Fast Facts

All 12 league teams are invited to the four-day event which starts Thursday, March 2. The league's top two teams from the North and South divisions received byes to Friday's quarterfinals. The championship game is slated for Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET After a four-year marriage with the Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum, the Southern Conference Tournament moves to the posh Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C.

The Favorite

The Cougars are the prohibitive favorite, sporting a 9-0 record in their last phree conference tournaments -- one in the SoCon and two in the Trans America Athletic Conference. Appalachian State has been on the verge of a championship twice, but lost in the title game in 1998 to Davidson and to Charleston last season.

The Dark Horse

Upsets are likely, considering the inordinate amount of stunners throughout the season. Georgia Southern has made a marvelous charge to a No. 2 seed in the South and the Eagles' storybook season would find a fitting conclusion in the tournament. GSU's wide-open offense gives a defense fits, but the Eagles are also prone to giving up a lot of points.

Chattanooga has tournament history on its side, and the Mocs are probably the most feared lower seed because of their tournament experience. The Mocs made the NCAA's Sweet 16 just three years ago.

The Stars

SoCon Player of the Year Tyson Patterson from Appalachian State was so hurt by losing in the title game last season he asked coach Buzz Peterson's permission to wear his jersey for a few more days to let the pain really soak in. Patterson's leadership has been paramount to the Apps' success, along with the emergence of 3-point specialist Rufus Leach.

Charleston center Jody Lumpkin is a terrific shot-blocker and guards James Griffin and Jeff Bolton are two of the most athletic perimeter players in the league.

Davidson forward Stephen Marshall probably had the best final two months of the season of any player and steady teammate Landry Kosmalski is a threat on the low block or outside the arc.

Who's Hot

Western Carolina won five of its last seven regular-season games, including a rousing home victory over College of Charleston. That came just two days before the Catamounts got blown out at Appalachian State.

Davidson has won four of its last six games and its resume sports a home win against Wake Forest and the very first SoCon defeat for College of Charleston at the Cougars' Kresse Arena.

Georgia Southern won of four its last six, and East Tennessee State won six of its last nine. … South Division sixth seed Furman, which has won three straight and played four games this season at the Bi-Lo Center.

Recent History

Top seeds have fared well in the tournament in the 1990s. Since the league split into North and South divisions in 1994-95, a No. 1 seed from either division has won the tournament. Actually a South Division team has won four of the last five. Prior to division play, the league's top seed captured the title three out of four years. The last time a team seeded lower than second won the event was ETSU (fourth) in 1988-89.

Tidbits

The league is bracing for protests during the tournament by the NAACP and other activists who have been calling for the state of South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from its state capital. Around Christmas, the NAACP asked the league to move the tournament out of South Carolina, but the conference office was not able to do so on short notice. The SoCon is on record supporting the removal of the flag from the state capital, and said it will move the 2001 and subsequent tournaments from South Carolina if the flag is not removed. The tournament is scheduled for Greenville in 2001 and Charleston, S.C., in 2002 and 2003.

Both No. 1 seeds -- Appalachian State and College of Charleston -- lost a home game to North No. 2 seed Davidson. ... College of Charleston won the only game with Appalachian State, 69-64, on Feb. 5, the Cougars' third straight win over the Apps. ... Western Carolina's Jarvis Hayes is making a bid to become the first freshman to lead the Southern Conference in scoring in more than 40 years. The last freshman to lead the league in scoring was Virginia Tech's Bob Ayersman at 20.7 back in 1957-58. ... There are 12 foreign countries represented on SoCon rosters -- Ireland, Germany, Croatia, England, Czech Republic, The Congo, France, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Canada, Bosnia and Kazakhstan.

Who's headed to the Dance

The reality of the Southern Conference is everything is on the line. No other teams figure to be in line for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid, so the only way to get in is to win the conference tournament.