The NBA and multiple college basketball conferences postponed games in response to winter weather that broke snowfall records in some southern states and coated others with a mix of snow and ice.
Wednesday night's NBA contest between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Pelicans was called off a day after the storm dumped about a foot of snow in New Orleans - a subtropical city with very little in the way of experience with, or equipment for, clearing large amounts of snow.
In nearby Baton Rouge, LSU's fifth-ranked women's basketball team was unable to fly on Wednesday to Columbia, South Carolina, so the Southeastern Conference chose to postpone the Tigers' game at the No. 2 Gamecocks from Thursday night until Friday evening.
Meanwhile, the Sun Belt Conference cited "hazardous travel conditions" in rescheduling four men's basketball games.
Georgia Southern's home game against Coastal Carolina, and Louisiana-Lafayette's home game against Texas State were moved from Wednesday to Thursday. Two games originally scheduled for Thursday - Southern Mississippi at Troy and South Alabama at Louisiana-Monroe - both were moved to Monday.