The road to the Final Four for eight teams in the NCAA Division I men\u2019s basketball tournament will go through Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Xfinity Mobile Arena will host four first-round games on Friday and two second-round games on Sunday from the East and Midwest region, as March Madness returns to Philadelphia for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n
Connecticut, Virginia, Tennessee and UCLA, among others, will tip off on Friday. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s everything you need to know before the NCAA Tournament<\/a> makes its return to Philly:<\/p>\n Who\u2019s playing and when?<\/p>\n Xfinity Mobile Arena will host four first-round games across two sessions on Friday.<\/p>\n Session 1 will feature two first-round games in the Midwest region. Third-seed Virginia will play 14th-seed Wright State at 1:50 p.m. <\/p>\n Sixth-seeded Tennessee and the winner of a First Four game between Miami of Ohio and Southern Methodist will follow Virginia-Wright State at approximately 4:25 p.m.<\/p>\n Session 2 will feature four teams from the bracket\u2019s East Region. Seventh-seed UCLA will tip off against 10th-seed Central Florida at 7:25 p.m.<\/p>\n Second-seed UConn and 15th-seed Furman will be the second game of Session 2, beginning at approximately 10 p.m.<\/p>\n Xfinity Mobile Arena will host two second-round games on Sunday. Times for the games will be determined after the first round is complete.<\/p>\n How can I buy tickets?<\/p>\n Fans interested in buying tickets can do so through Ticketmaster. Each session will feature two games, with two first-round sessions on Friday and one second-round session on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Wildcats out West: Villanova gets a No. 8 seed, opens NCAA Tournament Friday vs. Utah State<\/a><\/p>\n What happened the last time March Madness was in Philly?<\/p>\n Philadelphia hosted the East Regional in 2022, which featured one of the tournament\u2019s most memorable Cinderella stories, 15th-seed Saint Peter\u2019s University. <\/p>\n After pulling upsets in the first and second rounds, the Peacocks upset Purdue in the Sweet 16 in South Philly.<\/a><\/p>\n Though it lost to North Carolina in the Elite Eight, Saint Peters became the lowest-seeded team to advance to the regional final in tournament history.<\/p>\n What should I know about the teams playing?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at the seven teams starting their tournaments here, plus a look at the two teams playing in the First Four for the right to play at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday:<\/p>\n No. 2 UConn<\/p>\n Region: East<\/p>\n Record: 29-5, 17-3 Big East<\/p>\n First-round opponent: No. 15 Furman (10 p.m., TBS)<\/p>\n UConn will return to the floor at Xfinity Mobile Arena for a second time this season. The Huskies defeated Villanova<\/a> 73-63 in their first trip to South Philly this season.<\/p>\n It will be another return to the area for assistant coach Mike Nardi, a former Villanova guard who joined Dan Hurley\u2019s staff in 2025 after spending eight seasons on the Wildcats\u2019 bench.<\/p>\n No. 3 Virginia<\/p>\n Region: Midwest<\/p>\n Record: 29-5, 15-3 ACC<\/p>\n First-round opponent: No. 14 Wright State (1:50 p.m., TBS)<\/p>\n Coach Ryan Odom has Virginia back in the NCAA Tournament in his first season at the helm. The Cavaliers finished second in the ACC and advanced to the conference title game, but they lost to Duke, the top overall seed in this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Penn to open NCAA Tournament in the South Region against No. 3 seed Illinois at Greenville, S.C.<\/a><\/p>\n No. 6 Tennessee<\/p>\n Region: Midwest<\/p>\n Record: 22-11, 11-7 SEC<\/p>\n First-round opponent: No. 11 SMU\/No. 11 Miami of Ohio (4:25 p.m., TBS)<\/p>\n Tennessee is in the NCAA Tournament for the eighth consecutive season under coach Rick Barnes. The Volunteers reached the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament but were ousted by eventual tournament runner-up Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n No. 7 UCLA<\/p>\n Region: East<\/p>\n Record: 23-11, 13-7 Big Ten<\/p>\n First-round opponent: No. 10 Central Florida (7:25 p.m., TBS)<\/p>\n Mick Cronin has the Bruins in the dance for the second year in a row, but injuries could limit UCLA.<\/p>\n The Bruins\u2019 leading scorers, Tyler Bilodeau and Donovan Dent, suffered injuries during the Big Ten tournament, but both players are expected to play in South Philly<\/a>.<\/p>\n No. 10 Central Florida<\/p>\n Region: East<\/p>\n Record: 21-11, 9-9 Big 12<\/p>\n First-round opponent: No. 7 UCLA (7:25 p.m., TBS)<\/p>\n After being picked to finish 14th in the Big 12\u2019s preseason poll<\/a>, coach Johnny Dawkins guided the Knights to a seventh-place finish in the Big 12 and a tournament berth.<\/p>\n Dawkins played nine seasons in the NBA, including five seasons with the Sixers from 1989-94. <\/p>\n His staff has some local connections, too. Dwayne Anderson, a former Villanova guard, joined UCF as an assistant in 2025 after spending seven seasons on staff with the Wildcats.<\/p>\n No. 11 Miami of Ohio<\/p>\n Region: Midwest<\/p>\n Record: 31-1, 18-0 Mid-American <\/p>\n First Four opponent: No. 11 SMU in Dayton, Ohio (9:15 p.m., truTV)<\/p>\n The RedHawks completed an undefeated regular season, but were beaten by UMass in the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament and thrust onto the NCAA Tournament bubble.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Perkiomen School\u2019s Brant Byers helped Miami of Ohio go on a 31-game streak<\/a><\/p>\n If the RedHawks advance past SMU on Wednesday, their first-round game at Xfinity Mobile will be somewhat of a homecoming for Brant Byers and Ethan Wright. Byers is from Chambersburg, Pa., and played his senior year at Perkiomen School.<\/a> Wright is a native of Philadelphia, but played high school basketball in Centerville, Ohio.<\/p>\n No. 11 Southern Methodist<\/p>\n Region: Midwest<\/p>\n Record: 20-13, 8-10 ACC<\/p>\n First Four opponent: No. 11 Miami of Ohio in Dayton, Ohio (9:15 p.m., truTV)<\/p>\n Andy Enfield has Southern Methodist back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017. Enfield is from Shippensburg, Pa., and is in his second season as coach at SMU. As one of the last four teams in, the Mustangs will need to beat Miami of Ohio in Dayton to advance to a first-round matchup with Tennessee.<\/p>\n No. 14 Wright State<\/p>\n Region: Midwest<\/p>\n Record: 23-11, 15-5 Horizon<\/p>\n First-round opponent: No. 3 Virginia (1:50 p.m., TBS)<\/p>\n The Raiders won the Horizon League\u2019s regular season title and the conference tournament to secure Wright State\u2019s first NCAA tournament berth since 2022.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Penn wins Ivy League tourney and punches ticket to NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018<\/a><\/p>\n No. 15 Furman<\/p>\n Region: East<\/p>\n Record: 22-12, 10-8<\/p>\n First-round opponent: No. 2 UConn (10 p.m., TBS)<\/p>\n After a fifth-place regular season finish in the Southern Conference, the Paladins won three games in three days to win the conference\u2019s tournament and secure their spot in the NCAA Tournament. It will be the first tournament appearance for Furman since 2022, when it upset fourth-seeded Virginia as a No. 13 seed in the first round<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The road to the Final Four for eight teams in the NCAA Division I men\u2019s basketball tournament will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64039,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-139599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-ncaa-tournament-xfinity-mobile-arena-ticket-prices-philadelphia-games","9":"tag-philadelphia","10":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","11":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}