NCAA Men's Hoops Takes Center Stage in Indianapolis

Basketball fans are gearing up to pack Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis as the NCAA Men's Hoops takes center stage this weekend. Fans from Purdue, Tennessee, Houston, and Kentucky will converge on the stadium for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games.

“Residents of Indiana root for any Indiana team when they play and get this far so there will be a lot of Butler fans, Indiana University fans, Notre Dame fans rooting for Purdue, rooting for Indiana.”

O’Reilly’s Irish Bar in downtown Indianapolis is expecting a boost in business as the games draw near. Owner Joel Reitz has been running the bar for nearly two decades and expects crowds this weekend to rival what he saw during the Big Ten men's basketball championships.

“It was busy. My estimate we sold about Thursday to Monday night 4,000 draft beers along with a lot of other things.”

Fish and chips are a big seller at O’Reilly’s, and Reitz expects the crowd will go through 600 pieces of fish this weekend.

Only half of Lucas Oil Stadium will be used for the NCAA Midwest Regional games, but that's still enough room to hold 30,000 fans. “The last time we had a basketball game in here was 2021 during COVID. So, this is the first time Lucas Oil Stadium will be hosting basketball games free with no COVID restrictions since the 2015 Final Four. So, we’re really excited to show all these basketball fans.”

The Sweet 16 Games will be played on Friday, featuring Purdue taking on No. 1 seed Houston at 10:09 p.m. and Tennessee Volunteers facing Kentucky Wildcats at 7:39 p.m. Winners will play in the Elite Eight game on Sunday.