Prep Talk

Throughout the boys basketball season, 10 voters will rate Western New York's best teams from 1 to 10 in the large and small school polls. The News has one vote in each poll.

The polls are part of the Sidelines published weekly in Tuesday's Scholastic Spotlight.

Here's a look back at The News' ballot for the first, second and third polls of the season, and here's this week's:

Large schools

1. Niagara Falls (9-0) [last week: 1] -- The Wolverines are the only thing missing from Saturday's MLK lineup.   

2. Nichols (11-1) [2] -- Another great matchup for Vikings on Saturday when they meet East at ECC-City.

3. Jamestown (9-2) [4] -- Won at Frontier too handily not to move them up. Here's the Post-Journal's write-up about that game in which the Raiders showed of some new unis.

4. Grover Cleveland (6-1) [3] -- Almost left them at No. 3. Despite two close wins over Olean and Bennett, it's not as much a reflection on Grover as it is on Jamestown winning at another top 10 school.

5. East (5-1) [5] -- Looking forward to seeing the Panthers for the first time since their Pastor-Cooper title.

6. Williamsville North (7-1) [6] -- Host Jamestown a week from today.

7. Williamsville South (6-3) [9] -- Loss to North means that the Spartans are the Billies' ceiling on this ballot.

8. Frontier (6-4) [8] -- Loss to Jamestown is better than Depew's loss to Maryvale, so we're keeping the Falcons in while very reluctantly keeping the Wildcats out. A very close loss at a very tough league rival in Maryvale s no great shame, but it's enough to get you knocked down ever so slightly. Depew's the 11th top 10 team (and the smallest large school in Western New York, just for the record).

9. McKinley (6-1) [10] -- Macks hustled their way past Middle College without Habeeb.

10. Sweet Home (8-1) [NR] -- Finally found a spot on this ballot -- we seriously thought of debuting them at No. 6. We'll find out more Saturday at MLK.

Small schools

1. Lackawanna (4-3) [1] -- Like East, we're very much looking forward to getting another look at these guys Saturday.

2. Wilson (6-2) [2] -- Could Lakemen stumble in N-O this week? Hosting Newfane today and Medina Friday.

3. St. Mary's (7-3) [3] -- Took a couple of hits, but those are large schools they're losing to.

4. Olean (5-4) [6] -- Two things: Seems like the Southern Tier is playing some balanced ball this year (like the teams in this poll), and seems like a healthy Olean is still tops in the Southern Tier.

5. Fredonia (6-4) [NR] -- Hillbillies beat Gowanda and Allegany-Limestone last week (and in the weekly impactful Monday game played Olean to one point).

6. Randolph (6-2) [4] -- Wins against Maple Grove and Allegany-Limestone got them here, loss to Westfield last week knocks them down a bit (here's a link to an eventful last Monday -- which also serves as a reminder to Southern Tier schools to please call The News, too, which also helps section6basketball.net keep track of the seedings numbers).

7. Allegany-Limestone (7-2) [5] -- CCAA I dogfights (Olean, Fredonia, A-L, Gowanda) will continue through February.

8. Alden (7-2) [8] -- Have to wait until Jan. 30 for Bulldogs to host Lackawanna.

9. Maple Grove (6-3) [9] -- Still No. 1 in Class D, still should improve as season goes on.

10. East Aurora (5-4) [10] -- We see them as a top 10 small school. Akron bumped for now -- blame it on the depth in competitiveness the Southern Tier has shown.

Don't like what you're reading here, or in the overall poll? The comments section is below. Or join me in a live chat here Wednesday night at 10 p.m.

---Keith McShea