The spring sports are starting up and wrestling ended last weekend, but a number of area basketball teams are still around heading into the state tournament.
It all starts with the Region 8-A No. 3 Lakeview Academy girls, who play in the Class A preliminary round at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Lakeview against Region 7-A No. 4 Washington-Wilkes.
The rest of the girls teams will play first round games Friday, and the boys on Saturday. The Lady Lions would play again on Friday at Region 9-A No. 1 Southwest Atlanta Christian if they win Tuesday.
Tickets for the games are $7. All Region 8 teams open the first round against a Region 7 opponent, and Region 6 teams against a Region 5 opponent.
In Class A, in addition to the Lakeview girls, the Lakeview boys will play Aquinas. The teams will flip a coin to determine the host for Saturday's game.
The Region 8-A champion Towns County girls will host Georgia Military.
In Class AA, the Region 8-AA champion East Hall girls will host Dade County, Region 6-AA champions Buford will host Kendrick and the No. 4 Union County girls will travel to Model. On the boys side in Class AA, No. 3 East Hall will travel to Dade County, No. 2 Buford will host Spencer, Region 8-AA champions Dawson County will host Calhoun and No. 2 Jefferson will host North Murray.
In Class AAA, the Region 8-AAA champion North Hall girls will host Pickens, No. 2 Chestatee will host Gilmer and No. 4 Gainesville will travel to Allatoona. On the boys side No. 2 North Hall will host Cartersville.
In Class AAAA, the Region 8-AAAA champion Habersham Central girls will host Lambert and No. 3 Flowery Branch will travel to Rome.
HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL: Gainesville will look to follow up on last year's trip to the second round of the state playoffs with another successful campaign, beginning at 5:55 p.m. today at home against Habersham Central.
HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER: On the pitch the Region 8-AAA season gets under way at 6 p.m. on Tuesday when two successful programs meet to begin conference play as Chestatee visits Johnson.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: After big wins against Arkansas and Mississippi State, the Georgia Bulldogs have reverted back to their losing ways, losing their last two games. This week, they will play at LSU on Wednesday and host Florida on Saturday in big conference matchups. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech will play two home games against Clemson (Tuesday) and Maryland (Saturday). The Yellow Jackets will be trying to end a three-game skid of their own.
ATLANTA HAWKS: The struggling Hawks play three games this week against top-tier Eastern Conference opponents. They play at the Chicago Bulls today, at the New York Knicks on Wednesday, and host the Orlando Magic on Thursday.
Times sports writer David Mitchell contributed to this report