If you’re following the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s and women’s basketball teams to Asheville, N.C., this weekend for their respective Southern Conference tournaments, UTC women’s coach Jim Foster suggests you try the Fig Bistro in Biltmore Village.
Of course, Foster being Foster – the real-life embodiment of those “Most Interesting Man in the World” beer ads – he soon began thinking about a different restaurant he once sampled in Croatia.
“The waiter asked if we wanted dessert,” the Hall of Fame coach recalled of the outside dining experience. “We asked what he recommended. He picked a couple of figs from a tree right by our table. I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was, but it was good. It had really good sauces and spices. And the figs were certainly fresh.”
Foster’s Mocs have a fresh perspective on the SoCon tourney this season. Unlike so many past springs, they won’t arrive in the North Carolina mountains as the No. 1 seed.
Thanks to a regular-season loss to Mercer, UTC will travel to Asheville as the No. 2 seed, despite tying the Bears for the regular-season title.