USATSI
Wild winter weather is impacting college basketball schedules across the nation this week with No. 17 Wisconsin’s home game vs. Grambling State, initially scheduled for Friday, among the many contests that are either on the move or off the slate entirely.
Wisconsin announced on Thursday that its game against Grambling State is canceled because of an imminent weather storm that caused issues for the Tigers’ travel plans. Blizzard conditions are possible that would have made playing the game difficult, and temperatures are expected to drop below zero overnight.
Iowa State’s home game initially scheduled for Wednesday against Omaha was also canceled earlier in the week. Two other games Thursday — Milwaukee at Rhode Island and Sam Houston State at Missouri State — were also canceled because of winter storms. (Iowa played its home game Wednesday night against Eastern Illinois but is probably wishing it had canceled that game after losing in spectacularly embarrassing fashion.)
There were other games affected by weather on Wednesday:
The week before Christmas in college basketball is typically a quiet one so it is possible rugged conditions and winter blasts may ultimately not affect plans as much as one might think beyond what damage it has already caused on the calendar. There’s only two matchups between now and New Year’s Day between teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 with No. 9 Alabama vs. No. 15 Mississippi State slated for the evening of Dec. 28 and No. 5 Arizona vs. No. 25 Arizona State — the latter of which is unlikely to be ranked come Monday — scheduled for the afternoon on New Year’s Eve.
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