– As a tribute to one of my favorite players to watch from last season, Lafayette's Lester Diaz, Random Smatterings returns this season and will receive a little hispanic flare as I'll use Spanish to number them.  Disfrutar de la temporada.

 

– During the Pastor-Cooper Showcase, Holland senior Clay Lewis shot a contested 10-footer from the baseline, but failed to draw iron.  Head coach Tim Schulz arguing for a foul call pointed out, "he doesn't shoot airballs from 10 feet unless someone hits his arm."

 

– If no players had transferred out of City Honors a few years back, check out what the Centaurs starting lineup this season could have been (do you think they would have had a shot at the Federation Title in Class B?):

Howard Washington, Cam Lewis, Chris Miner, Matt Cieslik, & Jordahn Summers  

 

– My vote for the best name of any player in Section VI is Cort Williams of Williamsville East, because he could use the nickname "Center" Cort Williams.

 

 - A final score from the start of the season, some of you may have missed: Eden 21, Springville 19

 

– The unusually long commute that Amherst had to endure to travel to the Pastor-Cooper Showcase may help explain why the Tigers were tied with Kenmore West at halftime, before pulling away in the second half.  

 

– I've never seen the Class B2 sectional champion win the overall Section VI Class B title. It's always the winner from Class B1 who wins the crossover and advances to regionals.  I'm calling for that to change this season.  Class B2 appears to be loaded with the likes of East, Fredonia, Health Sciences, & Lackawanna, among others.  Conversely, Class B1 looks wide open and there for the taking.  When predicting the team that would win Class B1 this year, I went with eenie, meenie, miney, mo – the non-my mother told me version.

 

– Kordell Holness-Lightbody of St. Francis has the early game-high in scoring for this season after a 40-point outing in a loss to West Seneca East.

 

– Check out these stats lines by Cassadaga Valley's Cody Johnson, an All-Centercourt HM last season:  39 points & 20 rebounds in a win over Falconer and 38 points & 19 rebounds in a win over Pine Valley.  Through four games this season, he is averaging 28.3 PPG and 15.3 RPG.

 

– Canisius junior Stafford Trueheart has picked up offers from both George Washington and Richmond.

 

– In Section V, Greece Athena (who brought back a ton from its Class AA regional finalist squad) has moved down to Class A this season.  They will be considered heavy favorites to return to regionals again and may even be favorites to win a state title.

 

– Speaking of heavy favorites to win a state title, how about Westhill, who thumped Olean in last year's Class B state championship?  They return four starters, including the two who scored 41 & 38 points respectively, against the Huskies.

 

– Based on early results, Lew-Port looks like they could be a serious contender in the NFL this season.

 

-centercourt