New York City will host Illini, joined in field by Pittsburgh, Texas and Maryland
Champaign, Ill.-Illinois, Pittsburgh, Texas and Maryland will tip-off the 2010 college basketball season in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, which culminates with the Championship Rounds at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Nov. 18-19. Championship Round tickets are on sale now. To reserve a spot in the Illinois section, tickets can be purchased through the Illinois Athletic Ticket Office online at FightingIllini.com or by calling 866-ILLINI-1.
Tickets also are available online at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 866-448-7849.
The format for the 2010 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, the nation’s premier season-opening college basketball tournament, will remain the same as this past season. Twelve teams from across the nation will compete in the 16th annual event with Illinois, Pittsburgh, Texas and Maryland hosting regional round games from Nov. 8-12. The four hosts will then advance to the Championship Rounds, Nov. 18-19, at New York’s Madison Square Garden, while the remainder of the field will participate in subregionals held at campus sites.
Other teams participating in the 2010 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic are Charleston, Illinois-Chicago, Louisiana Tech, Navy, Rhode Island, Seattle, Toledo, and UC-Irvine. Toledo and UC-Irvine will host the subregional rounds.
Match-ups for the Championship Rounds, as well as the entire bracket for the 2010 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, will be announced at a later date.
The four schools playing in New York City, each of which was ranked prior to the start of conference play this season, have combined for 10 Final Four appearances and 98 trips to the NCAA Tournament. Each of the four schools has been to the NCAA Tournament a minimum of 21 times.
Four of the past eight National Champions have participated in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, as well as four additional NCAA Final Four teams. Over the last seven years, 35 teams that participated in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic have gone on to compete in the NCAA Tournament.
The Coaches vs. Cancer program, a nationwide collaboration between the American Cancer Society and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), exists to leverage the strength and community leadership of the nation’s basketball coaches to raise awareness and reduce the risk of cancer while raising funds for the American Cancer Society’s fight to save lives from cancer. Since 1995, the event has raised more than $4.5 million for the benefit of Coaches vs. Cancer.