NCAA Basketball: Top 25 mid-major teams through non-conference play

6. Furman Paladins (12-1)

The biggest surprise from the mid-major world has to be Furman, who had to replace the team’s top three scorers from a year ago in a difficult Southern Conference. But the returning players have filled in and been tremendous. Jordan Lyons (17.8 ppg) and Matt Rafferty (16.5 ppg and 9.2 rpg) have played at an All-Southern level and played huge roles in the early season results.

The Paladins first knocked off last season’s Final Four participant Loyola-Chicago to start the season before taking down the reigning national champions Villanova in overtime on the road. The team got ranked for the first time in school history and started off 12-0. Furman eventually took their first loss of the year at LSU by 18 points.

Taking away the good feeling about this mid-major program, it’s hard to gauge how good they really are. Furman has a pair of non-division 1 wins, along with three separate overtime victories. One of them was to fellow Southern competitor Western Carolina in double-overtime, with Lyons needing 29 to propel the Paladins to victory.

Furman has a tough conference battle with East Tennessee State, a game that’ll be important in the conference standings. With four teams from the Southern Conference on this list, the games against one another will have a huge effect in positioning in March. Furman may not be the favorite but their resume and ability to avoid losses gives them the highest place among the Southern teams.