Poll Ballots - Season Finale - 2014

 

As a pollster for the Buffalo News,  I'm asked to send in my weekly ballots ranking the top ten large and small schools.  This is the last time I'll vote this season, so these ballots represent where the teams finished.  Here's a look at how I see them and some of the rationale used to get there.

 

Large Schools

1. Jamestown (AA) - A spectacular postseason run for the Red Raiders earns them the top spot on my ballot.  Cameback after trailing the majority of the game to defeat Lockport in the semifinals.  Avenged a road loss to Clarence in the Section VI final.  Avenged a 20-point season-opening home loss to Greece Athena in the regionals.  Knocked off the team (Union-Endicott) who eliminated Mount Vernon from the state tournament.  Then were tied with Green Tech after three quarters in the Class AA state championship game, before bowing out by five.  

2. Canisius (MMA) - Dominated the local competition like we haven't seen a team do in several seasons.  The Crusaders won every game by double digits against competition from WNY (including Olean and McKinley, along with sweeps of Timon & St. Joe's) until they were tripped up by Nichols in the Manhattan Cup semifinals to unceremoniously end their season.

3. Clarence (AA) - Reached the Section VI Class AA final after earning a three-way share of the ECIC I crown.  The Red Devils were a cohesive group that, besides splits with Jamestown and Williamsville North, won games against McKinley, Amherst, North Tonawanda, and Iroquois.

4. McKinley (A1) - The Macks used a whole new cast to repeat as the regional representative in Class A for Section VI.  They also broke the Yale Cup winning streak, a record that ended at 33 games for McKinley this season.  Unlike McKinley's star-studded lineup from last season's state championship squad, this year's version was more like the Macks' team of past seasons under Zaire Dorsey, a deep unit with waves of contributing players and different players stepping up throughout the season.

5. Lockport (AA) - After earning a share of the NFL title with the Blue Devils during the regular season, the Lions went into Kenmore West and won a second straight over their league foe, this time in spectacular fashion.  From there, Lockport advanced to Buffalo State to face Jamestown in the Class AA semifinals, where they led for nearly all of the first half and led by nine in the third quarter, before succombing to a comeback by the eventual Class AA state finalist.

6. Timon/St. Jude (MMA) -  The Tigers reached the Manhattan Cup championship game for a second straight season.  Their year was marked by wins over Williamsville North & St. Joe's, along with taking care of business in the regular season against ranked small schools Nichols, St. Mary's, and Park.

7. Williamsville North (AA) - The Spartans seemed to peak midseason this year when they won seven straight, including a convincing road win at Clarence and a rout of Frontier at home.

8. Cheektowaga (A2) - Won its first ever Section VI title in school history after knocking off Amherst for a third time this season in an overtime thriller at Buff State.

9. Amherst (A2) - Repeated as ECIC III champs and reached the Class A2 title game for a second straight season.

10. Kenmore West (AA) -  The Blue Devils get this last spot by a slight margin over St. Joe's, who they defeated at home prior to the start of the postseason.  It was the right win at the right time poll-wise for Kenmore West, as St. Joe's had just beaten Williamsville South, who was also a candidate for this spot.  

 

Small Schools

1. Olean (B1) - The Huskies beat the next three teams on this ballot (Nichols, East, & St. Mary's), defeated Greece Athena, and swept Bishop Kearney & Timon.  They also won their first three playoff games against Burgard, Depew, & Fredonia by an average of 38 points.  Olean advanced to the Class B state championship game, where they fell to eventual Federation champion Westhill.

2. Nichols (MMA) - After starting the season 9-7, the Vikings won 10 of their last 12 games, including wins over Canisius, Timon, St. Joe's, and a pair over Park.  They also earned the biggest upset in the last seven years (knocking off Canisius) on their way to hoisting the Manhattan Cup, and did so with 6-7 Tanner Schmit, who has D1 offers, sidelined with an injury.

3. East (B2) - With a healthy Tyree Tyson in the lineup, East began the year routing teams: Timon by 23, South Park by 54, Bennett by 47, & Leadership Academy (swept Section V Class B champ Charlotte) by 39.  Without Tyson, the Panthers still won at Aquinas by 13, took rematches with Middle College & McKinley, and routed both Hutch-Tech  & Sweet Home by 40 & 32.   And who could forget their performance in the game of the year against Olean.

4. St. Mary's (MMA) - The Lancers won more games against ranked small schools (six) than any other team in WNY, knocking off Middle College & Fredonia, along with sweeping Nichols & Park.  They also earned a victory against Clarence and a pair of wins over St. Joe's.  St. Mary's was an overtime loss in the Manhattan Cup semifinals against Timon, away from an opportunity to win a fifth straight versus Nichols dating back to last season.  

5. Middle College (C1) - Reached the Class C state championship game after winning Yale Cup I outright. The Kats defeated Class A2 champ Cheektowaga, swept overall Class A champ McKinley, and took its first meeting against Class B2 champ East during the regular season.

6. Park (MMA) - Tough to fault the Pioneers for going out in the Manhattan Cup quarterfinals against Nichols, after the Vikings went on to win the Cup.  Still a very impressive debut in the MMA for Park, who returns all its key players next season.

7. Fredonia (B1) - The Hillbillies proved to be the second best team in Class B1 this season with a convincing victory over Tonawanda to reach the final, before running into Olean.  A 16-5 season included sweeps of Class C1 & Class C2 finalists, Silver Creek & Maple Grove.  Losses came to Greece Athena, Olean, St. Mary's, Iroquois, & Fairview (PA).

8. Randolph (C2) - The team that nearly got the hashtag #BombsAway trending for its willlingness to fire away from beyond the arc.  The Cardinals won Class C2 and led the entire first half against Middle College in the overall Class C final, before ultimately falling by three points.

9. Sherman (D) - The Class D champs put on an epic shooting display in the regionals against private school Batavia Notre Dame to reach Glens Falls.  Even though they didn't win a Class D state championship, they also never lost to a Class D public school this season.  The Wildcats' only two losses all season - Randolph (Class C2 champion) and Coleman Catholic (a private school that hides in Class D and reaches Glens Falls annually).

10. Cleveland Hill (B2) - The Golden Eagles lay claim to the final spot in the small schools for winning ECIC IV and reaching the Class B2 final, where they ran into East and lost by nine.

 

-centercourt

Comments

[McShea is God]

I don't c how u can ignore St Joe's winning AT Lockport beating McKinley beating Timon...Losing by 2 AT Ken West who beat nobody and lost 2 Sweet Home!

1 - Jamestown
2 - Canisius
3 - Clarence
4 - McKinley
5 - Timon
6 - Will North
7 - Joe's
8 - Lockport
9 - Cheektowaga
10 - Amherst

Also I still think East had a better overall season than Nichols by a hair and having lost on a 3 that missed at the buzzer without their Center should be RIGHT behind Olean

1 - Olean
2 - East
3 - Nichols
4 - Mary's
5 - Middle
6 - Sherman
7 - Randolph
8 - Fredonia
9 - Park
10 - Cleveland Hill

[McShea is God]

What's the 'game of the year' next season?! If u can get Jamestown 2 play Canisius I would say that would b it, especially now that Brandon Kellam will return 2 replace Yaw in the middle. Otherwise I would say the 2 Canisius/Nichols games (I assume Nichols moves up 2 AA next year so their r 5 teams in each division)

[TML1000]

I know they had a great game in the A-2 final, but I think Joe's, KW and South were all better teams than both Cheektowaga and Amherst. Joe's season really went South after Jones left...they don't lose to KW if he plays. Neither KW or South had any real signature wins, other than KW beating Lockport in first league matchup...but neither did Cheek or Amherst. Amherst's best result is arguably the loss to Clarence.

Amherst also beat Lew-Port by 2, who KW blew out twice. A-1 was also much stronger than A-2...South had to beat Tech(underseeded as an 8) and a decent NT team to get to McKinley, who they played tough...while Cheek barely beat S Park and then beat Maryvale to get to the Amherst game. South would have definitely won A-2.

[TML1000]

MIG...you can ignore Joe's win over Lockport because they didn't finish the season with the same team they started. While Lockport steadily improved throughout the season, Joe's steadily declined. Even though they beat Lockport to start the year, by season's end, Lockport was clearly the better team. Would Joe's have played Jamestown close through a good portion of the game...no way.

[TML1000]

If Middle would have beat Hoosic, how high would they have been? I would have them over St. Mary's, even with the head to head as Middle definitely peaked later in the season...would be close with East as well...maybe have them tied.

[centercourt]

TML1000 -

I think your points on comparing St. Joe's/KW/Will South vs. Cheektowaga/Amherst are all valid. At the end of the day, I focused on what you pointed out, no signature wins for Ken West, and decided to reward Cheektowaga for its sectional championship and keep Amherst right behind them for the overtime loss.

Tough to say the Billies definitely would have won Class A2. They lost to the runner-up, Amherst, on their home court this year.

Not sure what would have changed if Middle College wins a state championship. When they were on, they were formidable. Other times, they were the team that beat Silver Creek & Randolph by a combined 17 points. One of the things I considered when putting the four teams ahead of the Kats, besides everything I've already laid out above, was whether or not I thought the four teams above them would have won a Class C state championship if given the same road to travel. I can tell you that I do not think Hoosic Valley would beat East or St. Mary's.

To me, watching Middle College play Randolph right before East faced Olean, and having them both be three-point games, validated everything I thought this season about East being the better of the two. East also has the better body of work - beating Timon by 23 on the same night Middle College lost to St. Mary's. Also, East won at Aquinas, who beat St. Joe's twice by a combined 90 points, on the same night that St. Joe's beat Middle College. Throw in the fact that East won the more recent meeting between the two.

[Bailey]

Nichols lost to Olean by 1 and East lost to Olean by 3 so they have to be right behind Olean. Marys beat Middle College. The top 5 makes sense.

[HS]

Health Sciences lost to East in OT! So why don't they deserve a vote?>

[HS]

Clev Hill lost to east by more than Health Sciences did

[jj43]

HS lost to Tapestry and Maple Grove. Nuf said.

[Bailey]

If Olean was independent then why didnt go to Albany as AIS team in B? Albany Academy was independent and got to go straight to the Federation tournament but olean had to get through Glens Falls 1st which i know, they didnt.

[MCSHEA ISN'T GOD]

2014-2015 MMA Format
Large Schools - Will now have separate playoff for State Catholic A seed
Canisius
St. Joe's
Timon-St. Jude
St. Francis
Nichols

Small Schools - Will now have separate playoff for State Catholic B seed
St. Mary's
Park School
Cardinal O'Hara
Niagara Catholic
Archbishop Walsh

Format allows a natural "A" and "B" Champion to be crowned opposed to the previous format which allowed team that lost to be rewarded a trip to NYC.

[McShea is God]

Drum roll please.....2014 All WNY Team. I am better at guessing the Buffalo News team the past 9 years than Center Court's....but here I go:

1st Team -

Taplin (Player of the Year)
Will Bathurst
Zack Panebianco
Sam Eckstrom
Bri'an Brown

2nd Team -

Howard Washington
Donte Williams
Quin Lee Yaw
Johnathan Lewis
Cam Lewis

3rd Team -

Nick Schmitz
Stafford Trueheart
Ryan Funk
Kevin Briggs
Chris Miner

4th Team -

Bill Brooks
Dylan Myer
Lester Diaz
Collin Dougherty
Percy Bryant

5th Team -

TC Brown
Dominik Welch
Tyler English
Phil Bowen
Jake Haight

I would hate 2 be the Buffalo News because deciding who got kicked down to 5th team was VERY hard....

SO - let's c how I do! I have a pretty good track record :)

Also if you are going 2 say 'THIS GUY SHOULD BE ON' then list WHO SHOULD BE OFF. There can't b 26 spots (or 21 in the case of the Buff News)

[Coach Simms]

@McShea is God bri'an brown or sam eckstrom shouldn't be on there over j.lewis considering the fact that first of all Mec plays in class C which is weak to me compared to class B and Lewis took a W over Brown With 33 points and for eckstrom he doesn't play well against other good big man prime example against canisius he got shut down and j.lewis was attacking and scoring over him all game when they faced off just stating true facts and he's 6'8 compared to a 5'7 guy lol correct me if I'm wrong will you

[McShea is God]

Well Coach Simms if u r a coach WHY did the COACHES in the Yale Cup league they both played in vote Brown Player of the Year and not Lewis? No way u can put the player of the year in the league who led his team 2 the State Class C Final behind a kid who didn't win player of the year and lost in the B Final.

Sam E led his team 2 the State B Final. I mean seriously man give me a break. Sam's stats r why Taplin will get Player of the Year over Bathurst u can't give player of the year 2 a kid who was 2nd on his own team in ever statistical category.

[TML1000]

Nearly spot on, MIG...I would include Hollins and Whalen on 5th team with the first two to come off being Welch and Brown.

[Hoop guy]

-mcshea brown only won poy because his team won the cup , he did not have a better season then johnathon Lewis or have any big time performance like johnathon Lewis had ... That first meeting between east and middle Mec got lucky east was getting use to not playing a big man and running with basically all guards McKinley got lucky also .. Once they got use to playing small ball johnathon went off on the both if them .. And if east was in class C the crossover game against Randolph woulda been a blow out and not a 3 point game , plus jojo Stanton won that game for then and would have went on to beat hoosic ... For a 5'7 he also lead his team in rebounding at the 2 spot

[guest]

The only stat that Bathurst lead his team in was turnovers, for the record....Check with coach A, he gave the stats out at the banquet!

[Wiz]

@Mcshea is God brown won because they won the Yale cup that's why but statistically and achievements Lewis has him by far so state facts and was Mec ever ranked #1 in the state I don't think so

[McShea is God]

I don't think that's why Brown won Yale Cup player of the year. Why didn't Cam Lewis win it in the MMA if that's the case? They 'won the league' why didn't the coaches vote it 2 him?

Look, I gave u guys the team, Taplin is player of the year - deal with it!!

[Wizard]

@McShea is God Well see

[Wizard]

@McShea is God well see what CC thinks on April 3rd

[McShea is God]

I can't predict CC's team, he is too wise. Only can predict Buffalo News.

[Logos]

Actually Wiz, Brown had a better statistical season than Lewis. Taking nothing away from Lewis, but the propaganda/lobbying on here is getting out of hand. Not only did Brown's team win the Yale Cup, but he also had Lewis beat/tied in every statistical category except steals (which makes sense, considering Brown was not a PG). Since they played in the same league, your argument about classifications holds very little weight. Also, Lewis was only fourth place on his team on rebounds, 5 ahead of 5th place, which is right about where a 2 guard should be. Stats taken from the section 6 website are listed below.

Bri'an Brown 22 (games) 388(Pts)134 (assists) 256 (rebounds)30 (steals) 43 (blocks) 17.636 (PPG)

Johnathon Lewis 22 (games)388 (Pts)59 (assists) 109 (rebounds)65 (steals) 1 (blocks) 17.636 (PPG)

If you want to take the argument about classifications being the be all end all, let's take a look at a two guards that had better statistics in a higher classification. (Source Max Preps)

Z. Panebianco (AA) 24 (games) 466 (pts) 91 (assists) 78 (rebounds) 43 (steals) 2 (blocks) 19.4 (PPG)

Phil Bowen (A) 19 (games), 459 (pts), 73 (assists), 74 (rebounds), 40 (steals), 5 (blocks), 24.2 (PPG)

If you want to talk about this nebulous “shows up in big games” category, Panebianco came up big throughout the entire state playoffs, scoring 34 and 31 respectively against Grace Athena and Union- Endicott. I think Panebianco’s first team resume speaks for itself, and I really should not have to further elaborate.

Phil Bowen led a team with somewhat limited scoring talent (only one other player scored over 10 points a game, the rest were under 7) into a division title. He came up big for his team all year, scoring 32 against Williamsville South, 33 against St. Mary’s, 33 against Williamsville East, 28 against Sweet Home (who at the time was ranked), and 28 against Fredonia. This was all despite everyone knowing he was Iroquois’ primary scoring threat, and facing box and one/ double team defenses almost every game. Unfortunately for him, as mentioned by someone before in the other section, his team did not make it to the Class A finals, so he will justifiably be docked for that. But then again, his team really did not have the talent surrounding him that the others had, so if you’re basing it solely on individual impact, I would argue he deserves a spot on at least one of these teams.

Now I could not find Timon's statistical information on Maxpreps, but I am certain that, judging from the box scores, Donte Williams probably had better statistics as well. Ultimately what is going to hurt Lewis is A- he did not win either the division or section and B- he did have a relatively strong supporting cast (Shawn Young 10.7 PPG, Aurelio Ayala 12.4 PPG, Percy Bryant 17.4 PPG). Again, this was not done with malicious intent, as I do believe that Lewis is either a 2nd, or at the very least a 3rd teamer. But the amount of lobbying done on his behalf really does need to be tempered by reality.

[Wizard]

@logos now you see why brown won (Poy) stats were boosted so now who really should of been (Poy) ???? I'm waiting

[Rusty]

The only stat that was argued to be skewed was assists. Unless a coach/scorekeeper outright lied about point totals (or just completely miscalculated, which is just as unlikely), they're just about on par with each other. Even if you bring Brown's assists totals further down to earth, they're still very similar. When you have two players with a similar supporting cast, and similar statistical results, winning your division and/or section is a justifiable tie-breaker.

[Hoop guy]

No they always boost all there stats .... Every game it was a player close too a triple double Kevin, brown , and Scott all was listed with triple doubles this year , everybody all season long was saying the was boosting and thats a fact ... Now like i was saying Mec got lucky by winning the Yale and if east played in class C they would be state champs

[McShea is God]

If Lewis ends up at Syracuse next year replacing Tyler Ennis I want to change my vote and put him on 1st team ahead of Brown :)

Those games last night stunk!!! Also, the more I think about it, Center Court is a very sexy man.

[CM]

These arguments are funny. We are really splitting hairs here. Was Brown or Lewis better this year? Looks like a pretty close call. Brown has slightly better stats. Lewis was better in big games. both played for good teams and made their teams better. All league teams and league poy are a total joke, especially in the city. Ask any coach. East and OTC beat each other. OTC won the league by beating mcKinley 2 times. East was way better in non-league games. Would East have gone as far as OTC playing in C? Obviously! Would OTC have beaten Olean? No way. So the who made it out of section argument don't work either. I think an argument can easily be made for both and to me it comes down to personal preference. But please stop taking digs at those two they were both fantastic.

[TML1000]

No...East would not have won the state in class C because they would not have beaten Hoosic. The reason being they would not have defended Rooney either. The kid was on a mission, along with Pierre, and East, like most other teams from the Far West region(Jamestown excluded), did not show enough heart nor defensive intensity to counteract what Hoosic put together on that night.

When Hoosic came out firing and with a definitive plan in the second half, Middle did not respond in kind and I have a feeling East would not have responded well, either...similar to how Olean did not respond to Westhill's hot start. Again, it would have been tough for most teams to beat Westhill that night but there was no excuse for not competing after the first quarter.

[CM]

I did not see the C state championship game, but I assume OTC sat in their zone all game, like they did every game. East played a completely opposite style defensively, relying on pressing and pressuring the ball. OTC only came out of their zone against Randolph when they had to and were fine because of the athleticism and talent gap they held over Randolph. Sounds to me like either Rich stayed married to the zone and was burned or came out of it and couldn't simply out perform a talented team once he did.

[fullcourt1]

When Athletic Teams from the City of BUFFALO play in the lower classes they should be able to impose their will and either overwhelm or wear down less athletic opponents who see NOTHING like OTC in their league. PRESS ; TRAP; and RUN like MCKINLEY did last year!!