It would be fair to say that the rash of snow and cold to hit the area over the past week hasn't helped people like winter, but basketball coaches might feel a bit more upset at the recent scenarios then anyone else.

Snow wiped out games and practices last Thursday and Friday, only to let teams get back on the court Saturday. For Liberty and Freedom, that meant losses over the weekend without any practice in between since at least January 1. The Hurricanes lost to Whitehall 57-53, while Freedom dropped a 63-58 encounter with East Stroudsburg North.

Bethlehem Catholic has been idle since December 28, in terms of playing actual games, and all three schools, along with many in the Lehigh Valley may have had to wait another day with the possibility of games being canceled on Tuesday night because of subzero temperatures that closed schools throughout the region.

Freedom's contest against Pocono Mountain West Monday night was postponed because West was dismissed from school early on Monday, giving head coach Joe Stellato another headache this winter.

"We're looking at playing 15 games in 29 days," said Stellato of his backed up schedule over the next month. "We've had three games postponed already and if we don't play Tuesday, we could have three games in a row to end the week.

"Usually, it wouldn't be that big of a deal for us, but we have such a young team, we need practice time. We keep making the same mistakes in our games, but we really have no time to correct them."

Sitting at 4-3 overall and 3-0 in the league heading into this week, the Patriots have set themselves up in good position early.

A win over Allen (4-3) could put them in a very good position as they move into cross divisional play, starting against Nazareth (5-4) Friday night and heading into Northampton (2-5) next week.

"We've been fortunate to get wins against our divisional opponents," said Stellato. "That has really helped us to start the year, but we really need to fix the mistakes we've been making as of late and we just haven't had time. We just have to roll with the punches because we can't control the weather."

Bethlehem Catholic (3-5, 1-2) is anxious to get back on the court, as they were slated to take on league stalwart Central Catholic (8-0, 3-0) Tuesday night. The Hawks close out the week against Stroudsburg (3-5) and Northampton with back-to-back contests on Thursday and Friday.

"Mother nature has left us, like a lot of LVC teams, in sort of a holding pattern," said Hawks' head coach Mike Frew. "It gave us some time to tweak things and get extra practice together. We're just hungry to play games and move forward in 2014."

So is everyone else at the moment, but with the update of Tuesday games coming after Press deadlines, teams may have to wait a bit longer.

"With what I've dealt with in the past, if you school was canceled, you generally didn't play," said Stellato in reference to Tuesday's school closing. "We'll see if they let us play Tuesday night though."