A sea of empty red seats surrounds the basketball court of the University’s Fertitta Center. The UH athletics venue was set to host a game between the UH women’s basketball team and ECU on Wednesday, but the game has been postponed. | Jhair Romero/The Cougar
The city of Houston has been hit hard by a winter storm that dropped temperatures into the teens across the area, and UH athletics has also been impacted.
“(We’re) at the mercy of the weather,” men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson said.
UH is hoping it can fly out to Wichita State by Wednesday afternoon, Sampson said, but the team is experiencing plane issues.
The Guy V. Lewis Training Facility has been without power and water since Sunday, Sampson told reporters on Wednesday.
The men’s basketball team had to move practices and film sessions inside of Fertitta Center, however, they have been unable to use the showers and the restrooms inside the facility.
The status of Sunday’s game against Cincinnati is also unknown as citywide outages and power issues continue.
“This needs to be resolved by Saturday for (Cincinnati) to get in,” Sampson said.
The UH women’s basketball team announced in a release that its home game scheduled against East Carolina on Wednesday was postponed due to the inclement weather.
The team was able to hold a short practice on Tuesday, however, the practices for the rest of the week are dependant on the weather and if the team’s staff can travel safely to campus, a spokesperson for the UH women’s basketball team said.
The UH baseball team, which has its season opener set for Friday against Texas Southern, had its practice on Tuesday canceled, a spokesperson said. The team has also been unable to test for COVID-19 the entire week. TSU has had similar issues, the spokesperson said.
The status of the baseball team’s practices for the rest of the week is still unknown depending on the weather, but the opener on Friday is still expected to go on as scheduled as of now.
The UH men’s golf team also had its event, the All-American Intercollegiate in Humble, which was set for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, postponed due to the weather conditions.
Temperatures across the Houston area are forecasted to hover just around freezing on Wednesday, with a high chance of rain. A winter storm warning went into effect at midnight on Wednesday and will last until 6 a.m. Thursday. Temperatures are not expected to rise above the 30s until Friday.
