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