BRACKETS - The brackets and the schedule can be found on the TSSAA Championship website.

COACHES MEETING - There will be a mandatory virtual meeting for participating head coaches and administrators on Monday, March 10th at 9:30am CT for Girls’ and on Tuesday, March 11th at 10:30am CT for Boys’. Teams will receive an email with this meeting link on Saturday (Girls')/Monday (Boys') evening after they qualify for the championships.

TICKETS - Tickets are $12 per day if purchased in advance online through GoFan. Tickets are $15 per day if purchased with cash at the gate. Reserved seats are also available to purchase on GoFan on a daily basis. School-age children and older are required to have a ticket.

TACA cards will be honored when presented with a matching photo ID at the pass gate. TSSAA/TMSAA ID cards will NOT be accepted for admission. School administrators who are registered on the TSSAA Portal can sign in for free admission at the pass gate (Gate E-2).

If your school is bringing a pep bus of students, fans, or band members and would like to pay for tickets at the $12 rate via your Portal account, please contact Emily Crowell to make arrangements (ecrowell@tssaa.org).

PARKING - Buses must enter campus via Champions Way and unload on Faulkinberry Drive as detailed on this Bus Parking Map. All other vehicles must park in the Greenland Drive parking lot at the northeast corner of Murphy Center. Each participating school’s AD will receive three parking passes for this lot via email. All other vehicles will be charged $5 per vehicle per day.

TEAM ENTRANCE - The team entrance is on the south side of the arena; do not enter at street level. All teams that are participating will enter Murphy Center on the ground level at the southwest corner. After unloading on Faulkinberry Drive, participating teams and cheerleaders will enter down the set of stairs across from the Alumni Memorial Gym (AMG). Participating teams need to use this team entrance every time they arrive, even if the team is just watching another game. Teams should plan to arrive no earlier than 1.5 hours prior to the first game of the day. New this year, everyone, including participating teams, will have to pass through a weapons detector prior to entering the arena.

FLOOR PASSES - Upon arrival at the team entrance area, teams will be given up to 7 floor passes for anyone who is on their bench who is not in uniform. All coaches, managers, medical personnel, statisticians, etc. must have a floor pass in order to move up and down the ramps from the locker room to the playing area and vice versa. These floor passes are good during your game only.

COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS - Each school will receive admittance for 10 people to each game in which they are participating. The participating head coach, AD, and principal will be emailed a link to a submission form for submitting the 10 names. Your school must complete this form by 3:00 PM CST on Monday, March 10th for Girls’, and by 3:00 PM on Saturday, March 15th for Boys’. Schools that do not complete the pass list submission by this deadline will not receive any complimentary tickets for their game(s). This list will be available at Gate E-2. Please tell the individuals on this list that they can only gain entry into the arena at Gate E-2. All teams who win their first game will use the same list of 10 names at the pass gate for their subsequent games. Please remember that everyone age 5 and older must have a ticket, be on the pass list, or arrive in the team party in order to enter the facility.

LINE-UP SHEETS - Submit your line-up sheet using this online form. This must be submitted prior to arrival and reviewed at the team entrance gate when you arrive at the tournament site. This form dictates the names and numbers that will appear in the official scorebook and must be submitted prior to each game. Lineups can be submitted online no sooner than 24 hours before your next scheduled game.

LOCKER ROOMS - Upon entering Murphy Center at the team entrance gate on the lower level at the southwest corner, you will be taken to your locker room. Even though your locker room will be locked, we would strongly advise all valuables to be kept in a valuable bag and nothing left in the locker rooms that is of any value to participants or coaches.

BENCH AREA - There will be 16 chairs on each bench. Fifteen players may dress for the game. Chairs in the bench area are for the following only: players not participating, coaches who are registered on the TSSAA Portal, students who are serving as managers or statisticians, and medical personnel. No one else will be allowed in your bench area. There will be one additional seat at the scorer's table for your scorekeeper.

Water will be provided at each bench. However, you should bring your own towels for the bench area and also for use in the dressing room.

TEAM BENCH LOCATION & BRACKETS - The top team in each bracket is the home team and will wear white jerseys. The bottom team in each bracket is the visiting team and will wear dark jerseys. As you stand at mid-court and face the scorer's table, the home team bench will be on the right and the visiting team bench will be on the left.

The front row behind each team bench (5 seats) will available for a school administrator to use. School administrators that wish to take advantage of these seats should enter the arena at the participating team entrance and check in with TSSAA staff there. We will issue administrators' credentials so that we can easily find the school administrators in the event they are needed to handle any issues with their team or fanbase.

GAME BALL - The game ball for the Girls' Basketball State Tournament is the Wilson NCAA® EVO NXT WZ1003301XB6 and the game ball for the Boys' Basketball State Tournament is the Wilson NCAA® EVO NXT WZ1003301XB7.

STARTING TIMES & WARM-UPS - Please refer to the tournament bracket, which gives you the starting times for each game. No game will start earlier than the posted starting time.

Teams may come on the floor with basketballs no earlier than 30:00 on the pre-game clock. The clock will run to 0:00 about 5 minutes from scheduled tip-off each day. Each team is guaranteed a minimum of 15 minutes warm-up time.

Balls for warm-ups will be furnished. Only the two teams participating in a game may warm up prior to the game or at half-time of that game.

There is no warm-up in the auxiliary gyms at Murphy Center.

GAME ADMINISTRATOR'S MEETING, NATIONAL ANTHEM, STARTING LINE-UPS - Prior to the starting time, there will be a game administrator's meeting at the mid-court area with both head coaches, referee, head of security, and the game administrator. The game administrator will be responsible for the meeting.

At 0:00 on the clock, the teams will go to the bench area for the National Anthem and introduction of starting line-ups. The National Anthem will be sung or played only once prior to the beginning of each day. In all state tournament games, the visiting team starters will be introduced followed by the home team starters. Each starter is asked to go to the free throw line.

CHEERING SECTIONS - The cheering sections for each school will be in the end zone closest to your bench. We will need all schools to inform their students and fans of this area. Cheerleaders will be on the floor in front of your cheering section. They will be required to cheer on the side of the goal closest to their team bench. Media will occupy the other side.

Please inform your fans that following the game the cheering section for the next game will be moving into this area. We will need help from the administration of both schools as we move students in and out of the cheering sections.

CHEERLEADERS - A maximum of 16 cheerleaders in uniform, 1 mascot, and 2 cheer coaches may enter for free at the participating team entrance at sessions in which your team is playing. This is located on the lower level. Any school bringing more than 16 cheerleaders will be charged on the TSSAA Portal for the additional persons.

Regardless of whether or not they are cheering for the game in which they are attending, the cheerleaders and the cheer coach should always enter the gymnasium at the team entrance.

The cheer coach and all cheerleaders are reminded that we expect them to set a positive tone for their cheering sections. A member of the TSSAA staff will meet with the cheerleaders and cheer coach prior to the start of their first game in the tournament.

If you wish to bring signs to be hung, you are reminded that there is a limited amount of space in the gymnasium for signs to be hung. They should be at the top of the bleachers on the concourse area and should be taken down after every game. All signs should be of a positive nature.

In the cheering sections there can be no large hand-held signs or large flags, no confetti, no powder, no miniature basketballs to be thrown out, and no noisemakers.

PEP BANDS - Pep bands are permitted and are encouraged to attend. Each member of the band must purchase a ticket and a faculty representative must be present with the band. The band may play prior to the game, during time-outs, and between quarters. Electrical instruments may not be used.

Pep bands must be seated on the same side as the schools' cheering section, near the top of the section. If your pep band is planning to attend, the faculty representative must let us know prior to the game by emailing Emily Crowell at ecrowell@tssaa.org.

ITEMS NOT PERMITTED AT THE BASKETBALL STATE TOURNAMENT

  • Noisemakers (examples are, but not limited to, air horns, cowbells, sirens, clackers, jugs or milk cartons filled with rocks or pennies, etc.)

  • Balloons

  • Confetti

  • Electrical instruments

  • Thundersticks

  • Large signs or large flags (There is very limited space in Murphy Center for signs to be hung. The major area for the signs is at the top of the bleachers on the upper level. Signs may not be hung in any area that would interfere with the view of fans.)

  • Powder

VIDEOTAPING - Each school will be allowed to have one representative tape during their game only. Video cameras on tripods may be set up in designated areas only. No tripods will be allowed in the stands or on the playing floor. Championship games will be broadcast on live television. No video recording will be allowed during the championship games.

PRESS AFTER THE GAME - Immediately following the game and congratulations to the opposing teams and coaches, press interviews will be conducted one team at a time. A member of our staff will escort the winning head coach and selected players to the media room immediately following the game. The losing team’s head coach and selected players will return to their locker room and be escorted to the media room approximately 10 minutes later.

Please recognize that this is a very important time in the educational process for all the student-athletes involved in our program, regardless of whether the team wins or loses. We ask all coaches to be aware that each coach will receive only a small amount of quotes in the morning papers, on radio, and on television. Please use the opportunity to say something positive about your student-athletes, your program, and high school basketball in the state of Tennessee.

We request that you wait until you get to the press area before granting any interviews. All media have been informed of this policy.

SPORTS MEDICINE - An athletic trainer will be present at all games and will be of assistance to you 30 minutes prior to the game. If you need players taped or wrapped, please bring the necessary tape or wrap.

PRACTICE - There shall be no practice at Murphy Center prior to or during the Basketball State Championships. There is to be no warm-up in auxiliary gyms at Murphy Center.

TEAM HOTEL INFORMATION - Download Hotel information: Girls/Boys. Qualifying teams will receive an email on Saturday evening (Girls) or Monday evening (Boys) with a link to request their hotel needs. After filling out the form, schools will then be contacted by the hotel between 8am-10:30am Sunday (Girls) or 8am-10:30am Tuesday (Boys).