Shortly after the NCAA Division One Men’s and Women’s basketball tournaments, another national intercollegiate basketball tournament will be taking place in College Park, Md. The University of Maryland Hillel will host the fifth annual National Hillel Basketball Tournament to determine the best Jewish college basketball team in the country. This year’s tournament is expected to attract more than 1,200 participants, including 300 players from more than 30 universities. Team registration opened Jan. 1.

Former NBA commissioner David Stern described the tournament as an “extraordinary event” that “brings together Jewish college students around a sport they love.”

The three-day long festivities will formally kick off on Friday night, with Shabbat services and dinner for over 500 students. The first-round tournament games will begin Saturday evening, and continue into Sunday morning, at University of Maryland’s Reckord Armory and Ritchie Coliseum. Each team will play in three preliminary games and then move into the single-elimination tournament bracket.

Among last year’s tournament sponsors: New York philanthropists Jonathan and Dina Leader, Under Armour, Pepsi Co, Gatorade, Hapoel Jerusalem, Ben Yehuda Cafe and Pizzeria, Muscle Milk, bobble, FuelStrip, Klipped Kippahs, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Soom Foods, Documented Video Productions, Pulitzer Promotions, Leveling the Playing Field, JSU at UMD, Washington Jewish Week, and the Baltimore Jewish Times.