March 8, 2010

PRINCETON, N.J. - Maryland will tip-off the 2010 college basketball season in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic along with Pittsburgh, Texas, Illinois and others. The event, which features 12 teams from across the country, culminates with the Championship Rounds at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Nov. 18-19.

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 Maryland, Pittsburgh, Texas and Illinois 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.

TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets for Championship Round games at Madison Square Garden will be available Tuesday, March 9 beginning at 12:00 PM and may be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 866-448-7849 or through Ticketmaster.com.

Maryland: The Terps are 23-7 this season, ranked 19th in both polls, and co-champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference...Maryland has won at least 19 games each of the last 14 seasons...10 members of the 13-man roster are either juniors, sophomores, or freshmen...sophomore guard Sean Mosley averages 10.8 ppg and 5.3 rpg...freshman forward Jordan Williams nets 9.3 ppg and averages a team-best 8.3 rpg...won the 2006 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

Pittsburgh: Ranked 16th in both polls with a 24-7 record...Pitt is the only team in the Big East to have won at least 20 games overall and 10 league games each of the last nine seasons...the Panthers, who start two juniors, two sophomores, and just one senior, are led by sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs (16.2 ppg) and junior guard Brad Wanamaker (12.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg)...Pitt should mark its ninth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance this season - the longest streak among Big East schools.

Texas: The Longhorns are 23-8...spent two weeks atop both polls in mid-January...the Longhorns start two juniors, one freshman, and two seniors and sport only three seniors on the 14-man roster...freshmen guards Avery Bradley (11.7 ppg) and J'Covan Brown (9.82 ppg) have combined to hand out 141 assists this season...Texas, which has made 11-straight NCAA Tournament appearances, is just one of five schools to advance to the Sweet 16 five of the last eight years (Connecticut, Duke, Kansas, Pittsburgh).

Illinois: Is 18-13 this season sporting a roster with only two seniors, neither of whom starts...junior Demetri McCarney paces the Illini in scoring (14.9 ppg) and assists (6.8 apg), while classmate Mike Davis is hauling down a team-best 8.8 rpg to go with his 10.3 ppg...Illinois' 1,627 wins rank 13th nationally and its .653 winning percentage is tops among Big Ten schools...the Illini have finished among the Big Ten's top five in six of head coach Bruce Weber's seven seasons.

In the 2009 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, Wes Johnson emerged as one of the nation's most electrifying players in leading Syracuse to the Classic title. Johnson scored 25 points and Syracuse went on to earn an 87-71 victory over defending national champion North Carolina in the Championship Game. Syracuse used the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic to springboard into the national spotlight and is currently ranked third both polls.

The Championship Rounds of the 2009 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic also featured, for the first time, four ranked teams at the time of the games as North Carolina (fourth), California (12th), Ohio State (17th), and Syracuse (25th) each appeared in the ESPN/USA Today poll. In addition, California (Pac-10), Ohio State (Big Ten), and Syracuse (Big East) went on to win their respective conference's regular season championships in 2009-10.

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.

The Coaches vs. Cancer Classic is produced by The Gazelle Group in Princeton, N.J. The Gazelle Group is a sports marketing firm, specializing in event production and management, client representation, and sponsorship consulting. Gazelle produces numerous nationally-recognized events, such as the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic, Legends Classic, and the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). For more information on the Gazelle Group, please visit gazellegroup.com.