High school basketball conference tournaments: Yes, no, uh ...

ASHEBORO — With two weeks of high school basketball games postponed because of harsh weather conditions in Randolph and surrounding counties, the various conferences are running the gamut when it comes to the upcoming conference tournaments.

Some will reduce its conference tournaments, one will cancel its tournament and one will attempt to have a full tournament after a grueling end-of-the-regular-season schedule.

Triad Area Athletic Conference

The Triad Area Athletic Conference, which includes Asheboro High School and five Guilford County schools, are jamming the remaining regular season into a 10-day period before starting the tournament the very next day.

The Blue Comets were scheduled to play Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, next Friday and next Monday before opening TAAC Tournament action Tuesday Feb. 17. Counting the first round of the tournament, the Blue Comets will be playing seven games in an 11-day period.

“To finish the season, they had to do something,” said AHS boys coach Brian Nance, who said he believes that schedule may be a bit extreme. “Playing-wise, we will have the least amount of playing time going into these games as anyone.”

Because of byes, exams and the weather, AHS played just four games the entire month of January and only one game in the past three weeks. AHS was allowed to resume practice last Thursday and worked out two days before the gauntlet of games.

“I told them you’re either going to come out of this and play okay, really good or really bad,” Nance said. “We’ll just show up and see which it is.”

Four Rivers Conference

The Four Rivers Conference, which includes Southwestern Randolph, Uwharrie Charter and Eastern Randolph, has elected to reduce its conference tournament to just one finals game, featuring the top two seeds in the regular season. Those games will be played Saturday, Feb. 21, at the boys’ top seed. The Cougars and Wildcats have six games remaining and UCA had five remaining regular-season games at the start of this week.

Central Carolina Conference

The Central Carolina Conference, which includes Providence Grove, Wheatmore and Trinity, has voted to reduce its conference tournament to four teams, bypassing the first round. The CCC Tournament will be held Feb. 19 and Feb. 20.

PG, WHS and THS had five regular-season games remaining starting at the beginning of this week.

Piedmont Athletic Conference

The Piedmont Athletic Conference has canceled its conference tournament to allow teams to use that week to schedule regular-season games. The Randleman Tigers, one of seven teams in that league, have five remaining PAC games to play.