WALDRON GRAIN & FUEL

01/23 16:05 CST NBA, ACC men, UConn women among college hoops games affected by approaching winter storm NBA, ACC men, UConn women among college hoops games affected by approaching winter storm By JOHN RABY AP Sports Writer An NBA game, an NHL contest and dozens of college basketball games across a wide swath of the country are being reshuffled because of an approaching major winter storm. The storm that meteorologists say could rival the damage of a major hurricane is expected to bring snow, ice and frigid temperatures from New Mexico to New England starting Friday. Forecasters warn the weather system could bring catastrophic damage, widespread power outages and bitterly cold weather. In the NBA, the start time of the Washington Wizards' game at the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday has been moved to noon. The NHL said Saturday's game in Nashville between the Predators and the Utah Mammoth would start two hours earlier. The ACC moved up the start times for three men's basketball games on Saturday: Wake Forest at Duke, North Carolina at Virginia, and Virginia Tech at Louisville. On the women's side, Wake Forest's home game against Virginia Tech and Virginia's home game against N.C. State were shifted from Sunday to Saturday, while North Carolina moved up its Sunday game against Syracuse to a noon Eastern start. Xavier moved up its start time for Saturday's men's game against St. John's by one hour, and Arkansas pushed its tipoff several hours earlier against LSU. A pair of women's basketball games involving ranked teams have also had scheduling changes. No. 1 UConn's game at Seton Hall was moved from Sunday to Saturday, and No. 14 Baylor's home contest against Houston went from Sunday to Tuesday. Also, Cincinnati shifted its women's basketball game to a noon start Saturday against Arizona State. The number of states where college games were being adjusted showed the large path of the approaching storm. The forecast comes exactly a year after another storm forced postponements across U.S. sports. The Sun Belt Conference preemptively shook up its women's basketball schedule, moving around the start times on several games from Thursday through Saturday. The American Athletic Conference also adjusted its weekend men's and women's basketball schedules, moving some games up to Friday. North Carolina Central postponed two men's and two women's basketball games scheduled to be played from Thursday through Monday in Durham, North Carolina. Appalachian State moved up its men's basketball home game with Louisiana-Lafayette to Thursday morning and Marshall made its home game against Louisiana-Monroe a noon Thursday tipoff. Middle Tennessee State men's basketball moved its Conference USA showdown with Jacksonville State from Saturday to Friday evening. Tennessee's swim meet at Georgia and the USC Upstate women's basketball game at Longwood were pushed to Friday from Saturday because of the forecast. Among other women's basketball games moved up several hours Saturday included No. 20 Princeton at Brown and North Florida at Eastern Kentucky, along with men's games involving Towson at North Carolina A&T and Texas State at James Madison. Rice adjusted tipoff times for its men's and women's basketball home games this weekend. The Rice men's home game against Tulsa originally scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. has been changed to Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Also, the Rice women's game against Tulane originally scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. has been moved up an hour to 1 p.m. George Mason's women's basketball game against Richmond was moved up three hours to 11 a.m. Sunday morning, with no fans permitted to attend the game. Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers canceled their annual Fan Fest event scheduled for Saturday because of the weather forecast for frozen precipitation in North Texas and "in the interest of safety for players, fans, and employees." ___ AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports