March Madness, as many know, is the annual NCAA college basketball tournament. The Division 1 basketball teams that qualify play head-to-head with the best of the best teams to determine one winner of the entire season. There are rankings, there are winners, and there are losers. There are typically four brackets, and in each bracket, there are 16 teams. Brackets are determined by location: East, West, Midwest, South. To get the 16th spot in each bracket, there is a head-to-head competition between two teams called the “First Four.” Winners get access into the tournament. This year’s “First Four” is scheduled for March 19 and 20. Following this is the first round of the 64 teams on March 21 and 22. First Seed plays 16th Seed, Second Seed plays 15th Seed, Third Seed plays 14th Seed, and so on.

The second round is set for March 23 and 24, once eight teams have been eliminated. This makes for 16 games to be played, four in each bracket. Following the second round is “Sweet Sixteen” on March 28 and 29, and it’s called this because there are 16 teams remaining. Of the eight games in this round, the eight winners will advance to the “Elite Eight” on March 30 and 31. And of the four winners of this round, they will advance to the Final Four on April 6. As one might be able to assume, the two winners in the Final Four will meet each other in the Championship on April 8. Winner takes all. Selection Sunday determines the teams involved and this will be held on Sunday, March 17.

The Illinois basketball team out of Champaign-Urbana stands a decent chance this year. The Fighting Illini have 22 wins and eight losses this year, 13 of those wins and six of those losses held in the Big Ten Conference. With the following roster, they pose to cause a disturbance in this tournament:

• Terrance Shannon Jr. #0
• Sencire Harris. #1
• Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn. #2
• Marcus Domask. #3
• Justin Harmon. #4
• AJ Redd. #5
• Luke Goode. #10
• Niccolo Moretti. #11
• Quincy Guerrier. #13
• Ty Rodgers. #20
• Keaton Kutcher. #22
• Max Williams. #25
• Coleman Hawkins. #33
• Amani Hansberry. #35
• Dain Dainja. #42

Good luck to the 2024 Fighting Illini at the March Madness Tournament!