Who should make the All-Centercourt teams?

Johnathon Lewis buffalo east high … Avg 19 points a game over 85 steals second place in Yale ( behind Mckinly ) Class b2 championship , b2 player of game aquanist all tourney team and also olean all tourney team !

Hoops Fan1

1st Team Weir Campion Taplin Williams Bathurst
2nd Team Crumpton Belton Carson Wilkinson Eckstrum
3rd Team White Mitchell Anderson Rath Morris

Neil Lewis

Not taking anything away from anyone but the kid Mitchell is a great talent but was out played bye johnathon Lewis both games this year .. And split the series with Anderson John won at Ecc in overtime he scored six of his teams 11 points but keir got revenge at east the last game of the Yale cup .. I’m just saying the over look what John did he did take his team too too the class b champ vs olean !

Shadowtoad

1st team: Weir, Eckstrum, Bathhurst, Taplin and Williams. Campion and Crumpton r OV/RATED. And I would take L. Smith and his overall game over Morris from McKinley any day of the week.

Clarence

Tanner Schmit from Clarence. Just a sophmore and he was one of the better players in the league

Clarence

Schmit also averaged 10 points and 15 boards

don ciezki

zak ciezki a sophomore from cheektowaga averaged 17 points a game had 75 assits 124 rebounds 35 steals and 29 block shots for the year and also had 7 3 pointers 10 rebound and 37 points in playoff lost to iroquois

no look pass

Shadowfrog. Bathurst and eckstrom are juniors. Good players, but Crumpton would eat them alive on the court. By the way, Tom Parotta and Jim Baron both think Crumpton’s a D1 talent. You lose this argument. Bathurst is first team. Not Eckstrom. First team: Weir, Crumpton, Campion, Taplin, Bathurst

Hoopster

campion not first team, would be going D 1 if he was …. plays on good team but not first team all wny….

GAME

Crupmpton would not eat either one of those guys alive…..unless he was a cannibal. BTW did you hear about the cannibal that passed his brother in the woods? and I know Taplins a good baller but I was only able to go to the games at Buff St. and I didn’t see him there. And for anyone there @ Buff St. Tuesday night, was there 5 players there as good or better than Taplin..and we cant forget JT and Canisius were not there. he’s a great player but I don’t think he gets the entitlement bid this year. I find it hard to believe that with all the talent still playing there not five that qualify for 1st team. BUT, I know you have to think about the whole year and I cant vouch for many of those games. But I do know the cream rises to the top in the end. And another fact is I don’t hold a lot of the other answers to the criteria being used due to my lack of seeing these guys more on the floor. But there is no doubt there are plenty to choose from, good luck!

Joe716

First Team-Weir,Williams,Taplin,Bathurst,Crumpton
Second Team-Eckstrum,Campion,White,Anderson,Wilkinson
Third Team-Carson,Belton,Lewis,Mitchell,Morris
Fourth Team-Rath,Mccdonald,Smith,Oliveri,Schmidtt

Shadowtoad

Its shadowtoad not shadowfrog! LOL My problem with Crumpton is that he sits outside alot of the time when he should have been kicking butt under the boards and dominating. As to him thriving as a D-1 player, don’t hold your breath. I hope it happens but his game doesn’t translate in my opinion.

TML1000

I used to say Crumpton’s game won’t translate to college but he has proven me wrong. He can do everything fairly well…should be a very tough matchup on the perimeter in time with his size. Currently, he doesn’t yet have the speed to get to the rim consistently at that level but he does have enough to get open at times for midrange shots. I could definitely see Crumpton developing into a starter for the latter portion of his college career.

WT716

Love the dad promoting his own son

Gus Buster

I give him credit for using his own name. I suspect many dads promote their boys around here but look to throw the dogs off the trail. I think Ciezki made the cut either way, hat kid is a player.

Tarheel23

Game?? Cannibalism? Finally this blog has devolved into something closer to my level. HA! I dont think its fair to hold Crumpton to a lowere standard because his coach wont use him the way he should be used. I agree with TML, I really think he will thrive at Canisius and maybe start or at least be a big contributor his final 2 years. I can remember 4 years ago a bunch of prople, including his local hs writer who didn’t think Javon Mcrea would do anything at UB. UM, i think they have all been proven wrong. And for all the nitpickers out there hold up. I am not comparing Mcrea to Crumpton. Jermaine wont be THAT good. But if he sticks with Coach Baron and works hard, he could have a nice career for the Griffs

TML1000

I still find it fairly crazy that so many people didn’t think Javon would amount to all that much. I remember the first time I saw him play against South in the regionals…he was just dominant(sure against a team without an inside presence). He was certainly raw, but you could see flashes of being great. He has also improved portions of his game each season…soemthing every good college player needs to do to be very successful.

Neil

I agree with joe 716

GAME

Tarheel~thought you would catch the joke in there!!In my limited time seeing Crumpton they easily took away a lot of his skill by placing him on the perimeter a lot in zone Dz and I think he should have been down low attracting a crowd to free up more uncontested shots closer in and for 3z.and its also true that a lot of these guys will grow and become even better when surrounded by better players all around him on a very consistent basis. And he does have some skills all over the floor that can be polished and utilized more at the next level and I wish him well as I wish ALL these kids well. Didn’t that kid from N-W think his name was Mulkey or something…he seemed to get better once he was at UB….im a bit foggy on his years but only 1-2 years ago. And thank you all for input as I have not been a full time fan of more than just my kids and their leagues so a lot is what I “recall” and hope I will be able to see more games with my boy graduating this year. As mosy you Dads know you are on your kids games and everything when their playing but when they are not it will give me more “EyeTime” in person at these big time ballers. My best as I said to all kids.

matt allen

Marcus morris does it all for Mckinley the game against Amherst he dominated.He does it all he has handles ,rebounds, assists and is great scorer and look how far the Macks have come in last 2 years he is a true point guard he should have made the first team . He doesnt have to score to dominate he can hurt u with assists and rebounds and leadership.

GAME

I don’t know of him only because I missed both games they played and just wasn’t following that bracket that close and I wish I would have. I didn’t see SC either but my boy did and been kind of watching them here and on prep, but I would agree in most cases that you don’t have to drop 25 ppg or more to be a top player. And as a good example is Darnell Carson who BTW I watched play last night in the Senior All-Star N-O vs GR game. He was on the 5 with my son and some others and he was leaving decent defenders with their shorts down with some crazy dribbling and no look passes with his speed and I call bunny hopping lane penetration!! Their were Dunks galore and the Genesee Region team had a 6ft kid from Kendall (I think) throw down 2 ally-oops and took a miss off the rim and bury it home!! But the N-O team coached by Wilson coach Sippel won it going away but was one of the best serious/fun games I’ve watched in awhile. Warm ups were nothing but a show of slams with another not so tall kid toss one of the glass for a nice 360 dunk. Now I think everyone knows of an awesome player from Kendall years ago who was Coach Boeheims first recruit at Syracuse…and that player today is still very active in the game helping players find places to play overseas and lots of others great things he does for the kids and you can go to his Facebook page and check him out. As I said I was very surprised at what a good game it turned out to be.

Jim233

Johnathon Lewis for the east high panthers is going too run threw wny next year boys basketball .. Even more than he did this year I think you guys should start paying more attention too east …all 5 starters were underclass men and johnathon carried that young team too the Class B crossover game

Jason west

1st Team – Weir, Williams , Taplin , Bathurst , Crumpton
2nd Team- Eckstrom , Campion , white , Anderson , Wilkins
3rd Team – Belton , Lewis , Carson , Morris , Mitchell
4th Team – Mccdonald , Rath , Smith , oliveri , schmidtt

Joe716

Wilkinson is a kid who averaged 24 a game
And led his team to the A2 final for the first
Time in 10 years he has to find his way onto
One of these teams!

wny hooper

Weir, Crumpton, Bathurst, Taplin, Morris.
Book it now, those are your 1st team allwny for the buffalo news!!

Ryan J

1st team Weir Taplin Crumpton Williams Bathurst
2nd team Eckstrum Campion Morris White Anderson
3rd team Wilkinson Carson Belton Mitchell Lewis

Darrin Haight

There is a kid with better stats then at least one of the kids I keep seeing get mentioned for first team. Haight from Barker. He is second in scoring and rebounding according to section 6 and there new web site. Since he doesn’t get the press coverage you won’t see him even on the list. So please don’t call it All WNY Center court call it buffalo’s center court team please!

centercourt

Darrin –
I don’t believe I’ve ever called it anything but All-Centercourt.

sauce

Tommy Campion should be first team!! how can you not have him on there??!! He carried jtown to the regoinals.

Shadowtoad

TML1000 and Tarheel23: for the record my comments about Crumpton are based on comparing what I saw in high school from him and going to college games and seeing the level of play. Having said that, I hope Crumpton proves me wrong and has a great college career at Canisius. You gotta love it when a local guy makes it at a local college. Best of luck to him. As to the all centercourt teams, I hope when choosing you don’t lose sight of the leagues certain players play in. A player may be dominant and puts up points in a league that is not really strong, but wouldn’t do nearly the same with better competition. As an example, the NFL was terrible this year and when you look at some of the leagues with smaller size schools, guys who dominate there, couldn’t do it with better competition. Just my thoughts.

Just Wondering

When Barker lost 56-16 to Akron, was the player who you claim is 2nd leading scorer and rebounder in the section playing that night?

Ryan J

Wilkinson and Mitchell are the leading scorers in the section!

section 6

In my opinion, to be considered a top player, you have to do more than score points. Ie: play defense, rebounds, assists, steals, etc. Some of the players mentioned don’t play any D!

Darrin Haight

I stated he is 2nd in scoring and rebounding and yes the stats don’t lie those are section stats. Yes he played againt Akron and the team lost and Jake had a bad night both times they played akron. I thought you are tring to pick an all wny team which should be based on player stats not on what there teams did. Lebron James is proff of that you can be the best player and the team isn’t. What I should of done was put Jake in a Private school like some of the kids on your list did because they realized what Lebron Did. You need players around you. They can’t defend 5 like they can one…

hoopster

One of the things I enjoyed most as my kids were coming up through the ranks was the opportunity to meet and become friendly with kids from other schools, their parents, and offer encouragement while having the chance to see them work hard to achieve their goals. It’s also what I miss most today.
One of the nicest people I met was Davon Marshall from Niagara Falls and his dad Cornell. Just great people.
I would like everyone to know that Davon played a huge part in bringing his underdog squad Liberty University to prime time, the NCAA biggest event of the year, The Big Dance!! He drained 6 3 pointers while scoring 20 in a big upset earlier today.
Congratulations to Davon, his family and the entire Niagara Falls community!! Well done! Bravo!

Ryan J

If your a scorer your a player

Tarheel23

I watched that Liberty game earlier today hoopster. Davon’s a great kid, and I was happy to see him play so well on a team that’s going to the tourney. I’ll be in philly 2 weeks from now and would love it if Liberty gets sent there. Now on to the all wny talk. Don’t be too shocked if Keith puts Zeddie Williams on first team. His team is still playing by the way, and they are undefeated. And for all those out there who say he cant be first team cause hes from a small school, I seem to recall Chris secky SHARING player of the year with wil regan when he was a senior. And Maple Grove was a D. Am I saying Zeddie is as good as Secky? Yeah, I guess I am. Or hes at least pretty close.

Darrin Haight

Maple Grove is a d but they also get the press coverage. That’s my point how many of you can say you seen an NO game let alone a school like Barker Play?

TML1000

I have seen plenty of NOL games…only a few this year but the league was not strong at all this year. Possibly weakest league not comprised of mostly D teams.

GAME

Well Darrin,of course I see your point and I think you got to know that a lot of these Large School players have been involve in almost year round basketball where as we are trying to play football and basketball and I think the N-O League was full of great basketball games to watch. And with us you get the players we have in our communities. I played for the same team as my sons played on and not many moved here to be on our teams. But there is not a doubt if your boy was on one of these big time teams I believe he would play and play well. I love to watch him and he’s a great kid and you can be very proud as I am at the way our kids played and Jake still has another year, all I can say is for people to watch him and many have in AAU or games.But we are way up north and some schools just don’t get the coverage when you got so many kids to cover in the bigger leagues. We can always be proud of the teams and our league and it may not be a league full of outsiders playing at the school that will get them noticed more but it just makes better sense for some I guess,and I understand that.Like I said before~~we are a few of the only schools that you can come do and not have to lock your car in the parking lot when you come to watch or play a game here.And in case you don’t know because I am known now as simply “GAME”!! I live a few miles west of you and my name is Ken Sears…all the best to Jake next year and maybe he will draw some much needed attention to us out here in corn country!!And I have seen some of these guys they talk about and they are as advertised, very good and the people here are also very good at looking at the talent pool.

Tim Thomas

I think Johnathon Lewis is the most underrated player in western ny … The kid is amazing and does everything for a guard.. He also will defend your best player he attacks the basket at will … With playing aau this summer and working out I’m afraid too see what he does next year .. When he and his whole team that lost in the class b championship to olean comes back next year .

centercourt

Darrin –
Your initial comment seemed to be in response to others listing their picks, considering I haven’t published my teams yet. But you ended with you saying I should just call it the All-Buffalo CC Team, I guess assuming I’m either not qualified to speak on all of WNY’s players, or just biased towards the city.
Then you reference Maple Grove as a team getting coverage and asking how many have seen an N-O game this year, let alone Barker.
For starters, it’s kind of bad form to cry bias before I’ve even released the teams. Secondly, the vast majority of HS hoops teams in WNY are from Erie County. With that said, I think teams like Jamestown, Olean, Portville, Randolph, & Silver Creek would be pleased with the coverage they got from this site during the season, especially considering I depart from northern Niagara County every night.
You said that stats don’t lie. Maybe, but sure can mislead. The problem I have with looking at the section’s site for stats is there are so many teams that haven’t reported their numbers. At a quick glance, I noticed there were no stats reported from Jamestown, McKinley, Silver Creek, Middle College, and obviously no MMA teams since it’s a Section VI site. Also, it would be a colossal disservice to all the players to simply use statistics to select postseason honors.
As far as Maple Grove getting press, I attended and wrote up one Maple Grove game this season:
http://centercourt.typepad.com/high-school-hoops-talk/2013/02/maple-grove-looks-primed-for-sectionals.html
If it’s some other news outlet you’re referring to, please say that. If it’s previous seasons you’re referring to, they did have a run of three straight years at Glens Falls with two state championships, a rather press worthy accomplishment.
I have attended N-O games, plenty of them. The only N-O teams I did not see this season were Albion and Wilson, the two last place teams with one league win apiece. And I graduated from Wilson, so there’s that bias working again.
Here are the last two All-Centercourt teams from 2011 & 2012:
http://centercourt.typepad.com/high-school-hoops-talk/2011/04/the-2011-all-centercourt-team-the-best-in-wny.html
http://centercourt.typepad.com/high-school-hoops-talk/2012/04/the-2012-all-centercourt-team-the-best-in-wny.html
Josh Haight of Barker is an honorable mention selection on both teams.
Below is a link from a Barker game I covered in 2011, I think you’ll notice both of the Haight brothers drawing high praise from the author:
http://centercourt.typepad.com/high-school-hoops-talk/2011/02/late-surge-lifts-newfane-past-barker.html
I typed Jake Haight into the search bar you’ll find on the right hand column of this site if you scroll down. It yielded multiple results, so I copied & pasted three snipets from three separate Random Smatterings posts below:
1. “The Barker Raiders got a pair of double-doubles from a pair of underclassmen in their 67-44 victory over Section V’s Byron Bergen. What makes it more interesting is that the pair are brothers. Junior Josh Haight scored 28 points and grabbed 10 boards, while freshman Jake Haight netted 18 points and 13 rebounds.”
2. “Joe Lowery finished with 37 points in Niagara Catholic’s loss to Walsh, Connor Keenan scored 37 points in a 76-72 loss to Iroquois, Barker sophomore Jake Haight put up 35 points & 21 rebounds on Newfane in a 74-64 loss, Sean Weisensal had 34 points for Maryvale in a loss to Depew, and Stan Wier of East Aurora scored 32 points in a losing effort at Amherst.”
3. “Barker junior Jake Haight set the new individual game season-high scoring mark for this season in WNY with 40 points in a win over Elba.”
There are several more posts that include Jake and I’d encourage you to check them out.
I guess your comments struck a nerve the more I digested them, because not only do I make the conscious effort to see as many different teams as I can, but my guess is you saw few, if any, games that Barker did not play in, making it difficult to really have a handle on what’s out there on the over 100 teams playing in WNY. Throw in the fact that I’m well aware of Jake Haight and have both watched and written about him this year, and I’m scratching my head. I implore you to find any other site that has given more coverage to Barker’s Jake Haight.

Ryan J

Wilkinson and Lewis are both very underrated talents!

Baller71

1st team Weir Taplin Crumpton Bathurst Williams
2nd team Campion Eckstrum Anderson White Morris
3rd team Wilkinson Belton Lewis Mitchell Carson
4th team Rath Macdonald Smith Wilkins Lewis

Rockhollywoodbob

Campion is definitely first team. I witnessed at least 100 games
this season to my credit and he is the real deal As far as him not going Dn1;How many 5’9″ high school seniors get the chance Jamtown won AA and he was definitely their leader against the Falls. Classy,
smart and top notch athlete,great leader and teammate

sec6

1st: Weir, Crumpton, Taplin, Campion, Eckstrom
2nd: Williams, Bathurst, White, Carson, Anderson
3rd: Rath, Wilkins, Belton, Mitchell, McDonald
4th: Tyson, Mitchell, Morris, Smith, Jordan
5th: Wilkinson, Campbell, Funk, Brooks, Kellam

GAME

Wow CC!!LOL….I didn’t see any other stuff but great info and I will surely vouch that you attend many games in N-O…and I have to say biased and your name should never be used in same sentence.you tell it like it is without any regaurd for anything but the way it is and is why I like it here.No one could say anything about my sons on the court because I know it…I watch them.and because their my boys ….I think they are best in the world!! but your very correct on the Erie county amount of players and action as I alluded to earlier. they just have more players,venues and programs reasonably close to them to take advantage of.we live way of the beaten path and and the kids get most of their talent from playing in one anothers driveways as I actually had a gorilla glass backboard beast put in at their Moms house a few blocks down from me,and they actually did all the tough stuff and helped “Little Games” uncle do the concrete!!so given the things at hand and how they grow up playing….I would say the kids down here do pretty good for themselves being so far removed from the abundance of things offered and catered to in the areas where there so very many kids,and I think its a good thing.so I thank you for the coverage given to us and to all those who are the big headliners.You get an A+ from me for having this blog,watching more games in person than I could imagine and dedication to promoting as many people and places as you can to keep the masses happy…thank you.

McShea is God

I am not ready 2 post my final 1st team yet.
Weir, Crumpton, Taplin, and now Z Williams will b on their 4 sure. I still say A White will b 2nd team and 4 of these 5 will join him:
Will B
Sam E
M Morris
K Anderson
Tommy Campion
1 of them will make 1st team. I’d LEAN toward Bathurst at this point, but if Morris leads the Macks 2 a State title and has huge games, he could play himself on 1st team still I firmly believe.

Kurtis Herb

I would hope too see one of the buffalo east guards on the all wny … They were under sized most of the time it didn’t matter .. They had a great season can’t wait too see what happens next season !

Kurtis Herb