Furman Basketball: 2022-23 season preview for the Paladins

Season outlook and overview

My favorite part of the NCAA Tournament, every year, is always the story of the little guy that takes down Goliath or puts their school on the map by making a miracle multi-round run in March. I mean, seriously, who honestly knew where Saint Peter’s was before they beat Kentucky?? (college basketball nerds need not answer). I love to try to identify teams that can be the sweetheart story before the season even begins and this Furman team just screams Cinderella.

For one, they have the perfect kind of historical drought that makes for a great story (they haven’t been invited to the big dance since Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were NBA rookies) and were 4.3 seconds and a miracle shot away from getting to achieve this last season. Two, they play the perfect style of play for a team that can beat anyone on any given night: they hoist up a ton of threes, slow you down on defense, and also make a ton of threes.

Three, their two best players are the best in the conference and are super seniors. Lastly, they are seemingly the perfect team to continue a four-year trend of a different SOCON Tournament winner that has an up-and-coming coach that gets poached by one of the big boys the following off-season. An argument can be made that Coach Richey is one of the greatest in program history with a modern basketball philosophy that has turned the Paladin program into a perennial 20-game winner over the past five seasons.

If we’re calling shots here, give me Furman to win the SOCON and more importantly, give me Furman to upset a three or four-seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. If you’re looking for a Cinderella in November, I would like to point you straight to Greenville, South Carolina.