On SoCon, Peterson and Panthers schedule

A couple of quick thoughts for a Thursday:

** It's cool to see that the Southern Conference basketball tournament will come to Charlotte in 2010. It was originally scheduled to go to Chattanooga, Tenn., next season, but instead will come to a bigger -- and for most of the schools, a closer -- venue.
I've gone to the last three Southern Conference tournaments, and I can tell you that they are an underrated gem. The drama is nearly always better than the ACC tournament, where the top 5-6 teams know they're already getting into the NCAA tournament.

Of course, the tournament would be a WHOLE lot better in 2010 if Davidson's Stephen Curry returned for his senior year -- that would give it the headliner it would otherwise lack. I expect Curry's "stay-or-go-to-the-NBA" decision to come soon.

** I was a bit surprised that Buzz Peterson won't be coaching at that 2010 SoCon tournament -- he turned down his old job as head coach of Appalachian State Thursday. I thought Peterson might miss being a coach in charge of his own team enough to return to that life, but he's got a good job as director of player personnel for the Charlotte Bobcats and I imagine former college roommate Michael Jordan turned the screws on Peterson a little. Michael is a hard man to refue.

** For Panther fans, next Tuesday, April 14 is a big day. That's when the NFL releases the full regular-season schedule at 7 p.m. via NFL.com and the NFL Network. The league sticks more bells and whistles on the schedule release every year -- it's not very exciting, really, but you can't talk about the upcoming NFL draft for 24 hours a day.