PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MARCH 20: Head coach Bob Richey of the Furman Paladins looks on against the UConn Huskies during the second half in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena on March 20, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Reigning Southern Conference champion Furman has announced its 2026-27 non-conference basketball schedule, and as expected, there is no power program on the slate other than playing a preseason exhibition at Alabama on Oct. 8. Furman opened its newly renovated Timmons Arena last season, dropping a 96-71 game to the Crimson Tide.

This will be one of three preseason exhibitions for the Paladins, as Furman will also face a pair of former SoCon rivals: Georgia Southern at Timmons Arena on Oct. 18, followed by the College of Charleston on Oct. 25 to close out the preseason. Furman was formerly part of the SoCon’s South Division along with the Cougars and Eagles.

Despite not taking on a high-major program during the regular season for the second straight season, the Paladins will face mid-major powers — Northern Iowa and Troy — that took part in the NCAA Tournament last season.

The Paladins will open the 2026-27 season playing in the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon against Bethune-Cookman, marking the second straight season the Paladins have taken part in the showcase put together by Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster. The Paladins will open the season on Nov. 2, with an 8 p.m. EST contest at the Rock Hill Sport & Event Center.

It will mark the first of two games against HBCU squads, and it will mark the first time the Paladins and Wildcats have met on the college basketball hardwood since Dec. 29, 2003, as part of Furman’s “Poinsettia Holiday Classic,” which was played at Timmons Arena. The Paladins posted a 64-49 win over Bethune-Cookman on that occasion.

It will mark the fourth all-time meeting between the two programs, with the Paladins holding a 2-1 series edge.

Bethune-Cookman was the SWAC regular-season champion last season and posted a 17-15 record (14-4 in the league). The Wildcats lost a heartbreaking 72-66 game in the SWAC Championship tilt against Prairie View A&M. The Wildcats have never made an appearance at the Big Dance.

The other HBCU on Furman’s 2026-27 schedule is CAA member North Carolina A&T on Dec. 12. The Paladins and Aggies have never met in hoops. The Paladins will also host CAA member Elon on Nov. 24. The Paladins overcame an 18-point deficit in the opening half to come away with a 97-88 win over the Phoenix at the Schar Center last season.

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Furman has a pair of games against two of the top teams from the Missouri Valley in 2026-27, as the Paladins will take on both the reigning Missouri Valley tournament champion, Northern Iowa (Nov. 7), and the reigning Missouri Valley regular-season champion, Belmont (Nov. 14). Both programs will have new head coaches leading them.

The Paladins will host the Panthers for the first time in program history; the only other two meetings took place in Cedar Falls, Iowa, including last season’s clash, which resulted in Furman’s lowest scoring output of the season when the Paladins dropped a 70-54 game in an early non-conference matchup.

The Paladins, who won three of their last four against Belmont, including a 76-73 thriller in Nashville at the Curb Events Center on a PJay Smith Jr. 3-pointer just before the buzzer in the first road game of the 2024-25 season.

While Furman has 245 wins over the past 11 seasons, Belmont has won 377 games since 2003 and 160 games since the start of the 2020-21 season. Belmont was 26-6 but was upset in the opening round of the Missouri Valley Tournament by Drake. The game against Belmont will begin Furman’s first challenging three-game road trip of the season.

The second game of the trip is an intriguing one as the Paladins will face another team that has purple and white as its primary colors and has a knight guy as its mascot, as Furman travels to Worcester, Mass., to take on Holy Cross on Nov. 11.

The Crusaders finished with just an 11–22-mark last season, including just a 5-13 mark in the Patriot League. The Paladins and Crusaders have met on only one other occasion, and that came way back in the 1971-72 season, as Holy Cross came to the Memorial Auditorium and blew out Furman, 104-88.

The Paladins will close out the road swing at Big South member Radford on Nov. 18. It will be the first-ever trek to the Dedmon Center and only the second-ever meeting between the two programs, with Furman coming up with an 81-64 win over the Highlanders in an MTE at Timmons Arena back in the 2021-22 season. The Highlanders finished 16-16 last season, which included a 9-7 mark in league play (third in Big South).

Furman will also face new UAC member Austin Peay (Nov. 28) and travel to face Troy (Dec. 1). The Govs and Paladins were slated to face last season, but due to a scheduling conflict already in place, they couldn’t find a date to play the game. That came would have been part of the SoCon-Atlantic Sun challenge. The Govs were 22-9 last season, which included wins over UNC Greensboro (W, 69-63) and SoCon regular-season champ East Tennessee State (W, 76-75).

The Govs’ 15-3 league record was good enough for a share of the ASUN regular-season title last season, sharing the spoils with Central Arkansas. Head coach Corey Gipson secured the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history as a result. The Nov. 28 clash at Timmons Arena will mark just the second time in series history, with Furman claiming the only other meeting, 93-89, at Memorial Auditorium during the 1979-80 season, which saw the Paladins eventually go dancing.

Furman’s game against fellow 2026 NCAA Tournament team and Sun Belt Tourney champion Troy on Dec. 1 will mark just the second meeting between the two programs. The only other meeting came last season, with the Trojans taking down the Paladins, 64-61, in the grand reopening of a newly renovated Timmons Arena after its $40 million facelift.

Finally, Furman will take on three non-Division I programs during the non-conference slate. The Paladins face off against Bob Jones (Nov. 4), Clinton College (Nov. 21) and Tennessee Wesleyan (Dec. 15).

The Paladins had games slated with High Point and Manhattan heading into the 2026-27 season, but both programs bought those games. Each of those games was to have taken place at Timmons Arena, with the High Point game to have been part of the SoCon-Big South Challenge, which will be taking place for the first time as a featured challenge between two comparable leagues.

Furman Roster Check-In

The Paladins enter the 2026-27 season with Cole Bowser, Abijah Franklin, Mason Smith, Collin O’Neal, Davis Molnar and Owen Ritger all returning from a team that went 22-13 last season and won the SoCon Tournament Championship as the No. 6 seed, with a 76-61 win over top-seeded and regular-season champion East Tennessee State in the championship game at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center last March.

The Paladins could return both Tom House and Charles Johnston for the 2026-27, as the battle to grandfather in the 2025-26 graduating class in the 5-for-5 continues to be decided in the courts. If the season started tomorrow, the 6-foot-11 Johnston, who posted 17 double-figure rebound games last season, including 11 double-doubles, and would be eligible due to a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) granted to him by a judge in California where he was named as part of a larger class-action case.

With Smith and Molnar still working their way back from injuries, while Ritger is expected to miss significant time, the additions of House and Johnston could play a major role in 2026-27 should both be granted eligibility.

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