If the question is what else to do besides restaurants and basketball, I can help with that. There’s a couple of (relatively) new things at Biltmore. One is Antler Hill Village — a lot of shops and restaurants, and there’s a lower-cost hotel there, at least when compared to the Biltmore Inn. I don’t think you need a ticket to go to Antler Hill Village. The other thing is they’ve got a Titanic exhibit, with all these costumes from the movie Titanic in the main house, I think until May.

My wife likes the mall; she says the Belk and Dillards are higher-end than we have here. She says the same thing about the TJMaxx across the street. But what really floats her boat is the Asheville Outlets, and the Vineyard Vines and Coach outlets there. The Mall is on one end of Asheville and the Outlets on the other. Happy wife, happy life. So we don’t shop much downtown anymore.

There are a bunch of shops at Biltmore Village, across from the entrance to Biltmore. Downtown Hendersonville is also worth a visit; it’s about a 20 minute drive. Several good restaurants there, and a lot of antique and specialty shops on the main drag thru downtown.

Also FYI: The past two years the team has stayed at the Crown Plaza. I suspect that will be the case this year as well but you might want to confirm that. The women's tournament starts a day or two earlier, and it is looking like our women's team may hang around awhile this year too.