Furman Men’s Basketball Season Preview
8 months removed from a magical NCAA tournament victory over the 4 seeded Virginia Cavaliers, the Furman Paladins are ramping up to attempt and run it back to the promised land this season.
A year ago saw the Paladins go 28-8 (the most wins in a single season in the 103 year recorded history of Furman basketball), winning both the SoCon regular season championship and postseason tournament. A wild finish in the round of 64 gave the Paladins a Cinderella victory over the ACC’s Cavaliers in the first round of the NCAA tournament before their run ended at the hands of eventual national runner-up San Diego State in the round of 32.
There will be several new faces in the building this season as four freshmen and one transfer replenish a Furman program losing its top two scorers. One face that hasn’t changed, however, is head coach Bob Richey, who is entering his 7th season at the helm for Furman.
Richey led his Paladins to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1980 last season along with their first tournament win since 1974. Throughout his career at Furman, Richey has led the Paladins to a 139-54 record overall. His .720 win percentage ranks in the top 20 of all current division one head coaches.
Confidence remains at an all time high in Greenville as Furman still savors the fruits of last season’s victory.
“Why not Furman, like why not. Where can we go?” Coach Richey told Furman Joust in late October. “If we got the predictions 4-5 years ago I don’t think anyone would predict us to do what we did this past season.”
“Why not Furman.”
-Furman HC Bob Richey
Times have most certainly changed for the better in Paladin Country, but Richey’s team will have to make strides to replace several key pieces of their championship team of a year ago.
Reloading to Run it Back
The Paladins have lost their top two scorers from a year ago in guard Mike Bothwell (17.7 ppg) who played in the NBA Summer League with the Cleveland Cavaliers before signing to play overseas in Israel with Galil Elyon of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and Jalen Slawson (15.6 ppg) who was a second round draft pick of the Sacramento Kings, the first Furman player to be selected in the NBA draft since George Singleton in 1984.
But while the void left to fill is sizable, Furman will return 7 of their 9 top scorers from a year ago, including 3 starters: guard JP Pegues and forwards Garrett Hien and Marcus Foster.
“We obviously lost two very big pieces,” Coach Richey told Furman Jous in late October. “But the bigger story in my opinion is that we also returned everybody else that played. We’ve got seven guys that return a lot of experience.”
“The bigger story in my opinion is that we also returned everybody else that played. We’ve got seven guys that return a lot of experience.”
-Furman HC Bob Richey
Pegues, of course, was the hero of Furman’s postseason run, averaging over 21 points in the Southern Conference tournament. Most notably, however, was Pegues’ late three to knock off Virginia in the round of 64, etching his name into the history books of March Madness.
Preseason Predictions
At the SoCon basketball media day in late October it was announced that Furman received 8 out of 10 1st place votes from conference coaches and 8 out of 17 media votes in the poll, making them the preseason pick to repeat as champions.
Additionally, J.P. Pegues and Marcus Foster were each named to the preseason all-conference team, giving Furman a tie with UNC-Greensboro for the second most preseason all-conference selections behind Western Carolina, who garnered 3.
New Faces
The Paladins welcomed in one transfer during the offseason in electric guard Pjay Smith Jr. from Lee University. Smith, a former AAU teammate of preseason all-conference guard J.P. Pegues, averaged 15.8 points per game and shot 44.8 percent from beyond the three point arc in Lee last season. Smith was also named to the All Gulf South Conference 2nd team for the 2022-23 season.
Furman also added five freshmen to their ranks from the recruiting class of 2023, with guards Eddrin Bronson, Tommy Humphries, Jeremy Burr, and Cason Collins and forward Cooper Bowser. Bronson, a 6’3” combo guard out of Tampa, FL, was ranked as a 3 star recruit by 24/7 Sports, while Humphries, a 6’5” guard out of Minneapolis, MN was ranked as the #5 player in Minnesota by prephoops.com, and was named honorable mention all-state as a senior.
With all the talented infusions to an already deep roster, the Paladins feel as if they can repeat.
“This has to be our deepest team,” Coach Richey said. “The biggest factor for our team to have success this year is to buy in to the strength of numbers and buy in to having more than 5 starters, making sure that we understand that we’ve got to beat people with our depth. We really could come 10 [players] deep, and we’re really excited about that.”
“This has to be our deepest team.”
-Furman HC Bob Richey
The Paladins are set to face North Greenville at home in Timmons Arena on Monday evening, with tipoff scheduled for 7 PM EST.
Furman Paladins Men’s Basketball Roster 2023-24
G | Pjay Smith Jr | #0 | Junior | Goodpasture Christian School, LaVergne, TN (via. Lee University)
G | J.P. Pegues | #1 | Junior | Hillsboro HS, Nashville, TN
G | Eddrin Bronson | #2 | Freshman | Tampa Catholic HS, Tampa, FL
G | Marcus Foster | #5 | Redshirt Senior | Drew Charter HS, Atlanta, GA
G | Tommy Humphries | #10 | Freshman | Totino-Grace HS, Minneapolis, MN
G | Carter Whitt | #11 | Junior | Leesville Road HS, Raleigh, NC (via. Wake Forest University)
G | Jeremy Burr | #14 | Freshman | Wade Hampton HS, Greenville, SC
G | Cason Collins | #22 | Freshman | West Carteret HS, Morehead City, NC
F | Ben Vanderwal | #4 | Sophomore | Timothy Christian HS, Elmhurst, IL
F | Davis Molnar | #12 | Redshirt Freshman | Terry Sanford HS, Fayetteville, NC
F | Garrett Hien | #13 | Senior | Concord First Assembly Academy, Concord, NC
F | Tyrese Hughey | #15 | Junior | Thomas Worthington HS, Columbus, OH
F | Cooper Bowser | #21 | Freshman | Sunrise Christian Academy (Kansas), Woodbridge, VA.
F | Alex Williams | #24 | Junior | Archbishop Moeller HS, Xenia, OH
F | Thomas Tillman | Sophomore | Charleston Charter School for Math and Science, Charleston, SC
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