliminating the ‘noise’ of other stats and immeasurable categories.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:25:00 +0000

I like Pannell for this and here is why. Pannell is definitely a feeding machine, however if you look at 2011 vs his first 2 years his stats breakdown is much more balanced (42 g, 47 a). He can beat you by himself or by making his team better.

Finally the argument that the trend favors shooters over feeders is not true. In the 12 years of the Teewaarton 8 attackmen, and 4 middies have won the award. I would argue that none of the 4 middies (4 “scorers”) won because of their scoring ability (although it played a part), but it was more for the fact that these were do-it-all type players/2 way middies/more complete. So in reality the breakdown for attack is 3 scorers vs 5 feeders.