By MONTE DUTTON

It’s been a while now since Furman was picked by media and coaches to defend successfully the Southern Conference men’s basketball championship it won last season.

The Paladins likely wouldn’t win those polls now.

It’s been a rough-and-tumble ride for the Paladins, who lost to Division II Anderson on Saturday and fell to 6-7. Furman played without its two leading scorers this season, Marcus Foster and J.P. Pegues, and last year’s two leading scorers, Jalen Slawson and Mike Bothwell, are playing professionally in the NBA and Great Britain, respectively, which underscores the distance between Greenville, Sacramento, Calif., and East Kilbride, Scotland.

Pegues, who stirs the straw in the Paladins’ offensive drink, is set to return on Wednesday night for the first SoCon game, at Greensboro Coliseum, versus UNCG at 7 p.m.

Foster, who suffered a knee injury at Princeton on Dec. 2, could be back by mid-month.

Combined, the two have averaged 38.2 points when they’ve played, led by Foster at 19.8 points a game. Among the healthy so far, Alex Williams has scored at a 14.6 clip, followed by newcomer PJay Smith at 11.1.

Pegues’s return adds 4.3 rebounds, 64 assists and 16 steals. Foster also averaged a team-leading 5.5 rebounds per the eight games in which he played thus far.

“The league didn’t do us any favors, I guess,” head coach Bob Richey said Tuesday. “They threw us on the road twice, but I told the team this morning that was a huge part of our success last year. We went out and got some big wins on the road.”

Mike Jones’ Spartans have three players – Mikeal Brown-Jones (19.4), Keyshaun Langley (14.3) and Donovan Atwell (11.5) – scoring in double figures. UNCG has not been without its own injury woes. Brown-Jones has been out since a Dec. 10 victory over North Carolina A&T.

The game is to be streamed live on ESPN+. Fans can listen on The Fan Upstate at 97.7 FM and 1330 AM in Greenville, on 97.1 FM and 1490 AM in Spartanburg, or via the Audacy app.

In preseason polls, UNCG was picked second by league coaches and fourth by the media.

No school has played a SoCon game yet. So far, in out-of-conference play, Samford and Western Carolina have both gotten off to 11-2 starts. Only Virginia Military (3-10) has a worse overall record than Furman.

It doesn’t mean a lot without any conference records to compare.

“The guidance and accountability standard has to be present in all our games,” Richey said, “but the other rail to make that train go has to be an inspiration and belief that we’re going to get there.

“Can we have a leader [who] steps up and inspires a group to a belief so that we just play with their values, we’re going to be okay. Can we stare adversity in the face instead of looking at me, like, oh, my goodness. Is this about to happen?”

Oh, it happened against the Trojans, but Richey said Monday’s practice was the team’s best of the season.

“My belief in this team has not changed, and I don’t really care what anybody says,” Richey added. “I know what we have. I know the things we’ve had to work through.

“I know the things we’ve had to work through, and you know what? I’m going to trust that it’s just going to make us more enduring and be a harder, tougher team when it matters most. We’re going to keep the faith.”

Wednesday night’s game marks the 45^th all-time meeting between the Paladins and Spartans with UNCG maintaining a 23-21 series advantage. Furman and UNCG have split the regular-season home-and-away series in each of the last five seasons with the visiting team winning on the opponent’s home court in three of the five. Last season, the Spartans rallied from a double-digit deficit to down Furman, 88-80, in overtime at Timmons Arena before the Paladins claimed a 69-57 victory in the rematch in Greensboro, N.C.

Since head coach Bob Richey took over the Furman program prior to the 2017-18 season, Furman has posted a league-best .727 winning percentage in SoCon games with an 85-32 record, including a 78-27 mark in regular-season SoCon contests. UNCG ranks second with a .725 winning percentage and an 87-35 mark.

Anderson’s Garrett Denbow score 27 points to lead the Trojans, 79-74, and became an unlikely opponent to end Furman’s 10-game winning streak at Timmons Aren, where the Paladins put up 20 three-pointers and connected on two of them. Garrett Hien led the Paladins with a career-best 20 points and nine boards.

The injury-riddled Paladins have not played a full game this season with all scholarship players healthy. Furman has used 10 different starting lineups through its first 13 games.

“The vision of our program is to grow people and, in turn, grow the program and sustain a level of winning and development that allows us to compete for championships year after year,” said Richey. “As we go through that whole process, there are going to be setbacks.

“You just have to go up there and play as hard as you can and continue to get better. … The best of the best, the ones that endured to March, are the ones who see adversity and not be afraid of it.”

UNCG enters SoCon competition at 9-4. The Spartans, who boast a victory over SEC foe Arkansas in November, dropped a 72-37 decision at Texas in their last outing.

Following a trip to Chattanooga (now 8-5) on Saturday, Furman returns home to host The Citadel (8-5) in its SoCon home opener on Jan. 10.

Happy New Year. I’m cautiously optimistic. It couldn’t possibly be worse. Oh, wait. There’s an election.

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