Thursday, March 29, 2007

Orange Blogger Awards - Best Sophomore

And the Syracuse Orange Blogger Awards continue to move on.

Who was the best sophomore player for Syracuse this season? There are two viable candidates with Andy Rautins and Eric Devendorf. Ironically the two candidates fought for the same starting position for much of the season (shooting guard) and ended the season sharing the starting backcourt with Rautins settling into the shooting guard, and Devo taking over the point.

Devo came away the winner, with 7 out of 8 votes. For most of the blogs, he was such an obvious choice that no additional comment was needed.

Sports Night with Howie Mansfield felt “Devo came into his own this year, and pulled away from the shadow of Gerry McNamara with his aggressive style and no-fear attitude. If he scores next year the way he did in the last six games, Devendorf could be the Orange's go-to player.

Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician focused on the obvious emotional edge that Devo brings to the court: “Although he lets his emotions get the better of him every now and again and even though he’s a part of the Terrell Owens club (If he played for anyone else, we’d all hate him), Eric Devendorf is the heart of the team and that will be even more so next season.”

Yours truly would add that “Devo was clearly the one guy on the team who wanted to be ‘the guy’, even if it at times he wasn’t the one who was best situated.”

Matt of Orange 44 was the lone dissenting vote: “Andy Rautins - Eric Devendorf is the obvious selection simply because of minutes played, but Rautins may have actually outplayed Rautins this season statistically. With a higher offensive rating and effective field goal percentage than Devendorf, Rautins actually contributed more to the Orange's success than Devendorf's efforts. Plus, he turned over the ball less than Devendorf, which, in my book, is the most important aspect to Rautins' contributions.”

Jim Boeheim has got to feel good about his back court for next season when he’ll have two experienced juniors returning, a couple of highly touted freshman guards coming in, and a senior point guard on the bench.

Tune in tomorrow at noon at Getting Back to ’03 to see who the Biggest Villain of the 2006-2007 season was.

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