Furman Basketball: 3 keys to upsetting Virginia in 2023 NCAA Tournament

It’s time for the tournament and everyone loves an upset and having the crowd in the arena increasingly get cheer on the lower seed until the crescendo when the final buzzer goes off. It is not as fun for the favorite who has their season end unexpectedly, ending all the expectations they had of success in March. No team understands this feeling more than Tony Bennett’s Virginia Cavaliers, who in 2018 became the first and only (to date) No. 1 seed to fall to a No. 16 seed on the men’s side when they lost to UMBC 74-54.

Virginia is the No. 4 seed in the South Region and will kick off tournament action on Thursday afternoon as the second game of the first round to get going against the No. 13 Furman Paladins who won the Southern Conference tournament. Based upon name recognition alone the casual fan may easily move Virginia along to the second round in their brackets, but as Lee Corso would say, “not so fast my friend.”

Bob Richey’s squad enters the tournament 27-7 and winners of 14 of their last 15. The Paladins’ offense is what carries their water and that offense that scores over 82 points per game is one of the reasons that the Paladins are capable of putting Virginia on the wrong end of another NCAA Tournament upset.

It won’t be easy but Furman has the pieces to get the tournament started with a bang. What exactly do the Paladins need to do in order to move on to the second round? Here’s a look at three big keys to Furman upsetting Virginia.