Macslive Reporting Services (New York, NY)

     The 21st annual Red Sarachek basketball tournament is coming to the Max Stern Athletic Center of Yeshiva University, and its opening day is shaping up to be a jam-packed exhibition of the most talented Jewish high school basketball teams across North America. The seeding committee has published its rankings and the schedule of games for opening day is now set. Are you ready?

     The Red Sarachek tournament hosts a field of twenty teams from locations across North America including New York, Miami, Toronto, and, for the first time ever, Virginia. Fans often flock to the Max Stern Athletic Center to cheer on their teams regardless of the distance required to travel to New York. The legendary rivalries that have developed over the years also get the fans out in droves. Classic matchups such as YULA versus Valley Torah and matchups between Yeshiva league powerhouses like MTA, Frisch, and others are especially buzz-worthy. This year is no different and come March 22nd, expect the gym to be packed.

     The top four teams receive an automatic bid into Tier I and can rest easy until Friday. This year the SAR Sting, YULA Panthers, Frisch Cougars, and North Shore Stars will be the beneficiaries of those first-round byes.

The 5-12 seeds will play in the Tier I qualifiers on Thursday. The winners of those games advance to the Tier I quarterfinals on Friday.. Teams ranked from 13-20 will play in the first round of Tier II qualifying games. The winners advance to to play the losers of the Tier I qualifiers in the second round of Tier II qualifiers on Friday, while the losers enter Tier IV and next play on Saturday night in the Tier IV semifinals.

Starting off the festivities on Thursday will be the 10:00 AM showdown between the #15 Hebrew Academy of Montreal Heat versus the #18 Samuel Scheck Hillel Day School Hurricanes. Ten and half hours, thousands of fans, and seven games later, the last game of the day will be the 8:30 PM battle between the #8 seed JEC Thunder and # 9 seed Yavneh Academy Bulldogs.

The opening day of Sarachek will be full of surprises and thrilling basketball and has some very interesting storylines to follow, including Yeshiva of Virginia making its first appearance ever at the tournament. They could be a dark horse and should surely not be overlooked in their first game. If you will not be able to make it to the MSAC in person for opening day, be sure to check in for news, blog posts, pictures, and most importantly game broadcasts on www.macslive.com, the broadcast home of the Red Sarachek basketball tournament.