Unscientific Predictions: The 2013 Big East Men's Soccer Postseason Awards

That means it's time to take a swing at what's running through the heads of the Big East men's soccer coaches and trying to guess who will win the various individual honors and get a spot on the All-Big East First Team. Hopefully this goes better than my guesses at the women's soccer awards.

Offensive Player of the Year: Steve Neumann, F, Georgetown - Yawn, boring ol' Steve Neumann. He was preseason Offensive Player of the Year, and then he went out and led the league in points on 10 goals (3rd in the league) and six assists (T-4th). Plus, y'know, there's that league co-champions thing.

Defensive Player of the Year: Anthony Baumann, D, Providence - There aren't any defenders that really stood out this year. Creighton's Eric Miller and Tim Parker from St. John's both earned Defensive Player of the Week twice, but both squads underperformed based on the league's preseason balloting. So here's what I'm going with. Baumann was named DPOW once and earned two spots on the Weekly Honor Roll, all while Providence faced the fewest shots on goal in the league this season, and managed to sneak into the top four spots in the league.

Midfielder of the Year: Matt Walker, Xavier - The senior just barely got edged out of the 2013 points title, falling just one point short of Steve Neumann's 26. He's a midfielder, and I don't know what the guidelines are for "best midfielder," so "highest scoring midfielder" is always a safe fall back position.

Goalkeeper of the Year: Tomas Gomez, Georgetown - The best goals-against average (0.46) and best save percentage (86.7%) in the league makes this pretty easy to pick. Rafael Diaz from St. John's did earn three Keeper of the Week awards in an effort to live up to his preseason version of this award, but it's hard to give an award to a keeper that didn't make the conference tournament, even if it's not really his fault.

Rookie of the Year: David Goldsmith, F, Butler - When you're a freshman and you finish tied for the league lead in goals with 11, you get to be Rookie of the Year. Sometimes these things are very simple.

Coach of the Year: Andy Fleming, Xavier - The Musketeers were picked to finish fifth in the league and through 49 minutes of the season finale, they were set to have the regular season title all to themselves. Xavier weathered the transition to the Big East the best out of the three new teams, and I can't vote for Georgetown's Brian Wiese (picked to win the league) or Marquette's Louis Bennett (lost to DePaul).

All-Big East First Team:

Brandon Allen, F, Georgetown
Anthony Baumann, D, Providence
Paul Dillon, D, Marquette
Samuel Geiler, M, Seton Hall
David Goldsmith, F, Butler
Tomas Gomez, GK, Georgetown
Steve Neumann, F, Georgetown
C. Nortey, F, Marquette
Tim Parker, D, St. John's
Timo Pitter, M, Creighton
Matt Walker, M, Xavier

Obviously Allen, Baumann, Goldsmith, Gomez, Neumann, and Walker are easy choices here. Nortey has five game winners, the most in the league. Dillon is a complete homer pick for coming up from the back line for his six assists, tied for fourth most in the league. Geiler was one of six guys in the league to have 20 points, all of whom are included in the list here, and I'd rather have him than Alex Muyl from Georgetown to spread things out a bit. Parker had a late rally of weekly conference honors as St. John's tried to muster a path to the conference tournament, and he was co-preseason DPOY as well. Pitter fell just outside that six man group at 20+ points with 18, but he was a goal and assist threat, so I'll give him the nod.