Random Smatterings: Snow Band Edition

- If you asked Mark MacDonald from Canisius, where he thought I should be ranking the Crusaders right now, I’m guessing he would say #2

- Timon's Jaiden Harrison remains on pace to become WNY‘s all-time scoring leader. The beauty of Harrison as a player is how he plays the game, because he could certainly score more if that was all he was about. Instead, Harrison uses his all-around talents to keep everyone fed in South Buffalo, leading the Monsignor Martin Association in assists with 6.3 per game. That’s also fourth best overall in WNY, trailing only Westfield's Carson Swanson, Starpoint's Cohen Vogel, and Health's Amir Moye

- And then there were two: The preseason number one teams in the rankings haven’t been pushed out of that spot yet, and just happened to be the only two teams left from WNY with an undefeated record: Timon and Randolph.

- There are four teams remaining in WNY without a victory this season

- Something I still have yet to hear this season… I’m so glad we got rid of the one & bonus free throw situation

- I have two teams in my top 10 large school rankings with losing records. I know from a lot of conversations I’ve heard over the years during football season, that’s a difference of philosophy for many. I try not to overreact when a team loses to a quality opponent, especially one ranked ahead of them, who they competed with. The two teams in question here are Nichols and St. Joe's. Both have only quality losses, and each team owns wins that I would use to justify the ranking. I am always down to entertain someone’s alternative and explain why I went the direction I did.

- December is cool and all with some non-league matchups, but January and the first two weeks of February is where you really start to get all of your answers before the postseason. This week brings of highly anticipated league battles between teams unbeaten in league play & sharing first place:

Akron @ Newfane in the N-O on Tuesday

Fredonia at Salamanca in CCAA I West on Thursday

Ellicottville at Franklinville in CCAA II East on Thursday

- The first time I watched Jamestown this season, I really liked what I saw. But I found myself debating others who had already watched them and had a differing opinion. The sample size that they had was the Canisius game, which I took with a grain of salt. Nine consecutive wins later, I think those guys I was debating are coming around to my way of thinking

- The reason people were down on Jamestown after the Canisius game was because they watched them go a quarter without scoring and finished with just 30 points in the game. Then they went out and held St. Mary’s to 20 points. That's a combined 50 points allowed by Canisius in two games...ponder that one for a moment.

- I found out this week that the Monsignor Martin Association goes to a running clock format when a game reaches a 35-point deficit in the second half and remains there until the deficit goes under 20 points. I want to be careful not to give too strong of a take on this one, so I will leave it as oh brother, lol, give me a break, how stupid, & are you kidding me?

- The basketball gods gave me a doubleheader on Thursday night and it was great. I got to watch Timon beat Nichols at 6 pm before taking the short drive down South Park Ave. to watch Jamestown at Frontier. In an effort to conserve time and race out of there at the conclusion of the first game, I began to prepare a final score tweet with all scenarios. Then I did a lousy job going back and editing it before sending it at the end, posting that Timon had reached the century mark for the second time on the season (after scoring 90 points). While at Frontier, I received multiple messages asking me if I understood what the century mark was. Embarrassing.

- Last season, Panama won the Section VI Class D title, rolling out four sophomores in their starting lineup. They were missing sophomore Carter Brink due to injury for the second half of the season. He’s back this season, and the junior is averaging 28 points per game, already registering 4 games over 30 points.

- The Chairman of the Boards (Niagara Wheatfield's Luke Walck) is averaging 13.9 rebounds a game right now

- Keep an eye on Falconer. I think they are a better team than a stretch of four consecutive losses would lead you to believe. Remember, they are a team that opened the season with a win at Olean....another team to watch for. I could see Falconer being one of the four teams to reach Buff State in Class. B2 and I could see Olean being the team to win the entire thing in Class A2

- From the time I started on the high school hoops scene until now, there are only 14 teams remaining with the same head coach as when I started

-centercourt