Madness takes over Xfinity Mobile Arena in the NCAA men’s tournament. Here are the highlights.

For the first time in four years, the NCAA tournament made its way to Philadelphia, with Xfinity Mobile Arena hosting four first-round games on Friday. As each team prepared to compete, college basketball fans gathered into the arena wearing their school’s merch and chanting their fight songs as they patiently waited for the madness to commence.

Merchandise tables were flooded with lines of fans representing each team competing — including Virginia, Wright State, Miami of Ohio, Tennessee, UCLA, UCF, UConn, and Furman. But throughout the crowd, one could spot a few other jerseys from teams who weren’t competing at the arena, like Duke, Penn State, and Purdue.

“Obviously, looking around it’s not just the schools that are playing today, it’s everybody,” said 17-year-old Sean Carlson, who traveled from Virginia. “Everybody wants basketball and everybody wants to be here. So, that makes it a lot more fun that everybody can watch.”

Here are some of the fan highlights from the first night:

For Virginia native Carlson, today’s event was a family affair. He made the three-hour trip with his father Daniel Carlson, a graduate of the University of Virginia, to support his brother Daniel, a cheerleader for the men’s basketball team.

“I thought it would be pretty great to come out here and watch March Madness,” Carlson said. “I’ve been to a couple college basketball games so I thought it would be pretty chill. But it’s great being at a professional stadium. I think UVA will have the best student section. I see a lot of UVA fans.”

Virginia fans showed out, with specks of orange decorating the stadium for the first game of the night. And within those specks of orange were hints of hunter green shirts — representing the Jacarmy, the student-led fan club for Virginia guard Jacari White.

» READ MORE: Wright State and Miami had Philly fans’ backing, but Virginia and Tennessee stopped their upset bids

“[The game] was very stressful,” said 14-year-old, Lancaster native Sam Schrecengost, wearing his Jacarmy t-shirt. “I think we should have had it. But Jacari White was knocking them down. My boy.”

White finished with 26 points, on 10-for-12 shooting, in Virginia’s 82-73 win over Wright State. Following the game, 56-year-old Virginia native Tim Dicentio and his son Joey, a sophomore at Virginia, praised the senior for his big night.

“It was crazy, what a game,” Dicentio said. “We thought maybe it would be, not a blowout, but that we would win comfortably. But it came down to the wire. Thank God for Jacari White. He was the man today.”

Virginia wasn’t the only fanbase making the trip to Philly. Carolyn Pellegrini, age 41, and her sons Nico, 10, and Marco, 8, came decked out in RedHawks gear — and war paint.

“This is the first time they’ve made the tournament since before I even enrolled,” Pellegrini said. “So, it was very exciting for us and we just happened to go to this game and it’s wonderful. So, I wanted to bring them and support Miami.”

Pellegrini grew up in Cincinnati but now resides in Havertown, Pa.. As a graduate of Miami of Ohio, she made sure her fandom was passed onto her children.

“They love the fandom,” Pellegrini said. “They’re very fungible when it comes to fandoms. He was willing to go all the way and I appreciate that. And then we got a T-shirt, so we’re all decked out.”

When asked who will be the loudest fanbase today, Nico responded: “Oh, us for sure.”

Humans weren’t the only ones excited for the on-court action. After waking up at 6 a.m. to catch his flight from Knoxville, Tenn., to Philadelphia, Smokey Dawg finally sat in the crowd with the Estep family to take in the sights of March Madness.

The small plush dog became part of the family after Kayla Estep bought him at a Tennessee football game. Since then, they’ve been chronicling the dog’s journey with his very own TikTok page. Today’s Tennessee game against Miami of Ohio is the latest stop on the list.

“I married into this lovely family,” Kayla said. “They go to all the ball games. We have season tickets for football and basketball and we do a lot of traveling with it. That’s why we’re here and we love it. We hope the Vol’s win so we can come back Sunday.”

By the end of the night, blue took over the arena as the No. 2 seed UConn prepared to compete against the No. 15 seed Furman. One of the fans in the crowd was Kerry Shanley, who lives in Philadelphia and is originally from Connecticut.

The 58-year-old used to be a season ticket holder for UConn men’s basketball before making the move to Philly. So when Shanley found out his team would be playing in his new home, he had to get tickets.

“You know anyone can win or lose and that’s what makes it exciting,” Shanly said. “I’m hoping to see UConn win, and if they do, I’ll buy tickets for Sunday.”

New Jersey natives Robin Bergeron and Joe Petrino have been fans of UConn’s men’s and women’s basketball teams for as long as they can remember, watching games on television whenever they had the chance. But Friday was the first time they would ever see the men’s team play in person.

“I’m looking forward to a good game,” Bergeron said. “I hope they go into overtime and win. I hope it’s exciting. I hope it’s not a blowout.”

When asked if Furman had any chance at an upset, they responded: “No, we’re UConn fans. Go Huskies. Huskies all the way.”

Although many fans were there to support their teams, there were still a number of fans who didn’t have a horse in the race — including 44-year-old, Pine Grove native Jeff Stump, who showed up wearing his Penn State gear.

Stump has been attending March Madness games since 2009, traveling to Providence, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, and South Carolina. He even attended March Madness in Philly in 2013, where he saw the No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast upset the No. 12 seed Georgetown.

“There’s always upsets. The underdog normally stays in the game,” Stump said. “They normally make it close. It’s just, there’s so many upsets, it’s just so much fun.”

And Stump wasn’t the only fan attending for the love of the game. Will Burnett, 61, traveled from Dallas, Texas, to attend Friday’s event.

“[Me and my wife] enjoy watching the games and we just enjoy visiting new cities, going to museums and enjoying the culture,” Burnett said. “We’re just hoping for good, close games. We don’t want to see any blowouts. We just hope maybe for an upset. We wouldn’t be upset about that.”

Although there wasn’t a Philly team representing the city at the arena on Friday, there were plenty of Philly sports fans making their way to the stadium for the action — including 52-year-old South Philly native Shawn Brown.

As a huge fan of college basketball, when the news broke that the tournament would make its way through Philly, Brown knew he needed to attend — especially after his tournament experience in 2013 at the Wells Fargo Center.

“I watched Duke play Creighton,” Brown said. “It was amazing because like I said we had tickets and we knew some people around. You know, when you’re in South Philly, everybody’s got a guy for something. And I knew somebody that worked here and their mother was an usher here and she was able to get us seats literally right behind Duke’s bench. … It was pretty cool.”