Hello from Canisius College for what should be a great one: St. Joe's vs. Canisius, Chapter Two. Canisius won the first round last month in a game in which St. Joe's senior backcourt was knocked out of the game after conking heads late in the first half.
I'll provide updates in the live blog below. When I have my laptop out I'll be able to do play-by-play, otherwise I'll send #preptalkscores updates via Twitter, which will also appear in the blog.
Your tweets with the hashtag #preptalkscores are welcome -- as they will appear in the live blog as well. Every night, scoring update tweets (in any sport) are welcome to those on Twitter -- just use the #preptalkscores hashtag.
Check our scoreboard page for a complete schedule of today's games; the scoreboard will be updated as we receive game reports throughout the evening.
For this week's PrepTalkTV Weekly -- which you can see right here tonight at 9 -- we'll welcome a team fresh off one of the biggest wins in school history (and that's any sport). We'll have the Cardinal O'Hara girls team on one night after beating Sacred Heart in a battle of Western New York's No. 1s.
And yes, we said the team. Part of the reason that O'Hara is a great story -- besides its undefeated record -- is that there are just eight players on the team, so they'll all be on hand along with coach Dan McDermott.
We'll have another loaded show of highlights from boys and girls hoops as well as hockey, wrestling and swimming -- including a couple of "[BN] The Locker Room" videos of coaches' pregame speeches. We'll also have more highlights in PrepTalkTV Rewind as well our weekly look at the boys basketball polls and a look ahead to this weekend and beyond.
As usual after PrepTalkTV Weekly, I'll have a live chat following the show.
Here's a rundown of the show:
0:00 -- Opening, discussion of McShea's Prep Talk column on Depew Boys & Girls Club
3:10 -- Interview with Cardinal O'Hara girls basketball team, including coach Dan McDermott, senior Leah McDonell and junior Keyonte Edwards
13:40 -- Clarence hockey's win over Frontier, featuring [BN] The Locker Room footage of coach Rick Brooks
18:30 -- Canisius boys swimming dominates St. Joe's to start strong weekend
21:45 -- Canisius boys basketball moves to No. 1 in The News poll and the state Class A poll; featuring [BN] The Locker Room with coach Kyle Husband from Friday's win at Timon
25:50 -- Look at this week's boys basketball polls
28:10 -- PrepTalkTV Rewind (St. Francis wrestling, Iroquois girls basketball, a special guest star on the Bucky & Sully show), followed by discussion of concussions in football and a mention of locals on National Signing Day
35:55 -- Discussion of this weekend's big championship wrestling meets
38:05 -- A look ahead to upcoming action from Thursday to Tuesday; closing.
Today is National Signing Day for college football, the first day recruits can officially sign with Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) programs.
Canisius senior lineman Ryan Hunter, who verbally committed to Bowling Green last summer, signed with the Falcons at a 10 a.m. ceremony at the Delaware Ave. school.
Hunter, a 6-foot-5, 315-pound two-way force for the undefeated Monsignor Martin Association champion Crusaders (who finished ranked first in The News large school poll and shared the spot in the state Class AA poll), was named The News Player of the Year along with his teammate, junior standout running back Qadree Ollison.
A teammate of Hunter's, senior wide receiver Denzel Benton, was also part of the signing ceremony as he commited to Football Championship Series (formerly Division I-AA) member Rhode Island.
Also committing to an FCS school today was Andy Smigiera of West Seneca East, who signed with Robert Morris.
Orchard Park senior lineman Michael Senn announced last month he would sign with Albany of the FCS.
Every week during the basketball season a panel of voters participates in The News' large and small school boys basketball polls.
And every week we let you know, like the title says ... how The News voted.
This week marks a change at the top as Canisius takes over the No. 1 large school spot for Niagara Falls. Canisius had a great start to what should be a fun month, winning at Timon Friday, beating Section V Class AA power Fairport (then ranked second in the state) on Saturday, becoming the top-ranked team in the Class A state poll on Monday and ascending to The News No. 1 spot today.
This is just one ballot -- there are nine other voters in each poll. This week's News poll is available via the high school home page. Here's the direct link.
1. Canisius (15-3) [last week: 2] -- I said I was waiting to see Niagara Falls and Canisius this past weekend to see if there was a move to be made for this spot, and the results made it a clear one. Canisius was all over Fairport from the start and then made the plays to hold on. Fairport, Bishop Kearney (which Falls lost to Sunday) and Webster Schroeder (which Falls lost to Saturday) are considered to be tightly grouped together when it comes to who is the best Class AA team in Section V.
Hello from what should be an outstanding tripleheader of boys basketball games at East High in Rochester. It's the RAP Invitational, an event named for the local AAU group the Rochester Area Players. Great lineup of games all weekend.
Today's Buffalo-area partipation begins with News No. 2 large schoolCanisius vs. No. 1 Section V large school Fairport at 5:15 p.m., followed by No. 1 large school Niagara Falls vs. No. 2 Section V large school Webster Schroeder at 7. Then it's No. 7 Bishop Timon-St. Jude against the host East Orientals at 8:45.
I'll have updates from games in the live blog below and I'll also be providing #preptalkscores updates on Twitter, which will also appear in the blog.
If you want to chime in from any of tonight's high school contests (of any sport) -- your tweets with the hashtag #preptalkscores will appear in the live blog as well.
Tonight's major matchup we'll be on hand for is No. 2 large schoolCanisius at No. 7 Bishop Timon-St. Jude at 7 p.m.
There should be the usual great crowd on hand and great atmosphere at Palano gym. It's also the start of quite the weekend for boys basketball, including for both of these teams. On Saturday, the Crusaders (vs. Fairport) and Timon (vs. Rochester East) will take on Section V powers at the RAP Invitational at East High in Rochester.
The RAP event begins tonight with Olean traveling to take on East High in a compelling matchup. Other key games tonight include McKinley vs. Middle Early College at ECC-City at 7 in Yale Cup I and Frontier at Williamsville North at 7:30 in ECIC I. In Yale Cup III, Lafayette heads to Olmsted at 6 p.m. in a battle for first place; at 7 p.m., second place in the Niagara Frontier League is on the line as North Tonawanda hosts Lockport.
I'll have updates from games in the live blog below and I'll also be providing #preptalkscores updates on Twitter, which will also appear in the blog.
If you want to chime in from any of tonight's high school contests (of any sport) -- your tweets with the hashtag #preptalkscores will appear in the live blog as well.
Every week during the basketball season a panel of voters participates in The News' large and small school boys basketball polls.
And every week we let you know, like the title says ... how The News voted.
This is just one ballot -- there are nine other voters in each poll. This week's News poll is available via the high school home page.
It's a Super Week, and we're not talking about Sunday's football game. As you'll see throughout the blog, there are several big-time games this week -- there's even one on Super Bowl Sunday that is worth a bit of hype.
1. Niagara Falls (10-1) [last week: 1] -- The 100-18 win over Kenmore East revived calls for the Niagara Frontier League to allow Falls to play as an independent. I've said they should have remained that way since the 2005 Federation championship team.
For this week's PrepTalkTV Weekly -- which you can see right here tonight at 9 -- we'll welcome in a Hall of Famer in what we think is a loaded episode.
Legendary Sacred Heart girls basketball coach Sister Maria Pares, along with senior standouts La'Trice Hall and Hannah Rehbaum, will be our in-studio guests (the Sharks are coming straight from their game tonight with St. Mary's).
We'll also have a look back at some major wrestling and boys basketball action from the past week, more highlights in PrepTalkTV Rewind, our weekly look at the boys basketball polls and a look ahead to this weekend and beyond. Lauren and I will also likely talk about my Prep Talk column today pushing for a special kickoff event for the 2014 football season.
Greetings from City Honors, again site of the seventh Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Basketball Classic, hosted by the Buffalo Public Schools.
Today's lineup includes ranked teams in each of the four games here at City Honors. The day begins with No. 8 small school Lackawanna taking on the host Centaurs at 11 a.m., followed by No. 3 small school East meeting East Aurora (not ranked but I had them at No. 10 in my ballot) at 12:45.
The second session begins at 4 p.m. with ECIC II leader Sweet Home taking on No. 6 small school Middle Early College. The marquee matchup of the day has No. 2 large school Canisius meeting No. 3 McKinley at 5:45.
I'll have updates from games in the live blog below and via #preptalkscores updates on Twitter.
Keith McShea has covered high school sports at The News since his hiring in 1999. The 1995 University at Buffalo graduate and Long Island native (North Babylon Bulldogs) covers — and live blogs — everything from scrimmages to state championships & helps head The News' All-Western New York selections.
Lauren Nicole Mariacher joined The News in 2009 after graduating from the Columbia University School of Journalism. The Elma native and Iroquois graduate can usually be found on a sideline, capturing highlights for PrepTalkTV. She also hosts Prep Talk's weekly live show, with Keith McShea, as well as The News' live postgame Bills show — [BN]TheHuddle.
