CHARLOTTE — The inaugural Dick Vitale Invitational will be held Tuesday night at the Spectrum Center.
The first-ever basketball event honoring the legendary ESPN analyst will feature two national powerhouses — the Duke Blue Devils versus the Texas Longhorns.
The matchup tips off at 8:45 p.m.
It celebrates Vitale’s decades-long impact on the game, from his passionate commentary to his advocacy for cancer research.
The Charlotte Sports Foundation and ESPN partnered to bring the invitational to the Queen City — a move expected to draw thousands of fans to Uptown.
“There’s no better person in the sport of college basketball than Dick Vitale, the passion and the energy and just a tremendously good person,” Miller Yoho with the Charlotte Sports Foundation said. “With this event being created in his honor, I know it’s going to be a special night for him and everyone in attendance. Cant wait to see everything that’s been done for him.”
The action doesn’t stop there. Sunday marks the return of the Ally Tipoff, featuring NC State’s and the University of Southern California’s women’s basketball teams.
Yoho says Sunday’s game is another chance to showcase the city as a premier destination for national sports events.
“We all know Charlotte’s the heart of college basketball. The heartbeat is really here, but also as a sports event space,” he said. “The more events we can bring, the better it is with the quality of life and economic impact, just so many things that come with bringing large sports events here and we cant wait to bring more and more.”
Tickets for both events are available now through Charlotte Sports and Ticketmaster.
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