One undefeated season will come to an end Saturday evening when Furman faces No. 1 Kansas in Lawrence, Kan.
Though the Paladins (7-0) and the Jayhawks (6-0) have swept through their respective schedules, the quality of their opponents is dramatically different. While the Jayhawks have faced and defeated the likes of North Carolina, Michigan State and Duke, the Paladins have not faced a ranked team or one from the power conferences.
Furman’s best victory may have come Tuesday when the Paladins defeated Seattle 61-56 in a multi-team event in Las Vegas. Cooper Bowser had career highs of 17 points and 12 rebounds to notch his first career double-double for the Paladins.
After the Redhawks trimmed an 11-point Paladin lead down to two with 4:30 to play, Furman’s defense did not allow a field goal the rest of the way.
The Paladins are winning their games by 25.6 points per game, the 11th-best scoring margin in Division I. They are led by PJay Smith Jr. with 19.2 points per game, one of the top 50 averages in Division I. He’s hitting 53.3 percent from 3-point range, which ranked in the top 20 nationally as of Friday.
He’ll certainly be a key for Kansas’ defense.
“The kid’s the toughest dude on the court,” Furman coach Bob Richey said after Smith poured in 29 points in a win over Tulane Nov. 15, “and he goes out there and he competes on both ends and he does every single thing he can to win. And he’s not only a point guard, he’s going to be an all-league point guard and he’s going to play this game for a while.”
Kansas was also in Las Vegas on Tuesday to for a high-powered showdown with Duke. Kansas had a 32-20 first-half lead that was erased with a 12-0 spurt and neither team led by double digits the rest of the way. The Jayhawks were up 75-72 in the waning seconds when Kon Knueppel’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer rimmed out.
Dajuan Harris Jr. scored 14 points and added a season-high nine assists. Zeke Mayo added 12 points, and Hunter Dickinson and AJ Storr each scored 11. Dickinson was ejected from the game for kicking Duke’s Maliq Brown in a scrum under the basket.
The Jayhawks limited Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg to 13 points on nine attempts from the floor.
“Our ball screen defense was on point,” head coach Bill Self said after the game. “We flew around and we guarded well. The most impressive thing that we did was rebound the ball. We did a lot of good things and I am really happy with our guys. What KJ (Adams) did defensively on Cooper was good. We did a lot of good things but the biggest thing we did was find a way to win.”
Dickinson leads Kansas at 16.7 points per game, joined by Mayo (12.5) and Harris (10.0) in double figures. But Kansas’ depth is what makes the Jayhawks so hard to defend. Four more players are averaging between 9.7 and 7.8 points per game.
Self didn’t question the flagrant-2 foul on Dickinson that led to his ejection. In fact, Self believes the way the Jayhawks responded without their 7-foot-1 center might benefit them later in the season.
“(That could) be the best thing to happen to us (because) it’ll teach (Dickinson) a good lesson and also it’ll give some other kids some confidence,” Self said.
–Field Level Media
