Know Your Foe: Furman Paladins
Record: 19-12 (10-8 SoCon)
Head Coach: Bob Richey (9th season)
Last meeting: Samford L, 78-73
Betting: Samford +490 to win SoCon Tournament (second best odds)
TV: ESPN+
Tip time: 5:00pm CT
Fun Fact: This is the third straight season where Samford will play Furman in the SoCon Tournament
What a final month it turned out to be for Samford basketball. After starting Southern Conference play at 2-5, Lennie Acuff’s squad rattled off nine wins in their last 11 to finish in a tie for second place in the standings. Then to top it all off, Samford guard Jadin Booth goes out and wins the Southern Conference Player of the Year. Booth left quite an impression, dropping a career-high 40 points with a school record 11 threes in the regular season finale victory over UNCG. Samford forward Dylan Faulkner joined Booth on the All-SoCon first team in his first year in Homewood.
Samford now heads to Asheville facing a foe that has had their number over the years. Furman has a five game winning streak over the Bulldogs with the last Samford win over the Paladins occurring in the semifinal round of the 2024 SoCon Tournament. We all know what happened in the tournament final after that.
The Bulldogs lost both games to Furman this season by a combined nine points. Samford was at full strength for both matchups and Furman was not. The Bulldogs were a combined 30-45 from the free throw line. Samford finished a combined -13 in the rebounding battle.
It just had to be Furman huh?
While Samford has been the hottest team in the conference leading up to the tournament, Furman has not exactly been. Over the same exact 11-game stretch, Furman is still 6-5 but finished the regular season with a 19-point loss to another hot team in the Western Carolina Catamounts. Furman has seen their three-point shooting take a dip and have had more turnovers.
The Paladins finished eighth in the conference during conference play in three-point shooting percentage (32.6) and finished with the worst turnover percentage in the entire conference (17.3%). On the other side, Samford finished first in both categories per KenPom.
The caveat is that Furman played Samford without Cooper Bowser and Asa Thomas in both games and Tom House missed the first matchup. Furman star freshman guard Alex Wilkins was the difference in both contests. Wilkins is the Paladins’ leading scorer averaging 17.3 PPG this season and led the team in assists with 4.9 APG. He was All-SoCon second team.
Alex WIlkins was the star in the matchup in Homewood leading all scorers with 28 points and also had five assists. In the return game in Greenville, Wilkins played just 21 minutes due to foul trouble but still finished with 20 points. He has had an up-and-down February but that happens for true freshman point guards.
Cooper Bowser has played nine games since returning from an 10-game absence due to injury. He has scored in double figures in seven of those including a 17-point performance in the loss to Western Carolina.
Bowser against Dylan Faulkner is appointment viewing in and of itself.
Asa Thomas is Furman’s third leading scorer at 13.1 PPG as he has played in just 21 games this season. Thomas did have 18 points in the Furman win at Wofford a couple weeks ago. He is the team’s leading three-point shooter finishing at 39% on the season.
As Samford learned last year in the tournament, Tom House can get hot at any time. He scored 21 points in the second matchup but has only scored as many as 11 points in a couple games since.
Charles Johnston is Furman’s leading rebounder at 9.2 RPG and also averages 10.1 PPG.
Furman has the size and length to cause Samford problems as was the case in the first two matchups. Samford’s defense has gone to another level over the course of these nine wins. Zion Wilburn, when he is out there, will have the matchup against Alex Wilkins.
Even with Furman at full strength, Wilkins is priority number one for Samford on the defensive end. They have to find a way to contain Wilkins while forcing him into mistakes. He did have six turnovers in their last big win against Wofford. He also had eight combined in the Samford matchups.
On the Samford offensive end, Jadin Booth is the player of the year, but the offense runs through Dylan Faulkner. If Faulkner plays well against Bowser and Johnston, then that will open up more opportunities for Booth and vice versa.
This game has a chance to be the best of the quarterfinal round. Can Samford find a way to get over the hump against the length of Furman? It is the student, Bob Richey, against the teacher Lennie Acuff. This is March.
