Poll Ballots 2020 - Week 6

(Aidan Horan defends for Nichols)

 

Large Schools 

1. Canisius (A) - The Crusaders pulled out a win over visiting Niagara Falls on Saturday afternoon in a 32-minute battle!  Now they'll get visits from Timon on Monday and St. Mary's on Wednesday, ahead of this coming Saturday against rival St. Joe's.  Presale tickets only for that one.  Details in the 'Game of the Week' write up.

2. Park (A) - Completed a marathon stretch of games with a convincing win at Aquinas on Monday night, before falling in overtime at East High in Rochester on Saturday night.  

3. Health Sciences (A2) - One of two remaining undefeated teams in WNY will get their chance to prove they should be ranked higher soon enough with game against the teams above them still to come.  But the week ahead will be tough enough with South Park and Tapestry on the slate.

4. St. Joe's (A) - Picked up three league wins last week, all on the road, that including a survival victory at St. Francis that was pulled out in the final minute.  It's rivalry week for the Marauders, looking to snap a 17-game skid against Canisius on Saturday.  

5. Niagara Falls (AA) - The Wolverines were so close to knocking off the Crusaders on Saturday and held a lead for the majority of the game.  Falls is the lone unbeaten team in the Niagara Frontier League at 7-0 and have the week off to prepare for Lew-Port on Tuesday the 28th.

6. Lew-Port (A2) - Five straight double figure victories for the Lancers after knocking off North Tonawanda & Lockport last week.  There's a tough one coming up for them on Wednesday, when the #1 small school from Middle College pays a visit.

7. Orchard Park (AA) - The Quakers are tied in first place in ECIC I, coming off a 12-point win over Clarence.  They look to stay on top with a Saturday afternoon trip to Lancaster.

8. Amherst (A2) - The Tigers picked up wins on consecutive days over the weekend, winning a Friday night tilt against Sweet Home and then knocking off McKinley with a strong finish at the MLK Classic.  Their next opponent is the two-time defending Yale Cup champs from Middle College on Friday night in the feature game of Bob Hettler Showcase.

9. McKinley (A1) - Battled with Amherst all game on Saturday, before slipping late.  Two more big nonleague games await at the end of the coming week, with the Macks' annual meetings against Jamestown (Thursday on the road) and Williamsville North (Friday at the Bob Hettler Showcase).

10. CSAT (A2) - It's time to give the Eagles a little love.  They have just one league loss in the Niagara Frontier League and that came at Niagara Falls.  They also own wins over a pair of teams that defeated North Tonawanda - Batavia & Ken East.  Keep it going Senor Hoyos!

 

Small Schools 

1. Middle College (C1) - Picked up a pair of double-digit wins last week against East High and fellow Top 10 small school Nichols.  Now the Kats hit the road for a pair of games this week against Top 10 large schools, visiting Lew-Port on Wednesday and Amherst on Friday.

2. Tapestry (C1) - The Thunderhawks got a visit from one of the Section's better teams in Class C when Ellicottville came up on Wednesday and they beat them by 32 points!  They've got three fun ones coming this week with games at Bennett & Maritime and then a big one against Health Sciences, which will be played at Villa Maria on Saturday at 5:30 pm.

3. Randolph (C2) - The seven-game win streak by the Cardinals includes wins last week by 51 & 60 points.  The crazy part - 60 points isn't even their biggest win this year.

4. Allegany-Limestone (B2) - Speaking of dominating performances...I got my first look at the Gators on Saturday and they are legit.  Coming off 21 & 37 point victories last week, the Gators took Hutch-Tech down in the MLK Classic after winning the second quarter 30-0.  Thursday night, they travel to Fredonia for the rematch after scoring an important and decisive win in the first round.

5. Timon (B) - The Tigers stayed unbeaten against the Class B competition in the MMA with a strong second half at Nichols on Friday that led to a 16-point win.  After a MLK Day visit to Canisius, Timon hosts the rematch with St. Francis on Wednesday and welcomes in St. Mary's to finish the week on Friday.

6. Fredonia (B2) - Four straight wins for the Hillbillies, all by double figures, including a 41-point walloping of Southwestern that saw Tyler Putney connect on nine 3-pointers in a 40-point outburst.  A win on Thursday night against visiting Allegany-Limestone would pull them even with the Gators for first place in CCAA I West.

7. Nichols (B) - Fell to Timon & Middle College over the weekend, both teams that have held rank above the Vikings throughout the season.  They'll look to get back on track against Hutch-Tech on Tuesday, ahead of an important league game against Cardinal O'Hara on Saturday afternoon.

8. Westfield (C2) - Head coach Bob North earned his 400th career win last week in a win over Brocton and followed that up with #401 as the Wolverines survived a late-game rally attempt by Sherman to improve to 11-0 on the year.  

9. Maritime (B2) - The Commodores have no bad losses this season, but they did earn two more quality wins over the weekend, defeating both Williamsville South and Olmsted.  They play a measuring stick type of game against Tapestry on Wednesday, before an interesting matchup at Bennett on Friday night - a team they beat by five earlier in the season.

10. Albion (B1) - The Purple Eagles are alone in first place of the N-O League after knocking off Newfane & Roy-Hart last week to improve to 9-2 on the season.  They are one of seven teams left without a loss to another WNY team heading into their rematch at Medina on Friday night.

 

-centercourt

Comments

[Stanley]

What park did to st joes is not good! You don’t treat people/schools that way.. the only MMA school to play you ... you take on other games since season started and you pull out?? There is absolutely no explaining this away... NO local school should play them next year... MMA graciously accepts them to the MMA .... and now it’s not good enough for them anymore.... they are takers!!

[Park]

Lol @ Stanley what the MMA did to park this year by changing a rule that was in place .Or interpreting it another way to rule a kid ineligible who was not is not how you treat prople ! Then everyone agreed to play Park one time until and Husband and Schneider convinced everyone to form a United front against Park! Park should have never thought about playing a MMA team after that. BTW the MMA is horrible this year with two good teams . Park is not missing much.

[hoopster]

Park, I would suggest being more diplomatic. What happens if Park’s ability to play a out of area schedule goes away? Something to think about. As I’ve said many times in the past if you burn all your bridges you’re left on an island. While the MMA is far from perfect it is the only league in WNY in which Park fits. Good luck the rest of the year.

[PARK]

The MMA needs to remove Husband from being the voice of it until then nothing is diplomatic. Its a dictatorship . It's as if he is the head of the league along with Schneider (that's not a conflict of interest). The fact that the other weak coaches and ADS bowed down to his demands is a joke. Joe's did agree to play and I wish things were handled differently about that game, but no one knows specifics.

[Liberals]

Maybe Park should've whined and complained with cries of discrimination when the league decision came down, then they might've backed down and let them in the league. Hey, it worked for the BPS in football, why not Park too?
It's pretty sad that a school would drop a team from their schedule a week before the game due to "lack of revenue" or whatever the excuse was. We'll see which players these schools pillage from next year and who transfers where. Bradberry's been at 5 schools in 5 years I think. Maybe WNY high schools should set up a transfer portal like the NCAA so that we can try to set up all-star teams. I have no problem if MMA gets players that enter their schools in 9th grade (that's the grade that their schools begin!), but when they actively seek players beyond grade 9, it's ridiculous and it's why the section won't ever let them in, and all the movement of players is why MMA gets a bad name around town.

[Clownswithakeyboard]

Liberals, since you think you know alot but obviously are clueless. You are defending Joe's if I'm not correct they just got pretty substantial transfers.Make up your mind. Secondly if you plan on using my sons name know some facts clown . No kid transfers from middle school to High school..second Nc closed if you were not clueless so yes he did transfer one time in high school and to let u know it's working out great academically, athletically and he will take that and go to college for free. And I bet you are a avid trump supporter since you think that was a good move to keep the BPS out of section 6 clown.

[Liberals]

Oh wait your right 4 transfers if 4 years!!!!Played varsity at Wheatfield and then transfered to Niagara Catholic....Did even live in Niagara-Wheatfield school district!!!!

[Tiredofstupidity]

Liberals, obviously you had trouble with math in school. Bradberry transferred one time. He started high school at NC that closed he went to the Falls that is not a transfer was he supposed to not go to school anywhere? Then he transferred to Park that makes one time simple math. I hate guys that come on here and bash kids.

[foulup3]

Jalen has had a strange career to say the least. Moving from 8th grade to freshman year is not a transfer technically but he was playing varsity so it’s a grey area. You can’t blame him for leaving a school that just closed at Catholic, so was that real a transfer that year? Every Division 1 level player that was at the Falls the last 3 season (Bradberry, Gayle, Lightfoot) has transferred, so clearly something is going on at that school that is making talent leave.

Now he ends up at Park which seems like a good fit for him socially/academically (see Dad’s post above) and athletically as we can all see by the results. The only issue is that Park somehow is in the middle multiple storms this season that have nothing to do with Jalen but people can”t help but associate him with them because he is their best player And that he has moved around more then normal for the reasons listed above. After all of that he has a strong chance to be the areas all time leading scorer and if he does anything at a high level of college basketball he will go down as one of the areas top players ever.

CC does Parks lack of a full schedule and abbreviated playoffs erase Jalens chances for all time leading scorer?

As for as the current Park fiasco. It seems that both Park and the MMA made mistakes along the way and both sides are equally to blame. Park never should have dropped the St. Joe’s game without giving a reasonable explanation. For Park to take what would have been the biggest game of the year from a team that doesn’t get to play in front of the local fans much was a real head scratcher.

What will be most interesting going forward is to see what the Hutchins exit strategy is once Caleb graduates next season. Something tells me we won’t be hearing much from Park after that.

[Wow]

With regard to the above comments, I don't believe that "Liberals" stated anything incorrect regarding Bradberry and his multiple schools attended, he just stated the facts. I'm not sure that he was knocking him either (at least outwardly), instead it appeared as though he was knocking the fact that so many players have gone the transfer route (or pillaging route), including St Joe's, which is ridiculous. It seemed to have struck a nerve with one poster however. As for the "avid Trump" and "keeping BPS out of section 6" comment, the BPS wasn't being held out of Section 6, only out of playing non-BPS schools during regular season league play (just as they are during every other sport), as ECIC would play ECIC schools for league play and NFL playing NFL, etc. You sir, much like many others, took that as "being kicked out of Section 6", when in actuality they never were. Maybe the BPS should realign their teams so that they have more than 5 desired teams for football, trying to manipulate the enrollments for classes, not needing 9 schools combined at Hutch Tech or 7 schools combined at Bennett.

[Conservatives]

Hey loony Liberals, it's a free market out there. Let players play where they want. So what if they want to transfer 4 times in 4 years. That's their choice.