The opening of Kentucky’s high school basketball season has been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s Board of Control voted Wednesday to delay the start of regular-season competition to Jan. 4. The season had been scheduled to begin Monday.

“I really can’t in clear conscience tell you that I think it’s a good idea for our member schools to start playing official games this coming Monday,” KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett said to the board. “I know there will be parents upset. That’s OK. I know there will be coaches upset. There will be kids upset.”

The board, following a lengthy discussion, voted to play an eight-week regular season in basketball that will start Jan. 4 and run through the end of February. District tournaments will start March 1 and regional tournaments on March 8. The state tournaments are tentatively set for March 17-21 and March 24-28 at Rupp Arena in Lexington.

“We stuck to the fact that we were going to preserve the spring. We don’t ever want a spring of 2020 again,” Tackett said.
Kentucky’s high school football playoffs begins Friday as scheduled. Nineteen teams have already bowed out of the postseason. Championship weekend will be Dec. 18-19.