Greenville, S.C. – No. 13 seed Furman begins its NCAA Tournament journey on Thursday, March 16, when it faces No. 4 seed Virginia in first round action in the NCAA South Region at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
Thursday's tip-off is set for 12:40 p.m. and the game will air live on TruTV. The radio broadcast can be heard on The Fan Upstate at 97.7 FM and 1330 AM beginning at noon. The live stream of the broadcast can be heard by downloading The Varsity Network app. Fans can access all information about the Paladins March Madness experience by logging onto the
Furman NCAA Tournament Page.
The Paladins, who have won 14 of their last 15 games and six straight, enter the NCAA Tournament at 27-7 on the year. Furman knocked off Chattanooga, 88-79, on March 6 in Asheville, N.C., to claim its first Southern Conference Tournament title and NCAA bid since 1980. Fifth-year senior
Jalen Slawson paced the Paladins with 20 points in the championship game. He was joined on the all-tournament team by
Mike Bothwell and
JP Pegues, the tournament's most outstanding player.
Furman is making its seventh NCAA appearance with the previous six trips coming from 1971-80. The lone tournament victory for the Paladins came in 1974 when All-American Clyde Mayes paced Furman to a 75-67 opening round victory over South Carolina at The Palestra in Philadelphia, Pa. Pittsburgh downed the Paladins, 81-78, in the Sweet Sixteen in Raleigh, N.C. In its most recent NCAA appearance, the Paladins dropped an 80-69 decision to Tennessee in Greensboro, N.C., on March 6, 1980.
Thursday's first round matchup marks just the second meeting on the hardwood between the Paladins and Cavaliers. Virginia claimed a 79-67 verdict in the previous meeting on December 8, 2004, at University Hall in Charlottesville, Va.
Slawson and Bothwell, both finalists for the Lou Henson Mid-Major Player of the Year Award, have keyed Furman to a school-record 27 victories and the program's sixth 20-win season in the last seven years. Bothwell paced the SoCon in scoring at 18.0 points per game while Slawson contributed 15.7 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.6 blocked shots per game. Pegues, a sophomore from Nashville, Tenn., has added 12 points per game and ranks second in the SoCon at 4.0 assists per game. He averaged 21 points per game during Furman's run to the league title in Asheville.
The winner of Thursday's game will face advance to face the winner of No. 12 seed College of Charleston and No. 5 seed San Diego State on Saturday, March 18, at the Amway Center.
