The tenth state rankings for the 2018 the season have been released by the NYSSWA. Below are the WNY teams that made the cut:
Class AA
(Niagara Falls 29)
Class A
Canisius #4
Park #6
West Seneca West #8
Williamsville South #12
Timon #16
Class B
Health Sciences #4
Olean #5
Middle College #20
Class C
Tapestry #7
Chautauqua Lake #20
Class D
East #3
Franklinville #4
Ellicottville #9
Sherman #19
******** According to the rankings above........
- Participation trophies continue bouncing around in the City of Niagara Falls. In Class AA, the Wolverines got theirs back again with a courtesy appearance in the late addition 26-30 slots, coming in at #29 this week. Falls is 15-4. Interestingly enough, Rome Free Academy, who traveled all the way to Buffalo to beat Falls and has a record of 16-3, is unranked and didn't get a trophy.
- Jumping down to Class B for a moment while staying with bouncing trophies in Niagara Falls, the other team in the city, Niagara Catholic, lost their trophy again. In the last four weeks, they've went...ranked - trophy - ranked - unranked.
- Canisius' big win over Park, followed by a big win at Timon (along with a road win at Aquinas) has them up one spot in NYS Class A at #4. Park slipped back from #3 to #6. Timon got the best treatment of all, remaining at #16 after taking one on the chin for a second straight week.
- West Seneca West & Williamsville South both continue to win games and creep up the NYS Class A rankings. They are now #8 and #12. South was unranked for much of the year.
- In Class B, Health Sciences got passes for close wins over East & Tapestry and another for the loss to Park. After all three of those results, along with last week's loss to Williamsville South, the Falcons continue to hold onto the #4 spot, one place ahead of Olean at #5. I'm sure the Huskies want their shot with Health. And I'm sure Middle College, who quietly hangs out at #20, is just waiting to break up the party. The Kats are in Class B2 with Health Sciences.
- Side note time. I think the MMA teams in Class B have a tough go with the state rankings because they schedule tough nonleague games and play the three teams ranked in Class A every year. The state rankings don't like to see a bunch of losses on your record, regardless where they occur. My case in point would be Cardinal O'Hara. Unranked all season. They are 12-9. I know, nine losses, yuck. Well those include state ranked Middle College, Will South, Canisius, & Timon. Formerly ranked Niagara Catholic & UPrep also. Two losses were in fact bad losses and I could only attempt to explain that away by saying they happened over Christmas break, when HS hoops should just take a vacation (the worst week of basketball all season, every year - kids off schedule, on vacation, etc * a conversation for another day). O'Hara is a good team that will be the #1 seed in the Manhattan Cup playoffs in Class B. They also earned wins over the following teams, who were all state ranked at the time the game was played: Tapestry, St. Mary's x 2, & Niagara Catholic.
- Tapestry & Chautauqua Lake remain the only teams ranked in Class C. Each slipped back one spot from last week.
- No movement in Class D. East, Franklinville, Ellicottville, and Sherman all remain in the top 20. Although a few comments came in last week after I boldly proclaimed 'Section VI, We Have The D's'. Or maybe it was me saying that I didn't think Prattsburgh could handle the pressure at McKinley the way East does (although East lost twice to McKinley this year). Or maybe it was when I said I didn't think they'd lambaste St. Mary's like East did. But hey, the comments were fun to read, even if some were a bit off base. Maybe we'll get some more this week. I hope so, because time is running out. No one wants to talk after their team losses the regional, and for Section V Class D, that happens on March 10th. And this year will make FIVE consecutive seasons that Section VI wins the Class D regional. That's quite a streak, but when 'We Have The D's,' what else would you expect?
Click HERE for complete NYSSWA State Rankings
-centercourt
What's the format for the Class B-1 and Class C sectionals. They both have 16 teams and I saw a bracket online where the top 4 seeds get a bye right into the quarterfinals instead of all teams having their first games in the pre-quarterfinals.
Posted by: StateChamps2003 | Friday, February 16, 2018 at 03:29 PM
The top four seeds get a bye to the Quarterfinals
5-8 get a bye to Pre-Quarterfinals
9-16 play in Round 1 for the right to advance to the Pre-Quarterfinals
Posted by: centercourt | Friday, February 16, 2018 at 04:36 PM