The Southern Conference is going retro.
As in big-afro, short-shorts, Fred Hertzel, Mike Maloy and Jerry Martin retro all which harken back to the last time the SoCon basketball tournament was held in Charlotte.
The first three days, starting Thursday with three women's games, will be held in Bojangles Coliseum which as been decorated with pictures of players and pop-culture from 1964-71 when the tournament champion was determined in the same building.
"We thought it would be good to embrace our roots," commissioner John Iamarino said. "The house music will be songs from the late '60s and early '70s. Several of our dance teams and cheerleaders will do routines set to music from then."
The tournament will take on a much more modern feel Sunday and Monday when it moves to Time Warner Arena for the semifinals and the finals.
"We haven't even thought about moving arenas," Samford coach Jimmy Tillette said. "All of our focus is on (first-round opponent) The Citadel having lost to them twice."
Just 10 months ago the tournament was scheduled to be played in McKenzie Arena. But the possibility for Charlotte became available -- specifically the NBA arena -- and athletic directors wanted a more central location for economic purposes, and a possibility remained that Stephen Curry would still be at Davidson for his senior year.
So the Greater Chattanooga Sports and Events committee took a deal from the SoCon and will host the tournament next year.
"It looks like a genius decision now," said GCSEC president Scott Smith. "We're happy that we switched. But I'd still love to have it for two years in a row to build momentum."
And Curry will be in Charlotte this weekend -- just not with Davidson. The NBA rookie of the year candidate, who plays for Golden State, will face the Charlotte Bobcats on Saturday night.
"I would have preferred if the Warriors to come to Charlotte on a different weekend," Iamarino said. "Guess I didn't have David Stern's ear on that one."