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The Big East men's soccer schedule comes to an end on Thursday with the last five games scheduled. The conference tournament will get started the following Tuesday, but we can't really trust the league office to hold off on announcing postseason awards once the schedule is over, so we're going to make some predictions about how the coaches will vote on those awards. If you've been paying attention to how things have been going this season, the heavy tilt of these picks shouldn't surprise you all that much.
Offensive Player of the Year: Fabian Herbers, Creighton
*checks goals leader* *checks assists leader* *checks national points leader* Okay, all done here.
Defensive Player of the Year: Vincent Keller, Creighton
Oh, this is gonna turn into a bunch of dudes from Creighton winning awards, isn't it? Well, Keller was named Defensive Player of the Week three times, and no one else got it more than once, so he gets the nod here. The Weekly Honor Roll is of no help here, as only five players earned multiple Honor Roll nods this season and none of them are defensive players.
Midfielder of the Year: Vincent Mitchell, Butler
This is a "best guess" pick. Mitchell's fourth in the league in points, leading all midfielders. He does the same in goals with nine, where he's tied for the third most in the entire league. His four assists don't register in the top 10 in the Big East, but that's fine. He was named to the Weekly Honor Roll four times, more than anyone else except for Fabian Herbers.
Or the coaches could just vote it to Creighton's Timo Pitter. Who knows.
Goalkeeper of the Year: Connor Sparrow, Creighton
Yes, Xavier's Dallas Jaye has a better goals-against average and a better save percentage, and yes, Jaye has been named Goalkeeper of the Week three times, against just two for Sparrow. He's also played six fewer matches and 500 fewer minutes, because he was Andy Fleming's THIRD STRING KEEPER at the start of the year. Sparrow's team was ranked #1 in the country for a wide stretch of this season, and he's only given up more than one goal in a game twice.
I swear, if Sparrow loses GK Of The Year to Xavier's keeper for the second straight season, I'm not going to be held responsible for my actions.
Rookie of the Year: JT Marcinkowski, GK, Georgetown
Three Freshman of the Week awards and one Goalkeeper of the Week award, also, his team's undefeated in league play as of this writing. As an added bonus, Marcinkowski has only allowed three goals in league play (although they have all admittedly come in the last 200 minutes.)
Coach of the Year: Elmar Bolowich, Creighton
The Bluejays were the preseason co-favorite to win the league and Bolowich guided the team to a 15 match winning streak to start the season. No, I don't care that they might not end up winning the league. No, I don't care that Georgetown might end the year undefeated in league play. No, I don't care that Butler was picked to finish seventh and they're going to host a quarterfinal match.
All-Big East Team
Brandon Allen, F, Georgetown
Fabian Herbers, F, Creighton
Vincent Keller, D, Creighton
Vincent Mitchell, M, Butler
Chris Moore, D, Xavier
Alex Muyl, F, Georgetown
Timo Pitter, M, Creighton
Sean Sheridan, M, Villanova
Connor Sparrow, GK, Creighton
Mac Steeves, F, Providence
Joshua Yaro, D, Georgetown
This was relatively simple. Obviously, Herbers, Keller, Mitchell, and Sparrow all get on the team with their individual awards. Allen and Steeves are the next two best points guys in the league. Pitter is fifth in the league in points and seventh in goals. Muyl is a long shot, maybe, but he's tied for fifth in points and has the second most assists, and that seems like a good reason to include him. Sheridan is even more of a long shot, but his 15 points are tied for 9th place, and I needed a midfielder. Moore is the only guy other than Keller to be named Defensive Player of the Week more than once this season, and Yaro is just really good, regardless of whether or not he's gotten weekly awards.