The Game: Furman (12-5, 3-1 SoCon) at Samford (9-8, 2-2 SoCon)
THE VENUE AND PLACE: PETE HANNA CENTER (5,000)/HOMEWOOD, AL
Furman looks to continue its strong stretch on the SoCon road this evening, as the Paladins travel to the Pete Hanna Center to take on the Samford Bulldogs (9-8, 2-2 SoCon) in a key league tilt Wednesday evening.
The Paladins continue to be a little undermanned at this point in the season, but that won't be used as an excuse for underperforming with a program that is the pedigree of Furman. In fact, it would be easy for almost every team in the league to use such an excuse, especially at this point in the season, including tonight's opponent, Samford.
The Bulldogs lost one starter--Daijon Humphrey--before the season even started, as he tore his Achilles in a preseason exhibition against Alabama A&M. The Bulldogs have also been without big man and second-leading scorer Dylan Faulkner some in SoCon play so far. They've also been without Booth and Faulkner at times this season due to injury and illness.
Furman could be without as many as three starters and five regulars tonight, as it is expected that starters Cooper Bowser (lower body injury), Asa Thomas (lower body injury), and Tom House (concussion protocol) will miss tonight’s game at Samford.
If you include arguably Furman's second top freshman player performance-wise, in Collin O'Neal (lower body injury) and glue guy regular Davis Molnar (lower body injury), who was lost prior to the season, the Paladins could be without as many as five of their top 13 players tonight, including five of their top 11 in rotation. Four of the five are expected to return at some point this season, with the only real question mark being Molnar.
The Paladins and Bulldogs will be meeting for the 42nd time in series history, with the Paladins holding a 29-12 all-time advantage, with Furman sweeping all three meetings in 2024-25, while Samford won two of three meetings during the Bulldogs' championship-winning season back in 2023-24.
Both head coaches Bob Richey and Lennie Acuff have maintained a close friendship over the years, and it's no secret that the Paladins and coach Richey has set up what he wanted to do offensively with a few alterations along the way. However, much of what Furman does offensively is rooted in what coach Acuff has taught in his ultra-successful career at Alabama-Huntsville, Lipscomb and now as the head coach of the Samford Bulldogs.
It's a big reason why a guy like former Furman backup point guard Joe Anderson, when not getting the minutes he would have liked at Furman behind guys like Alex Hunter and JP Pegues, Anderson ended up working well running the show for a couple of seasons in Nashville. His biggest role came just last season, as Anderson was key in executing and facilitating Lipscomb's offense under Acuff in its 2024-25 Atlantic Sun regular-season and tournament title runs as well as its appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
There's also plenty of good relationships between both staffs as, with two of Acuff's top assistants at Samford--Tyler Murray and Kip Owens-- having served at Furman as one-time as assistants on staff in Greenville at Furman. Murray served on Richey's first two staffs as head coach at Furman from 2017-19, while Owens was a member of the 2024-25 staff before being hired away by Acuff.
With that said, both coaches have also been two of the coaches that have been the beneficiaries of bringing up and developing NCAA Division II talent within the SoCon. Furman had two of the best players in the SoCon last season, in both guards PJay Smith Jr. (Lee University transfer) and Nick Anderson (Barry University transfer), while Samford might have the best pure shooter in all of college basketball, in former Florida Southern Mocs player Jadin Booth.
Booth not only leads the SoCon in scoring, averaging 20.4 PPG, but he also recently surpassed 2,000 points for his career, and heads into Wednesday night's game ranking third in the entire country in three-pointers made (61), as well as ranking 48th nationally in three-point field goal percentage, connecting at a blistering 41.1% clip.
As the season has gone along, the Bulldogs have had a great inside-outside punch with Booth combining especially well with Dylan Faulkner, who also ranks in the top five in the league in scoring, averaging 17.3 PPG.
Furman hasn't been as good offensively this season as they have been in year's past, however, the Paladins are still executing well fourth in the league in overall offensive rating, sporting a 108.2 offensive rating, according to KenPom's metric.
This might be, however, Furman's best defensive team, ranking behind only ETSU in defensive rating this season, according to KenPom (107.4) and the Paladins have caused foes problems with their size, with 6-7 Ben Vander Wal (8.2 PPG, 5.9 RPG), 6-11 Charles Johnston (10.5 PPG, 9.5 RPG) and 6-11 Cooper Bowser (13.4 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 81.2 FG%)--when healthy--helping the Paladins sport one of the top front courts in all of mid-major basketball, as the Paladins rank in the Top 50 nationally in total rebounds per game (40.0/T-42nd). That could be something to watch tonight.
Cole Bowser's performance on both ends, especially the team-leading 10 boards in his collegiate debut against Chattanooga was huge, and his performance tonight could play a big role in what the overall result of tonight's contest against Samford is. As good as a he is a rebounder, he's also a pick-and-pop guy, and can shoot the three. He's yet to showcase that this season.
With Furman a little thin at guard, don't be surprised to see do-everything glue guy Ben Vander Wal handling some of the point guard responsibilities this evening. He's Furman's second best ball-handler and one of its best passers at the moment, and about the only area he's really struggled this season is from the charity stripe, where he's shooting just 36.7% (22-of-60)
Alex Wilkins continues to perform like a player well beyond his years in some areas, and he is only getting better, but continues to have some issues taking care of the basketball. He has a high basketball IQ, and a gear that no point guard I've seen yet this year or maybe in a decade or so, reach. He is faster with the basketball than without it. The league has seen a few like that. Sean Peterson at Georgia Southern in the late 1990s, DJ Thompson from App State in the early 2000s, as well as Andrew Goudelock at College of Charleston (2007-11). That's some stout company.
Furman will need more out of guys like the aforementioned Cole Bowser, as well as Eddrin Bronson (Season-high 16 points off the bench vs VMI Saturday), as well as others like freshman South Carolina Mr. Basketball Abijah Franklin and wing forward Mason Smith, which is another player to really hasn't had the opportunity to show his true potential as of yet.
Smith may well get that opportunity tonight, as the Davidson Day School product will likely be given plenty of time to show what he can do for the next few games. A great opportunity for him to garner a larger role within the overall framework.
Furman continues to struggle taking care of the basketball, and Samford's ability to make the Paladins commit live-ball turnovers and convert those into points in transition could be a major key to a win tonight for the Bulldogs.
For the Paladins, they may need to hope Samford gets off to another one of its slow starts and build an effective lead early and then try and defend that lead throughout the course of the game. The Bulldogs have gotten off to slow starts in their last couple of games against Western Carolina and Chattanooga, but were able to overcome that slow start last Wednesday evening in a come-from-behind win over Western Carolina.
Samford's success moving forward in league play will depend on finding scoring beyond Booth and Faulkner, as we know what these two can do, combining for about 37 PPG. It will be others like Keaton Norris (10.7 PPG, 4.5 RPG), Cade Norris (8.0 PPG, 4.9 RPG) and Isaiah Campbell-Finch (7.8 PPG, 1.2 RPG) that will need to step up and give the Bulldogs a consistent third scorer. It's also going to come down to defending for Acuff's Bulldogs this season, as Samford needs to consistently find ways to string stops together.
The Bulldogs have the potential to have another strong year in league play, however, it's going to also depend on improvement on the defensive end of the floor, where they rank fifth overall (114.7) and seventh in league-only (114.2) games, according to KenPom's defensive ratings.
Furman's Probable Starting Five:
G --Alex Wilkins (16.9 PPG, 5.1 APG)
G-Eddrin Bronson (5.5 PPG, 1.9 RPG)
F/G--Ben Vander Wal (8.2 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 2.4 APG)
F--Cole Bowser (5.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG)
C--Charles Johnston (10.5 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 1.9 APG)
Samford's Probable Starting Five
G-Keaton Norris (10.7 PPG, 4.5 RPG)
G-Jadin Booth (20.4 PPG, 3.8 RPG)
G-Cade Norris (8.0 PPG, 4.9 RPG)
G-Isaiah Campbell-Finch (7.8 PPG, 1.2 RPG)
C-Dylan Faulkner (17.3 PPG, 6.8 RPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment