By MONTE DUTTON

After a rash of brawls marring the great football rivalries of the land, I put some thought into the nature of untoward behavior at gridiron gatherings.
First of all, I’m one to write. Among the mistakes of a misspent youth was once touching off a brawl in a high-school scrimmage. I also touched off the whole team having to run wind sprints on the other team’s home field while its players were all emerging from the showers and drawing some consolation from having been thrashed by the team being punished.
I also touched off being the least popular player on the team for about a week, during which time it was open season on me.

Humans do things in the heat of battle they would not do otherwise. They are still responsible for their actions and must pay for their sins. I do not choose to cast the first stone, or, for that matter, the 10,000th. It’s been a long time since I mounted a high horse.
I see little on high-school fields other than respectful sportsmanship, but almost every week, when I call in a radio report on the game I observed, while on hold, I hear lurid reports of fights breaking out in far-flung towns and villages, about some of which I even have knowledge.

After high-school games, it’s at least expected that, when the final horn sounds, the teams walk in single file across the field, greeting their opposites.
Even after some hellacious mismatches, I see nothing but fist bumps and embraces. “Good game.” “Best of luck to y’all.” “Y’all got a helluva team, mon.” The coaches are warm in their greetings. In most instances.
In pro games, camaraderie among combatants is also the rule. The players hook up with old college teammates. The quarterbacks almost always bond. Most of the scuffles are in the games, not after them.

I’m mostly insulated at Furman, where showing decorum dates back to at least the 1960s, when I first watched the Paladins play the Blue Hose at Sirrine Stadium. There were exceptions, most involving Western Carolina. You think trying to plant a flag in an artificial turf is an act of war? Try tearing down the home team’s goalposts one time. If that happened in Columbus, Ohio, the UN Security Council would have to convene.
At Paladin Stadium, it was just a muddy brawl. I was watching from the press box imagining it was the First Battle of Manassas. Just a Bull Run.

These are highly competitive young men, supercharged and at full acceleration. It’s hard to keep their heads straight.
At times, during the NASCAR years, someone would ask me about the latest pro-wrestling hijinks from the speed palaces, expecting me to wring my hands and rise in outrage.
“Have you ever seen what happens when a mom with a van load of young’uns backs into a brand-new Mercedes in a supermarket parking lot? The driver of the Mercedes reacts about the same way,” I’d say.

It had to happen. Lawrence, Kan., was a better place than most.
As far as when to lose first is concerned, top-ranked Kansas was a prestigious choice.
K.J. Adams scored a game-high 22 points, and Jayhawks connected on 10 of its first 11 shots in the second half as Kansas claimed an 86-51 victory over Furman on Saturday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
After Furman’s Nick Anderson opened the second half with a triple to cut the Kansas advantage to eight at 39-31, the Jayhawks scored the next eight points and hit on 10 of their next 11 shots in the half to open a 62-38 lead on David Coit’s three with 11:51 left. The Jayhawks shot .609 from the field, outscored the Paladin 62-14 in the paint, and managed 18 points in transition.

Adams hit 10/12 shots to pace Kansas (7-0) while Rylan Griffen and Hunter Dickinson added 10 points apiece. Dujuan Harris Jr. chipped in with eight points and a game-high eight assists.
Furman (7-1) hit four of its first seven triples, including two apiece from Garrett Hien and PJay Smith Jr., and were tied 16-16 with 11:59 left in the half. Kansas answered with an 11-2 spurt to build a nine-point cushion, but Eddrin Bronson drained a pair of triples as Furman scored eight straight to trim the deficit to 27-26. The Paladins, however, connected on just two of their final 16 three-point tries in the opening half and the Jayhawks ended the period on a 12-2 run to carry a 39-28 lead into the break.

The Paladins made just five of their final 32 three-point attempts and shot just 30 percent from the field for the game. Redshirt-freshman Bronson led the Paladins with a career-high 14 points on 4/9 shooting from three-point range. Hien finished with 12 points, a game-high seven rebounds, and three assists.

Saturday’s game was the latter of the Terry’s Chocolate Vegas Showdown for both the Paladins and Jayhawks. Kansas opened the event with a 75-72 win over No. 11 Duke in Las Vegas, Nev., while Furman downed Seattle, 61-56.
Furman wraps up its four-game road trip with a 7 p.m. tip-off at Florida Gulf Coast in Fort Myers, Fla., on Wednesday. The Paladins return to Bon Secours Wellness Arena to host Princeton at noon on Saturday.
Take a look at the stats here.

In closing, are you as pumped about Saturday’s game as I am?
Most times Furman is on TV, one of the announcers invariably mentions that Bob Richey’s offense is of the Princeton style, which, like the Paladins’, involves ball movement, ball screens and a dogged determination to find open ball shots.
I love watching it so much that I find myself scoffing at teams that play other styles.
The Princeton Offense is as derived from Pete Carril, who coached there 1967-96, as the old Four Corners was from Dean Smith, back when men were men and shots were for two.

Modern practitioners have grown to stop worrying and love the triple. What coaches like Richey have done is make the three-point field goal aesthetically pleasing.
Last year, on Dec. 2, Princeton won, 70-69, at Jadwin Gymnasium, its home court, which looks from the outside like something from The Jetsons and hosts a great many Tiger teams besides the basketball ones. I’ve never been there. I just looked it up on Wikipedia.

It’s as weird as the original Timmons in its way, but there’s nothing weird about the Well except its name.
Princeton is 6-3 entering Tuesday night’s game at Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia.
“I guess that I’ve fought tougher men, but I really can’t remember when.” – Shel Silverstein, “A Boy Named Sue”
Wellpilgrim.com is winding down the fall making a transition to the winter chill. The bounces of the balls are getting truer.
Times are changing. I am aware of how irrelevant what I do for a living has become and thus how unimportant my efforts are. The readers appreciate them, but there aren’t enough of them. I doubt there ever will be again.
It’s what I do. It’s what I know.

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