By MONTE DUTTON

Furman University is practicing football, competing in numerous spring sports, and dancing.

Basketball is not over. Not yet.

The Paladins are headed to Philadelphia, Pa., City of Brotherly Love, and where Furman pulled an NCAA first-round upset of South Carolina on March 9, 1974. I’m barely old enough to remember it but old enough to remember it vividly.

Having such a game today in the Palestra would be like playing it at Sumter Civic Center.

No. 15 seed Furman faces No. 2 seed Connecticut (29-5) in the opening round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship on Friday at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. Tipoff is 10 p.m. The Huskies of Dan Hurley won national titles in 2023 and 2024.

The winner plays the winner of No. 7 seed UCLA (23-11) and No. 10 seed Central Florida (21-11) in second round action on Sunday in Philadelphia.

Furman (22-12) earned its eighth NCAA Tournament bid and second in the last four seasons with a 76-61 victory over No. 1 seed East Tennessee State in the Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship on Monday, March 9, in Asheville, N.C. The sixth-seeded Paladins downed No. 3 seed Samford, No. 7 seed UNC Greensboro, and the Buccaneers en route to claiming the SoCon Tournament crown.

Freshman point guard Alex Wilkins, a finalist for the Kyle Macy Award (national freshman of the year) and Lou Henson Award (mid-major player of the year), was most outstanding player at the SoCon tournament. The Mattapan, Mass., native scored 65 points over three games in Asheville, including a career-best 34 in the Paladins’ 81-75 triumph over UNCG in the semifinal round. Junior Cooper Bowser provided 21 points and 11 rebounds to pace the Paladins in the championship game.

Furman will be making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2023 when the No. 13 seed Paladins stunned No. 4 seed Virginia, 68-67, in opening-round action in Orlando, Fla., before falling in round two against eventual national finalist San Diego State.

 What a year in the Southern Conference, which was not one of overwhelming dominance but rather balance. For the second year in a row, the sixth seed won the Ingles SoCon Men’s Basketball Championship, but Furman was no ordinary sixth seed.

The final, which the Paladins won, 75-61, was the only game in the tournament decided by more than seven points. Furman’s season had as many rises and falls as Fury 325 at Carowinds. East Tennessee State, the top seed, never drew closer than nine points after the opening moments of the second half.

As a result, the scene at Harrah’s Cherokee Center last Monday night was a bit like what occurred at Timmons Arena on Sunday. It was a delirious celebration in which the considerable ETSU contingent grew more and more disconsolate as the game progressed.

Every team there had a shot except VMI, but no one who watched left thinking other than that the best team won.

The Bucs’ Brooks Savage was Coach of the Year, but Wofford’s Kevin Giltner and The Citadel’s Ed Conroy deserved consideration.

For the record, Bob Richey has never done a better job than this season. He blended more herbs and spices than Col. Harland Sanders. For a while, the Paladins were playing three-on-three at practices due to injuries. Richey had to change some red-shirt plans. By the time the team was back in the pink, the cast was considerably larger, and Richey had to get the rotation organized. This he and his staff did so magnificently.

This did not surprise me. I’ve seen Richey make fine sausage before.

Every championship team has a Ben Vander Wal, the lone holdover from the 2023 champions. The senior from Elmhurst, Ill., led Furman in most statistics that don’t have definitions.

Hustle. Leadership. Experience. Character.

All came together on the Asheville hardwood: the twin towers of ever-improving Cooper Bowser and ever-scrappy Charles Johnston Jr.; sharpshooters Tom House and Asa Thomas; ever-more-dependable Eddrin Bronson; freshmen Cole Bowser and Abijah Franklin.

Three years ago, another grand Furman team upset Virginia in the NCAA first round. The odds are long and stacked against them, but I wouldn’t put it past this one.

Yes, I’ve been agonizing all weekend. I mapped out routes and campgrounds between here and Tampa, Saint Louis and Oklahoma City. The Philadelphia assignment threw me for a bit of a loop. I haven’t taken my travel trailer on a trip yet, and I dread fighting the traffic of the I-95 corridor through Washington and Baltimore. The weather forecast isn’t bad. I looked at Amtrak and shopped for motel rooms. I just don’t think I’m up to it.

So, damn.

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Most of my books are available at Amazon. Two of my novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audio versions.