Where To Watch March Madness 2024 In Buffalo Grove

BUFFALO GROVE, IL —Madness is about to descend on Buffalo Grove.

The NCAA’s 2024 March Madness gets underway this weekend with Selection Sunday, where the men's 68-team bracket will be unveiled at 5 p.m. Central, followed by the women's bracket at 7 p.m. The selection will air on ESPN.

Many sports bars in and around Buffalo Grove will likely have the annual spectacle on their TVs.

Here are some popular options:

• Prairie House Tavern, 2710 N Main St., Buffalo Grove (Bar and grill serving burgers, ribs and other hearty bites in a nostalgic setting)
• K1 Paddock Lounge - Sports Bar & Restaurant, 301 Hastings Drive, Buffalo Grove (indoor go-karts and sports bar)
• Sal and Tony's Italian, Buffalo Grove Golf Club, 48 Raupp Blvd., Buffalo Grove (casual dining and good spot for watching sports)
• Old Munich Tavern, 582 N Milwaukee Ave., Wheeling (serving burgers, pizza and wings)
• Union Ale House Pub, 1211 S Wolf Road, Prospect Heights (family-owned pub and eatery offering craft beers)
• Bird's Nest, 11 W. Davis St., Arlington Heights (Chicago staple recently opened in Northwest suburbs)
• Sports Page Bar & Grill Arlington Heights, 1330 E. Rand Road, Arlington Heights (family-run sports bar with more than 30 TVs

Here is the schedule for this year’s March Madness rounds.

• First Four: March 19-20
• First round: March 21-22
• Second round: March 23-24
• Sweet 16: March 28-29
• Elite Eight: March 30-31
• Final Four: Saturday, April 6 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
• NCAA championship game: Monday, April 8 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

This year, oddsmakers put the best odds to make the championship on No. 2 UConn, No. 1 Houston and No. 3 Purdue, with No. 6 Arizona and No. 5 Tennessee tied for the fourth best odds.

The Huskies were the favorites to take home the men’s national championship as of Wednesday, March 13, with a roughly 16 percent chance, according to the odds-aggregating website Oddschecker.com.

The Houston Cougars were given the second-highest chance to win the title at 13 percent, followed by about 12 percent for the Boilermakers and about 7 percent each for the Wildcats and Volunteers.

From Illinois, teams that hope to dance in March include Illinois, DePaul, Loyola and Northwestern.

For the uninitiated - stars to watch on the men’s side this year include Boilermaker Zach Edey, the favorite to win the 2024 Wooden Award, Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, North Carolina’s RJ Davis and Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson.

In the women’s bracket, Fanduel gives the best odds to win the championship this year to No. 1 South Carolina (32-0). Those oddsmakers gave the Gamecocks a roughly 53 percent chance to take home the title.

All eyes this year will be on the NCAA’s newly minted scoring record-holder, Caitlin Clark, and the No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes (29-4). Oddsmakers gave both the Hawkeyes and No. 8 LSU (28-5) — with fellow superstar Angel Reese — the second-best odds to win it all at 14 percent. The No. 4 Stanford Cardinal team has the fourth-best odds at roughly 5 percent.