CHICAGO (March 2, 2026) – After finishing in a tie for third place in the final Missouri Valley Conference standings with its best conference finish since 2017-18, the UIC men's basketball team will be the No. 5 seed for the 50^th annual MVC Tournament (aka "Arch Madness") and will open against fourth-seeded Murray State in the quarterfinal round at 2:30 p.m. (CT) Friday from the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
 
Friday's quarterfinal will be televised live on the MVC TV Network, which includes ESPN+, and all UIC games at Arch Madness will be broadcast live and free of charge globally on the Flames Network at UICFlames.com. More information on the tournament can be found at both the UIC Arch Madness Fan Central and official Arch Madness Tournament web sites. All-session and single-session tickets in the UIC cheering section for Arch Madness are on sale through the UIC Athletics Ticket Office by calling 312-413-UIC1 (8421) or e-mailing athleticsticketing@uic.edu.
 
UIC (17-14, 12-8 MVC) tied for third with Murray State and Illinois State, with all three schools finishing at 12-8 in conference play. The first tiebreaker for tournament seeding calculates the head-to-head record for each tied school with the others in that tied group — all three tied teams in this case posted a combined 2-2 record against the others (the Flames swept Illinois State, while dropping both games against Murray State by a combined 11 points). The second tiebreaker reverts to the tied teams' order in the latest NCAA NET rankings released on the Monday morning after the regular season ends — in this morning's rankings, Illinois State was 90, Murray State was 101 and UIC was 116.
 
UIC's 12 conference wins this season were the most for the Flames in their four years as a Valley member and most in any conference since 2017-18, when they went 12-6 and placed third in the Horizon League (their last top-three league finish). UIC comes into Friday's Arch Madness quarterfinal having won 12 of its last 16 games and earned a first-round bye in the MVC Tournament for the first time since joining the conference in 2022-23.
 
The winner of Friday's quarterfinal will advance to the semifinals against either top-seeded Belmont or the winner of the No. 8/9 first-round matchup between Southern Illinois and Drake. That semifinal will be played at 2:30 p.m. (CT) Saturday and will be televised live on CBS Sports Network. The Arch Madness championship game is set for 11 a.m. (CT) Sunday live on CBS Sports.
 
For more information on UIC men's basketball, fans are encouraged to visit UICFlames.com, or follow the Flames on social media through X (@UIC_MBB and @UICFlames) and Instagram (@uic_mbb and @uicflames).