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GREENVILLE, S.C.–It will be only a short time before Furman begins its summer preparations for what is expected be another chase for the championship in the 2025-26 season of Southern Conference basketball, as the Paladins hope to recapture the magic of a strong finish, which saw the Paladins win 25 or more games for only the fourth time in school history, with each of those superlative campaigns coming under direction of now ninth-year head coach Bob Richey.
Not far removed from what was a return to an elite standard after putting together a 25-10 season and a run to the Southern Conference Tournament championship game in Asheville, the Furman Basketball program learned that, for a second-straight season, it would be playing as a part of the ESPN Events Terry’s Chocolate Challenge, which will this time be played at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, FL.
Richey, who is the winningest coach in the SoCon over the past eight seasons, helping the Paladins to 181 of their league best 223 overall wins since the start of the 2015-16 season, will have far less on his mind this off-season than last, but he will hope the momentum established by the Paladins’ run in Asheville last March will fuel the off-season hunger to get over the title tilt hump and get back to March Madness for the second time in four seasons.
It was the last time that Furman visited the city of Orlando that the Paladins made their March Madness Moment on JP Pegues’ three-pointer with 2.4 seconds left off a steal and feed from Garrett Hien that lifted Furman to an epic upset of No. 4 seed Virginia, 68-67, at the Kia Center, as the Paladins made Disney World its own version of Magic Kingdom on March 16, 2023.
During Furman’s run to the title game in the Asheville in the 2025 Southern Conference Tournament, where it finally succumbed to Upstate rival Wofford (L, 85-92), the Paladins knocked off a pair of higher-seeded foes, in Samford (W, 95-78) and regular-season champion and top overall seed Chattanooga (W, 80-77 OT), ending the Mocs’ 13-game winning streak in the process. It was good enough to garner Furman an invite to the 2025 National Invitational Tournament for just the third time program history, where it would lose to North Texas (L, 64-75) in an opening round matchup.
SoCon champion Chattanooga would go on to claim the title, with a (W, 80-73) win over UC Santa Irvine to become the first SoCon team to ever win an NCAA sanctioned national tournament.
Other than VMI, no team in the Southern Conference returns as much to the fold as the Paladins do, and they will enter the season as one of two or three favorites predicted to win the league and return to the NCAA Tournament for a second time in a four-year span. The Paladins will have just one holdover from that NCAA Tournament team still around that played, in Ben VanderWal.
Great morning celebrating the Class of 2025! 🎓 Tyrese Hughey and PJay Smith Jr. will cross the stage tonight, Garrett Hien and Nick Anderson will graduate with their Masters in August! #AllDIN pic.twitter.com/griDlPvqLZ
— Furman Basketball (@FurmanMBB) May 10, 2025
If you’re looking for perhaps Furman’s most important and most well-rounded player heading into the 2025-26 season, then you should look no further than 6-7 forward Ben VanderWal.
VanderWal and Davis Molnar are the lone two remaining holdovers from that team that won the SoCon title three years ago, but VanderWal is the only one that saw minutes returning off that team.
He will be a key leader for the Paladins in the upcoming season. In many ways, the only thing holding VanderWal back from being just a good player to being a great one in this league is his shooting ability. If the senior from Elmhurst, Ill., ever gets that part of his game figured out, he is easily an all-league player.
He was a good shooter from both the mid-range and perimeter in high school but has lost confidence in his shot since beginning his play at the NCAA Division I level. But as head coach Bob Richey has said so many times throughout VanderWal’s time on campus, he has winning DNA. When VanderWal played more than 23 minutes per game last season, the Paladins were nearly unbeatable with something like an 85% winning percentage.
VanderWal does the little things well, and that has been enough to make up for his lack of shooting ability from the perimeter. He’s also not a great foul shooter, finishing the 2024-25 season as just a 52.6% shooter from the charity stripe. He also finished just 4-of-22 (18.2%) from three-point range this past season after connecting a 16-for-58 (27.6%) clip in his very first season with the Paladins.
🏆 Our Documentary received an EMMY nomination! All because we are #BetterTogether 💜🏀 Go Dins! https://t.co/ZW8n72CHKr
— Furman Basketball (@FurmanMBB) May 7, 2025
In the 2024-25 season, VanderWal averaged 5.7 PPG and a career-best 5.5 RPG. VanderWal ended up being most vital on the offensive glass, as well as being a solid defender and is good at cutting to the basket with elite athleticism. VanderWal has a chance to have a big senior season for the Paladins in 2025-26.
He finished his junior campaign posting double-figure scoring efforts on four occasions last season, including posting a season career high in a Paladin win over Montreat, as he finished with 16 points and eight rebounds in what was a 100-75 win for the Paladins. VanderWal’s top performance of the season was perhaps in a loss, as he posted 15 points and 12 rebounds in a loss at VMI.
VanderWal is an example of perseverance and after coming to Furman as one of the most highly touted players out of the state of Illinois, it would have been easy to transfer out and look for a new beginning, which seems to be all the craze in this day and age.
If Furman is going to have a chance at winning a title this season, it’s going to have a lot to do with the impact that VanderWal has in his senior season. I expect his offensive numbers will go up this season, and dare I say, he might even be a factor on the perimeter, although at this point, that would just be a bonus as to what he already adds to the mix with that “winning DNA.”
Others returning to the fold for the Paladins heading into the 2025-26 season include guys like power forward Cooper Bowser (8.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 1.6 BPG), center Charles Johnston (5.6 PPG, 1.6 RPG), guard Eddrin Bronson (5.7 PPG, 5.5 RPG), forward Davis Molnar (3.5 PPG, 2.7 RPG) and guard Tom House (7.1 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 54-of-133 from 3pt range, 40.6% 3PT FG%), which all came up big in key moments last season for the Paladins.
This season, Furman will have to have that, “next man up” attitude once again, as the Paladins will have to replace their top two scorers from the 2024-25 and overall, in PJay Smith Jr. (17.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 3.9 APG) and Nick Anderson (14.6 PPG, 2.2 RPG, 2.3 APG), however, it was far different a situation at this point in the late spring a year ago than it is currently.
The sharp-shooting guard duo connected on 207 of the team’s league-leading 380 triples last season, or just over half the team’s three-point field goals, connecting on a combined 54.4% of Furman’s made three-pointers. The Paladins finished the season ranking sixth in the country in threes made-per-game (10.9) and finished the 2025 SoCon Tournament by making 42 triples in three games, which was just one off of Chattanooga’s tournament record of 43 made threes in the 2023 edition, which it did over the course of four games.
There is far less worry this summer, as there are more answers returning than questions to be asked and glib assumptions of doom and gloom to be made. While there is some question in terms of perimeter scoring, it’s a far cry from losing 70.8% of production like head coach Bob Richey and staff were faced with doing last off-season.
It still is, however, a significant chunk of points the Paladins must replace, as almost 40 PPG of scoring production between three of the four seniors have moved on, in Smith, Anderson and center Garrett Hien, as Anderson and Smith combined to average 32.2 PPG between the two of them alone.
Let’s officially welcome Asa Thomas to the #FurmanFamily! pic.twitter.com/OWKToRYk8G
— Furman Basketball (@FurmanMBB) April 28, 2025
Bowser is the player that should take a major step forward this coming season and will likely head into the season as an all-conference candidate. The 6-11 rising junior from Woodbridge, VA., finished off the 2024-25 season averaging 8.3 PPG and 4.7 RPG, while leading the SoCon in total blocks last season, swatting away 1.6 shots-per-game. Bowser shot an impressive 64.6% from the field this past season, which ranked him third overall in the Southern Conference in field goal percentage last season.
But it won’t be only VanderWal and Bowser leading, as it will require a cohesive team effort like it had last season, with multiple examples of other guys stepping up.
Few will forget the performance turned in by House and his shooting acumen in the tournament, while others like Johnston and Bronson had their share of big moments over the course of the 35-slate last season. In fact, it was Bronson’s career-high 15-point effort in the NIT loss at North Texas, which will give him something to build on, as he heads into his redshirt sophomore season.
.@FurmanMBB To Participate In Terry's Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational Thanksgiving Week https://t.co/N44f1fvhaV
— Furman Paladins (@FurmanPaladins) May 28, 2025
Tournament Format and Opposition
Like last year’s edition, the tournament will take place during college basketball’s famed “Feast Week”, which is generally regarded as the unofficial start to the real action of the college basketball season, while college football begins to wind down its regular season.
The teams competing in the 2025-26 version of the tournament include: Bradley (NIT Participant), Princeton (19-11 in 2024-25/Lost in Ivy League Semifinals to Yale, 59-57), Rhode Island (18-13 in 2024-25), Vermont (21-12 in 2024-25), Temple (17-15 in 2024-25/Lost in AAC Championship game to Tulsa, 75-71), Towson (22-11 in 2024-25), UC San Diego (2025 NCAA Tournament participant), BYU (2025 Sweet Sixteen Appearance), Dayton (2025 NIT appearance), Miami (7-24 in 2024-25), Georgetown (College Basketball Crown Participant), Charlotte (11-22 in 2024-25), Furman (2025 NIT Participant/Lost in SoCon Championship game to Wofford, 92-85), Richmond (10-22 in 2024-25), Liberty (2025 NCAA Tournament participant) and Illinois State (2025 CBI Champion).
The tournament will take place from Nov. 24-28 and will involve 16 teams, will be sectioned two four-team brackets and one eight-team bracket different brackets labeled as the following: The Magic Bracket (Miami, Dayton, BYU, Georgetown and Miami), The Adventure Bracket (Bradley, Liberty, Princeton, Rhode Island, Temple, Towson, UC San Diego, and Vermont, and The Imagination Bracket (Furman, Illinois State, Charlotte and Richmond).
The eight-team Adventure Bracket will get the tournament underway on Nov. 24 and will play games through Nov. 26 before The Magic Bracket will begin play in games slated for Nov. 27-28. Furman, which will play in the Imagination Bracket, will also play it’s games on Nov. 27-28.
The Paladins have a history with Richomd and Charlotte even though the two have not faced each other since the 2015-16 season, while Richmond was once a Southern Conference member, however, the Paladins and Spiders haven’t played since the 1975-76, which was the Spiders’ last as a hardwood member inside the SoCon.
Furman dropped a 77-68 contest to Charlotte at Halton Arena back on Nov. 19, 2015, as the Paladins were left hampered by a less than healthy top player and scorer, in Stephen Croone, who was nursing a finger and hand injury and would be playing in his first game of the season. Curran Scott had a big night to lead Charlotte to the nine-point win, posting 21 points to lead five 49ers in double figures. The Paladins are 3-5 all-time against the 49ers and haven’t defeated Charlotte on the hardwood since a 77-71 triumph at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium in the 1983-84 season.
The Paladins and Spiders were slated to meet during the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season, however the game had to be abruptly canceled after someone–player or staff member–tested positive for the rapidly evolving virus, leaving the Paladins scrambling for a weekend opponent. The Paladins would eventually find one, in the College of Charleston, handing the Cougars one of their non-conference worst home defeats in TD Arena history, knocking off the CAA member, 81-57.
Furman faced has faced off against the Spiders on 55 occasions previously, holding a 34-21 series lead, while the Paladins have never played against Missouri Valley Conference member Illinois State. The Redbirds are coming off what was a 22-14 season a year ago, which included claiming the College Basketball Invitational title with a 79-68 triumph over Cleveland State in Daytona.
The Paladins will play in one of the two semifinal games on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27), while the championship and consolation games will be played the following day at the State Farm Field House at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
Last Year Season in Terry’s Chocolate Challenge in Las Vegas
The Paladins faced off against Seattle last season in the Terry’s Chocolate Challenge as a part of the 2024 ESPNEvents tournament, defeating the Redhawks, 61-56, on the strength of Bowser’s first-career double-double (17 points, 12 rebounds) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The win over the Redhawks was the second half a double-header, which featured an epic battle of a pair of college basketball bluebloods in the primetime clash, as Kansas knocked off Duke, 75-72, in a battle of Top 10-ranked teams.
The Paladins would then play a second game on the road against then No. 1 Kansas, where it they would drop an 86-51 contest in what is the largest margin of loss in the Bob Richey era. The Jayhawks, who at the time were favored to cut down the nets at the Final Four in Houston in all the preseason rankings, eventually fell all the way out of the Top 25 and wouldn’t even make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, while the Paladins finished strong in the end, posting 25 wins.
SoCon Hoops Report at May 28, 2025
