Rapid Reaction: Bitter, Sankey Not Tawaaraton Finalists

Jimmy Bitter has recorded 34 goals on 69 points this season. Joey Sankey 27 goals on 63 points. Both have led the second highest scoring offense in the nation on their way to a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Neither will receive the Tawaaraton Trophy at the end of May. They won't even get consideration.

Instead the selection committee announced that Kevin Rice, Lyle Thompson, Myles Jones, Matt Kavanagh and Wes Burg would be finalists for the award.

It's always tough to argue against nominating key players on top-ranked teams, and discounting a player like Lyle Thompson because he plays on a team that isn't as highly-ranked would be ignorant.

But saying that guys like Bitter and Sankey, who are a deep playoff run from shattering UNC records, aren't at least as deserving as a guy like Wes Burg who has 43 goals and 60 points.

No disrespect to Burg, but he has eerily similar statistics to an attackman, Luke Goldstock (44 g, 60 p), who is the third best attackman at North Carolina.

There's no doubt Matt Kavanagh has done an outstanding job with the Notre Dame offense, but he has few points per game than both Sankey and Bitter. The junior accumulated 50 points through 12 regular season games, and proved he has a clutch gene that's unmatched. Does that mean that he's more deserving of the Tawaaraton Award than two guys who captain an offense that averages a point more per game than the Fighting Irish?

Kevin Rice carried the Syracuse Orange past UNC to an ACC Championship a week ago and boasts a 68 point season. His resume is nearly identical to that of Bitter and Sankey. Each player plays for a top-ranked team, has recorded 60-plus points and has beaten numerous top-ranked opponents. I don't think you can make a case that he's any more deserving either.

We're splitting hairs here, I'll admit, but neither Bitter nor Sankey being names finalists is flabbergasting. When I saw that neither player was named a finalist, I was surprised. I looked into the statistics, and this is what I found. I'll leave it to you to decide if I'm correct.

Do I have a bias because I've watched Bitter and Sankey closely throughout their careers? There's no doubt, but the numbers don't lie.

And the impact these two have on a game doesn't either.

Myles Jones Named Tawaaraton Finalist

Duke offensive midfielder Myles Jones was named a Tawaaraton Finalist after an impressive ACC tournament despite playing through injury.

Jones barely practiced before the tournament and still managed to take advantage of any short-stick match ups he drew against Notre Dame. Recording a goal on three points, he proved that apparently practice is optional when you're 6-foot-5 and can beat up defenders like a schoolyard bully.

Historically this award has gone to players on teams that make deep runs. The exception, of course, was last year when Albany's Lyle Thompson won the award. If Duke three-peats don't be surprised if Jones wins this award. He will likely be the reason they made it that far.

Rapid Reaction: NCAA Tournament Selection Edition

With Duke and North Carolina learning about what their paths to Championship Weekend look like, I've decided to give a quick and sweet rundown of what these gauntlets look like.

As expected, both teams received favorable first-round match ups at home, but assuming both teams make it to the elite eight, theirs a strong chance each will face a foe they've already failed to defeat once this season.

Duke

First Round: Ohio State, May 9 7:30 p.m.

Duke shouldn't have too many problems with an Ohio State team with only one win it can hang its hat on. Aside from being Johns Hopkins earlier in the season, OSU has come up short against all its highly-touted opponents. The Buckeyes were shut out against Notre Dame and only scored once against Maryland the first time the two teams played. While they beat JHU early in April, they got it handed to them 13-6 in the Big Ten championship game by the Blue Jays. While I imagine they'll bring it for their opportunity to take down the reigning champs, I don't think they have much of a chance.

UNC

First Round: Colgate, May 10 5:15 p.m.

This match up is a little bit more interesting. While Colgate's staple wins are against teams on the back end of the top-20, the Raiders managed to play a competitive game against the top-ranked Orange this past weekend. Colgate managed to make the contest a respectable 7-9 lose despite being absolutely dominated at the face-off X (2-for-20) and losing the ground ball battle (20-29). I haven't seen the film so I'm not going to act like I can explain that result, but I don't think it's replicable. The way you consistently make upsets in May is by controlling possession. In order to do that you need to win ground balls and face-offs. Colgate did neither of those things against Syracuse.

Bitter Taste After UNC Loss To Orange

When someone thinks about North Carolina senior attack man and Tawaaraton nominee Jimmy Bitter, They typically think about the undersized, speedy sharpshooter pinging corners and frustrating goalkeepers.

If someone were to tell a lacrosse fan or analyst that Bitter had 12 shots and eight shots on goal against Syracuse Friday night in the ACC Tournament, a guy like Quint Kessenich or Ryan Flanagan would expect that the lefty, averaging 3.9 points per game, had at least a pair of goals. Heck, they'd probably guess he ended up with a hat trick. 

But with a chance to play in the ACC title game on the line, Bitter took 12 shots, hit one pipe, and was saved by keeper Bobby Wardwell seven times. Seven of Wardwell's 14 saves came from Bitter shots. 

Prior to the game at PPL Park, Bitter recorded a point in 55 straight games. That was good for the second longest active streak in Division I lacrosse, and now, that streak is over. 

Bitter managed to record at least a point in every game he's played since the middle of his freshman season, but against the Orange, despite ample opportunity to net a goal, he came up just short every time. 

During the game, Bitter got hounded by ESPNU announcers who claimed he was telegraphing shots that were low-to-low worm burners. They claimed he wasn't shooting efficiently. 

But hindsight is always 20-20. 

For all the times Bitter could have thrown a better fake or changed planes, he made a spectacular cut or submarined a ball to the upper left corner. 

Bitter clearly didn't have his best game, but a lot of that credit should go to Wardwell who seemed to have it out for Bitter from the start.

The last time these two teams played, Wardwell played 31 mins and had four saves. This time around he almost doubled that mark against Bitter alone. 

It's easy to say that, if UNC is going to bounce back from this game and make a deep run, the Tar Heels will need Bitter to perform to his Tawaaraton level potential. 

But the easy thing to say isn't always the right thing to say. 

Bitter didn't lose them the game, nothing about Bitter's approach to the game was wrong, and he'll be just fine come tourney time. 

Bitter likes to live by the mantra "shoot to get hot, shoot to stay hot." That's never changed and it never will. 

So for anyone doubting Bitter or wondering what he needs to do to get ready for the NCAA tournament in two weeks, Bitter wont be looking back thinking "what if."

He's just going to keep shooting. 

UNC And Duke Tawaaraton Nominee Run Down

The 2015 Tawaaraton Nominees were announced in a press released earlier today. The release detailed three North Carolina players and two Duke players that will be considered for the Tawaaraton Award this year.

Myles Jones and Deemer Class were selected from Duke.

Chad Tutton, Jimmy Bitter and Joey Sankey were selected from UNC.

Among these five, Bitter and Sankey are the likeliest to win the award. Bitter leads UNC with 69 points and more assists than he's ever had (35), but Sankey isn't far behind with 60 points of his own.

Tutton's lack of assists will likely be his downfall. While he has 31 goals, he only has 5 assists, and UNC runs its offense through Bitter and Sankey. The odds of Tutton's assist numbers significantly changing are low.

Myles Jones's 65 points makes him the likelier of the Duke candidates to win the award. Class has 47 points. If Jones can have a strong outing in the ACC tourney and push Duke deep into the NCAA tournament, it will go a long way in assisting his candidacy, but Jones's inconsistent play against top ranked opponents could keep him from being strongly considered.

With the way this award if typically chosen, whatever player on the top team does the best will win. Once the finalists are announced, my expectation is that Tutton and Class will be left out.

ACC Tournament: Round One Preview

This weekend the ACC will cram three highly competitive games in the span of three days at Philadelphia's PPL Park. Here's my attempt at breaking down what will happen.

#4 Duke vs. #1 Notre Dame

Need to Know

The first time these two teams played at Duke's Koskinen Stadium it was clear who was the better team. The Fighting Irish absolutely tore the Duke defense to shreds scoring at an insanely efficient clip to start the game and never letting up on their way to a 15-10 win.

After that game coach John Danowski spent more than 30 minutes in the locker room speaking with players before coming out to address the media. The normally talkative coach who loves talking X's and O's was short with reporters.

When asked if he could comment on what he said to the guys in the locker room all he could say was,"No, I can't."

Needless to say, that game was an emotional one for the Blue Devils. They may be the defending champions, but with a 1-3 record in ACC play, they know their backs are against the ropes.

I'm not going to go out and say that Duke will win this game, but it will most definitely be more competitive than last time. I don't believe Duke has the personnel to handle Matt Kavanagh and the Irish offense, but coach D will most definitely find a way to make Duke in this game. Keep in mind that if Duke doesn't win this game, there's a good chance the team will have to travel to play its first NCAA playoff game.

Prediction

While I truly believe Duke will come out ready to scrap, I don't see them pulling this one out. Notre Dame proved during the regular season that it wasn't just the best team in the conference, it was the best team in the country. I don't see that changing with this game.

Notre Dame 14, Duke 12

#2 North Carolina vs. #3 Syracuse

Need to Know

The crowd at North Carolina was enormous for the senior day of future UNC legends like Joey Sankey, Jimmy Bitter and Chad Tutton. UNC rode that home crowd all the way to a 17-15 victory as Sankey broke Marcus Holman's record for points in a career at Carolina.

UNC's offense was simply too prolific to stop. They have too many weapons that are too good, and if a team tries to take them on in a shoot out, they will lose 10 out of 10 times.

This time around Syracuse will have to tighten up defensively limit UNC's opportunities. They won't be able to completely shut down the Tar Heel offense that oozes depth and veteran leadership. In order to win, they'll need a strong performance out of the goalkeeping tandem of Bobby Wardwell and Warren Hill who combined for 10 saves in these teams' last contest.

But it's not that simple. It all starts with the Orange defense forcing UNC's risk-taking gunslingers into poor shot attempts.

Prediction

The Tar Heels don't have the home crowd to keep hype this time around, but they don't need it. It's the ACC playoffs. Guys like Sankey and Bitter don't need anything more to get them hype for a big game like this one. I think they'll take this one, but it'll be a good one for sure.

North Carolina 16, Syracuse 15

Former Tar Heel Makes A Difference In The Community

Here is an article I recently wrote for the Carrboro Commons about the work former UNC player Brent Voelkel is doing in the Chapel Hill community at the developmental level.