March has always been my time of year and even as a 41-year old, I still get excited by the sight of a bracket. Everyone loves the NCAA Tournament and while I do as well, it’s the conference tournaments that bring me just as much joy. Maybe it’s because of my obsession with the smaller and lesser known teams across all of sport. Or how the conference tourneys don’t have the washed-out / commercialized stigma of “March Madness”, there’s still personality to these events and we can embrace the cultures of each league. Joe Cravens, MVC Corner Cams, Greg Kampe Press Conferences. Long live the Mid-Majority! Anyway, the Southern Conference has one of my favorite tournaments. A traditional bracket and 10 teams all within driving distance of the neutral host city. Asheville supports the SoCon so well and as they enter their 14th year with this conference tournament, Asheville also could use our support and tourism as they continue recovery from Hurricane Helene six months later. This felt like the right time for me to make the trip.
It’s about a 10-hour drive from my house to Asheville and since I already toured that area for a few days back in 2018, I decided to fly and spend a couple days in a new city with some sports venues to check off. My flight to Charlotte was all good and I had plenty of time to explore before the night’s Hornets game at the Spectrum Center. The Queen City features a compact downtown (known as Uptown) and this center for banking means an impressive skyline. To get a good picture, I went to the top of the parking garage, which also meant a nice look at American Legion Memorial Stadium, home of the USL’s Charlotte Independence. From there, lunch was at Bang Bang Burgers and then an Uptown walking tour featuring: Truist Field, Bank of America Stadium, The Green, Latta Arcade, Independence Square and the Levine Museum of the New South. That last one was free and a great intro to the history of Charlotte.
The game wasn’t one that I was ga-ga over as the terrible Hornets came in after setting a record: highest combined points in a three game losing effort (131 points). Meanwhile, Cleveland was on a 12-game winning streak. Yet, how does Vegas know! The line was only -14.5, which made me scratch my head and in fact it was close much of the way. Much of that was thanks to Miles Bridges who had a career high 46 points. There was a stretch early in the second half when everyone thought “here we go” as the Cavs built a 13-point lead, but Charlotte hung in there. As the crowd cautiously realized, “hey, we have a chance to actually win” they got louder and became a factor. In fact, I was impressed for how terrible the team that the attendance wasn’t bad (maybe at 70% capacity). Somehow, a lot of Cavs fans were there too, which felt random given the seeming lack of connection and decent distance. Anyway, the Hornets actually built a 9-point lead with 3:30 to go and Buzz City was just that. Yet, Cleveland scratched and clawed as they pecked their way back and thanks to some really dumb shot selections by LaMelo Ball (who has a terrible jump shot), the Cavs went up four with 16.1 seconds left. It was a foul fest from there and Donovan Mitchell was the culprit. He went 6 for 6 as Charlotte stayed in it, but with 4.1 seconds left he missed his last two and Miles Bridges had a chance to win it with a halfcourt heave, coming up just short. Cleveland’s 51 free throw attempts were its most since 2007, causing this game to take 2 hours and 40 minutes. As for the Spectrum Center, I feel the majority of pro arenas have stale, cookie-cutter designs. Nothing too different here.
Saturday was gorgeous in Charlotte as it was 75 and sunny. I felt a little guilty spending most of the time indoors, but it was worth it. To start, I visited the NASCAR Hall of Fame and even though I don’t follow the sport, I’d have to say it was my favorite HOF out of all the ones I visited. The space is visually striking and everything is presented very well, from the cars themselves, to the members, to the history of the sport. Interactive stuff is also key for museums and there is a good amount of it here, including a lengthy and realistic simulator experience. Three hours was not enough time and I wish I allotted a little more. After that, it was another stop for food at a tour of DDD places, this time at Intermezzo for some Stuffed Cabbage. It was then onto Bojangles Coliseum to see hockey! It was a 4 PM start and in fact nearly all Saturday games are at that time here and I’m not sure why.
The Coliseum has a deep history in Charlotte and I’m so glad to see it still used. Opened in 1955, it was the first free-standing dome in the country and the look is impressive upon approach. The venue has been renovated many times over and survived bigger places opening during it’s time (first, the Charlotte Coliseum and then Spectrum Center). We may be in the South, but Checkers hockey is nothing new as they actually were original tenants in the 50s. Through the years, there’s been a few league and venue changes, but eventually the Checkers would be back here in 2015 as members of the AHL. I love the history of the building and that they’re here, it’s just a little funky as when you’re inside you would think circular seating bowl. Yet, it’s four sides of seating and that creates some undesirable angles. What is circular is the concourse and that set-up is unique. A great feature is the Red Line Club, a bar/restaurant open to the public and near the entrance from the locker room as the team heads to the ice. The Checkers had a real good crowd for this one. There were a few tailgates in the parking lot and plenty of folks wearing red for the team. They went home happy as Charlotte defeated Lehigh Valley 4-1 in a game they controlled for the first couple periods. Their stifling (and kinda dull) style of play held the Phantoms to just 5 total shots with just 4 minutes left in the second period. Hard to win games like that.
Sunday was finally the day where I see my beloved SoCon. As I finished the two-hour drive to Asheville, stark reminders of what this area has been through remained, including the trees on the mountainside of I-40 that look like toothpicks and the devastation that remained in the Biltmore Village. Once downtown, I saw the SoCon banners and grabbed lunch at White Duck Taco, where much of the Furman band was. The first semifinal was mouth-watering, the 5th seeded Paladins (at 25-8, this ain’t a normal 5 seed) against the regular season champs, Chattanooga Mocs. It turned out to be one of the best college basketball games that I’ve ever seen live. In fact, it probably was the best game all season. Back and forth, crisp play, intense, fantastic flow. This is college basketball at its finest. With under two minutes left, Honor Huff hit two 3s to put the Mocs up five. Furman then answered with their own 5-0 run as PJay Smith and Nick Anderson were clutch. Trey Bonham was blocked at the buzzer and the game got a deserved overtime session. There, Furman was able to pull away (though it was interesting at the end) and the Paladins go to the Championship game after a heart-stopping 80-77 win. Smith finished with 25 and Huff, 28. The energy in the building was fantastic and it was loud through. Given that the Paladins are just over an hour away in Greenville, they had a ton of fans. Chattanooga (3.5 hrs away) were outnumbered 70/30, but they still had really great and passionate fans making for dueling cheers. Both had their bands and that aided in the atmosphere. You really won’t find a tournament like this and the building accentuates everything. I love the Harrah’s Cherokee Center as the 6,268 capacity is the perfect fit and that upper deck overhanging the small lower sections sets up fantastic sightlines and more importantly an intimate and noisy arena. It’s such a cool building and from the outside, I was fascinated with the architecture as it is on a severe hill with stones making up the space (a few at the top and many at the bottom). I’ll have more in my detailed write-up, but what a neat arena with character.
In between sessions, I grabbed dinner and then moved around to check out the tamer VMI-Wofford Semifinal. The poor Keydets: no band, no cheerleaders and just a few hundred fans. Meanwhile, Wofford brought everyone from Spartanburg and they carried their team to a fairly easy 85-65 win. These rivals from Upstate South Carolina meet in the Mountains of North Carolina to decide the SoCon’s representative in the NCAA Tournament. After the game, I drove an hour to Hickory to spend the night and then finish the drive Monday morning, flying back out of Charlotte. Below are the detailed reviews for each new arena:
Spectrum Center Review
Bojangles Coliseum Review
Harrah’s Cherokee Center Review
Stadium and Arena Visits 
