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Preview: KU hosts undefeated Furman ahead of road stretch

Preview: KU hosts undefeated Furman ahead of road stretch

On December 1, 2024By Littum

Photo by AP/Lucas Peltier

Kansas head coach Bill Self reacts during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Duke Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Las Vegas.

When the dust settled after Kansas’ win over Duke, as the final echoes of Kon Knueppel’s last-second shot rang off the backboard and the edge settled, there was still one game left to play Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena.

In what could charitably be described as the undercard of ESPN’s Vegas Showdown event, Furman led the Paladins of Greenville, South Carolina and the Southern Conference for the final 18 minutes, 26 seconds, holding Seattle U at arm’s length in a 61-56 victory.

It boosted Furman to 7-0 on the season; now, as Seattle travels to face Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Paladins take their undefeated season on the road to Allen Fieldhouse in what is officially the second phase of the Vegas Showdown.

Furman meets KU at 5 p.m. on Saturday in just the second ever meeting between the two programs. The Jayhawks won the first, 101-60, on December 20, 1993.

From KU’s perspective, this game is the last in Lawrence for two weeks — the longest the Jayhawks will go without playing there at any point in the regular season — as the team heads out for back-to-back road dates at Creighton and Missouri after have met Paladins. .

On the morning of its win over Seattle, Furman ranked 47 spots higher in KenPom’s rankings than the next closest mid-major KU has played this season (UNC Wilmington). Of course, at the same time, the Jayhawks had also played and beaten KenPom’s no. 5 (Duke), 13 (North Carolina) and 42 (Michigan State) teams, two on neutral courts.

The Paladins have yet to face a power-conference team in the regular season, as their best wins along with Seattle are against the likes of Belmont and Jacksonville. Furman hosted Auburn, a top-five team nationally, for an exhibition game, which it lost 83–62.

Furman has been outstanding on defense so far this season, allowing one of the lowest points-per-game averages in the nation at 58.0. Offensively, the Paladins are first in their league so far in assists per game. While the strong ball movement is a team-wide trend — five players average at least two assists — they are led by their preseason all-conference guard Pjay Smith, a senior and one-time Division II transfer, who also paces the team with 19.2 points per game. match.

Smith is shooting a whopping 53.3% from beyond the arc this season, and fellow guard Nick Anderson, another Division II transfer, isn’t far behind at 50%. Against Seattle, 6-foot-11 forward Cooper Bowser grabbed the spotlight with a 17-point, 12-rebound double-double.

“We know they’re 7-0, they’re one of the best defensive 3-point field goal teams in the country, so they’re going to try to take that away, and they shoot a lot of them, too, and they make a lot of them,” KU guard Zeke Mayo told reporters Friday.

The Paladins may be a fifth-ranked SoCon team, but they’ve shown the capacity for a major upset before. Two years ago, Bob Richey’s team knocked Virginia out of the NCAA Tournament on a clear 3-pointer with two seconds left. The current team has a few holdovers from that team, notably Garrett Hien, Tyrese Hughey and Ben VanderWal.

No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks (6-0) vs. Furman Paladins (7-0)

• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, at 17.00

• Send out: ESPN+

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KMXN FM 92.9)

Keep an eye out

Score in droves: It’s early, but the Paladins are shooting more than 40% from deep thanks to the efforts of Smith and Anderson. KU most recently allowed Duke to go 11-for-26 (42.3%), one of the main reasons the Blue Devils refused to go away in the face of a pair of big runs by the Jayhawks. Granted, they had done a solid job defending the arc prior to Tuesday night, so Saturday’s game could provide an opportunity to return to form against some strong shooters.

Back on track: Tuesday was a night to forget for KU center Hunter Dickinson, the Jayhawks’ consensus best player, who missed the final quarter of the game after being ejected for a flagrant foul and wasn’t very good even when he was on the floor. He missed a number of easy shots at the rim and finished 4-for-11 with 11 points and six rebounds. KU coach Bill Self said he believed the ejection would serve as a lesson. Dickinson has already shown top form this year, most notably in the Champions Classic against Michigan State, but a steady outing against Furman could be the start of a consistency-building process ahead of Big 12 play.

It might take some getting used to: It won’t affect the Jayhawks’ performance on the field, but it’s literally on the field: KU reached an agreement with longtime sponsor FNBO (First National Bank of Omaha) that will place two instances of the company’s logo near the center of James Naismith Court at Allen Fieldhouse. The announcement of the sponsorship deal on Tuesday, with an accompanying video featuring himself and women’s basketball coach Brandon Schneider, had some fans complaining about the sanctity of the big court, others were pleased that their school was taking in a lot of money from the sponsorship and still others simply annoyed that FNBO’s green logo clashes with the red and blue color scheme. The logo will make its debut on the field, kicking off a multi-year event on Saturday.

Off-kilter observation

Bowser spent a year at Sunrise Christian Academy, the postgraduate prep school that also produced recent KU players such as Gradey Dick and Zach Clemence.