Poll ballots - Week 7

As a pollster for Buffalo News, I'm asked to send in my weekly ballots ranking the top ten large and small schools.  The polls are based on games played through Sunday of each week.  Here's a look at how I see them and some of the rationale used to get there.

Week 1       Week 2     Week 3      Week 4       Week 5        Week 6     

 

Large Schools

1. Niagara Falls (AA) - Only undefeated large school in WNY.  Top ranked Class AA team in the state.  Beat numbers two and five below.  Alma mater to a Super Bowl champion.

2. Jamestown (AA) - From the sounds of things, the alley-oop from Darin Butts to Jaysean Paige finished with a reverse dunk against Frontier, might be the highlight of the season.  Now, can someone get that clip to me?

3. Williamsville South (A1) - The Billies finally get a game against a ranked opponent in Timon this week.

4. St. Joe's (MMAA) - The Marauders hope to send a very angry Timon team to Williamsville on Friday, by first beating them for a second time on Thursday.

5. Canisius (MMAA) - Looked tough on Friday night in all phases.  Travel to Rochester this weekend to face a Bishop Kearney team that has already beaten St. Joe's and Timon.

6. East (A2) - McKinley is the only team in the city that has played a close game with the Panthers.

7. Bennett (A1) - Head-to-head win in the first meeting gets them this spot over...

8.  McKinley (AA) - the Macks, who have a rematch with Riverside on Tuesday, after the first meeting went to overtime.

9. Lancaster (AA) - Followed a win against Williamsville North with a second strong performance against Jamestown.  The Redskins are playing their best basketball right now.

10. Cheektowaga (A2) - The pollsters gave this spot to Maryvale, but I voted for these Warriors because they beat the Flyers by 17 earlier this season and battle them for a share of first place in ECIC III on Friday night.

 

Small Schools

1. I-Prep at Grover (C) - Does anyone else wish we could see these guys play East at the end of the season, rather than hand out two Yale Cups?

2. St. Mary's (MMAA) - I really thought about sliding Wilson into this spot, but then I took another look at some of the wins for the Lancers this year: Clarence, Hutch Tech, Depew, Newfane.  However, they need to win convincingly over the last few games (the way Wilson does) to keep this spot next week.

3. Wilson (B2) - The Lakemen were without do-it-all forward Tyler Truesdell in their 25-point win over Albion on Thursday.

4. Dunkirk (B1) - Beat Maritime Charter by 56 last week.

5. OTC Middle College (C) - Emerson and Seneca are the most recent teams to get rolled by the Kats.

6. Newfane (B1) - Interesting nonleague game at Starpoint this Friday follows round two of trying to solve Akron's zone defense.

7. Tapestry Charter (C) - Reached a new season low in futility for scoring, when they only put up 70 points on Class AA and seventh ranked large school McKinley. 

8. Lackawanna (B1) - The win against Batavia was enough to catapult them back into the poll, a spot ahead of Tonawanda, who they beat earlier this year.

9. Tonawanda (B1) - Biggest game for the Warriors in almost 50 years is this Friday, when they visit Lackawanna, looking to avenge an earlier loss and clinch ECIC IV.

10. Maple Grove (C) - I was stunned to read that they lost to Pine Valley, a team that just lost to North Collins. 

 

-centercourt

Comments

[Conrad Walters]

CC,

I have the clip of Paige's dunk. How do I get it to you?

[centercourt]

You are the man!

Please send me an email.

[email protected]

[Lucky13]

Can you make that clip available to all of us here ?

[mike jordan]

the polls are a joke in the buffalo news. wilson boys and girls play the worst schedule and are ranked 3 and 2 in their respective polls. the league up there is aweful and they play no one non-league. wilson is afraid to schedule anyone. wilson boys beating albion by 25 without their best player is a perfect example. 12 games each year vs Albion, CSAT, Newfane, Barker, RoyHart, Akron. and their girls are ranked 2 as well. their toughest game was vs holy angels and they got smoked by 30. they haven't played one team in any of the polls, large or small. You got all these voters from their league thinking wilson is so good when your team realls sucks therefore you think wilson is great. put either wilson boys or girls in the MMA and they are at the bottom of the league with a .500 record

[Jelly Donut]

Wilson boys beat St. Mary's, who is ranked ahead of them. They also beat Newfane, which is a top 10 team. It's not their fault they're in the N-O. Their non-league schedule included games vs. an Ohio power, Riverside, Lew-Port and St. Mary's...sounds like you have a terrible argument MJ.

[StateChamps2003]

Anyone know what happened to East yesterday??? They had the Yale Cup for the taking. That's quite the upset IMO.

An even more of an upset is my alma mater taking down OTC Middle College yesterday. From the looks of it, Alexander did not play but I've seen both a healthy Honors squad and a Alexander less OTC squad and I would say that OTC should have had no problem with them. But...that's why they play the game.

[TML1000]

Honestly, Tech over East isn't that much of an upset to me. Tech has been in nearly every game that they have lost in the league...many by five points or less. Recently, Miles has been out injured, including against Bennett when Tech was held to 35 points. However, this was his second or third game back and with him in the line-up, I feel Tech can beat just about any team on a given night.

Miles is still one of the underrated very good players in the area...at least in terms of press. The likely seedings will have South play Tech in the semis and Wil East play Bennett in the other. So much for a weak A-1 bracket, eh?

[Coach_ek]

Mike Jordan,
As a coach that has seen wilson more than anyone in WNY besides prob CC, your post is absolutely false and your assessment of Wilson is way off. You must have not seen them play this year. Yes, the N-O league is down..and any small school would struggle in the MMA against the likes of Joe's, Canisius, and Timon most likely. As Jelly Donut posted, there Non-League schedule is rather strong and they also srimmaged the FALLS and NW so to say that they are afraid to schedule anyone couldnt be further from the truth. If they had the opportunity, Coach Sipple would play any MMA team or any team in WNY for that matter, they are limited to 18 a year. The lakemen would be near the top of most leagues if they were not in the N-O.