SPARTANBURG, SC - FEBRUARY 21: Furman Paladins forward Ben Vander Wal (4) shares a moment with Furman Paladins head coach Bob Richey as time is close to expire during a college basketball game between the Furman Paladins and the Wofford Terriers on February 21, 2026 at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium in Spartanburg, S.C. (Photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

UConn men’s basketball (29-5) is set to begin its 2026 March Madness journey on Friday night as the 2-seed Huskies travel down to Philadelphia for an East Region first round matchup with the SoCon champion and 15-seed Furman (22-12) at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

The Paladins finished tied for fifth in the SoCon regular season standings, but ran through the conference tournament as the 6-seed at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina to cut down the nets and clinch the program’s eighth bid to the NCAA Tournament. Head coach Bob Richey has been guiding the team since 2017 and led the Paladins to the big dance for the second time during his tenure after Furman hadn’t made it since 1980. They come into Friday ranked No. 188 in KenPom.

The Huskies sit at No. 11 in KenPom and have made the NCAA Tournament in six consecutive seasons since rejoining the Big East in 2020, a program record. UConn failed to clinch the automatic qualifier, falling to St. John’s in the Big East title game on Saturday, but more than comfortably got in as an at-large. Dan Hurley has a dominant track record in Mach Madness since getting to Storrs, boasting a 13-3 record over the past five seasons with two national championships.

UConn is a part of a loaded East Region this year, with schools like Duke, Michigan State, Kansas, St. John’s and UCLA in the bracket. Should the Huskies advance over Furman, they would take on either the 7-seed Bruins or 10-seed UCF on Sunday.

The Huskies have advanced past the Round of 64 in 22 of their past 25 tournament appearances going back to 1990, only failing to do so in 2008 against San Diego, 2021 against Maryland and 2022 against New Mexico State. Can UConn keep the trend rolling and move on to the second round?

Date/Time: Friday, March 20, approximately 10:00 p.m.

TV/Stream: TBS, HBO Max, March Madness app

Radio: UConn Sports Network, Sirius XM 204, Sirius/XM online streaming

Odds: UConn -20.5, O/U 136.5

Location: Xfinity Mobile Arena — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

KenPom Predicted Score: UConn 78, Furman 59 – 96 percent win probability

Series History

The Huskies and Paladins have played twice all time with both games coming in Connecticut in non-conference play. with UConn taking both matchups. The two teams last faced off on Nov. 21, 2015 at Gampel Pavilion when the Huskies won 83-58. Shonn Miller led the team with 18 points, while Jalen Adams added 14 and Rodney Purvis chipped in 13.

Availability report

During his initial availability on Sunday, coach Dan Hurley said that Silas Demary Jr., who tweaked an ankle during the Big East Tournament final, is questionable. He also said Jaylin Stewart is close, but is more likely to play should the Huskies advance to the Second Round. We will know more at 9 p.m. the day before the game and two hours before game time as the NCAA has mandated the injury reports at those times during the postseason.

What to Watch For

What’s a Paladin?

A paladin represents a knightly, heroic figure, symbolizing strength and integrity. The Furman Paladins? Here’s the run down if you don’t know much about them this year.

Picked to finish second in the SoCon preseason poll, the Paladins dealt with the injury bug for stretches of the year and ultimately finished sixth. The team has three double figure per game scorers, led by star freshman guard Alex Wilkins and his 17.7 points per game. Wilkins ranks 13th nationally in freshman scoring average while being tied for seventh in assists at 4.7 assist per game. In the SoCon semifinals he scored 34 points – one of two 30+ point games he’s had this year – to help Furman knock off UNC Greensboro.

Forwards Cooper Bowser and Asa Thomas are the other two in double figures, averaging 14 PPG and 12.4 PPG respectively. Both players missed some time, but are healthy now. Bowser is a junior who’s spent his entire career with the Paladins so far along with his younger brother Cole, who’s a freshman reserve who scores 5.1 PPG. Thomas transferred over for his sophomore year after being an end-of-the-bench guy at Clemson last year and is a big time perimeter threat. He takes 7.5 threes per game and hits at a 39% clip.

Australian big man Charles Johnston nearly averages a double-double, putting up 9.8 points and 9.1 rebounds a night. Four-year Paladin guard Ben Vander Wal is set to move into a tie for fifth all time in games played in program history on Friday, while Tom House and Eddrin Bronson round out the rotation as guards who have made big plays at crucial times this season.

Furman actually opened the year with its first four games against Division I opponents coming against NCAA tournament teams. The Paladins went 1-3 in those games, falling to High Point, Troy and Northern Iowa while beating Queens.

Similar size

Blindly, here are the heights of the starters for both UConn and Furman from each of their last games.

Team A: 6-foot-5, 6-foot-4, 6-foot-7, 6-foot-11 and 6-foot-11

Team B: 6-foot-5, 6-foot-4 , 6-foot-6, 6-foot-8 and 6-foot-11

If you’re not sure who is who, the team on top is the Paladins and the team on the bottom is the Huskies. Furman also brings three guards off the bench, all of which are listed at 6-foot-6 or 6-foot-7. That’s a really big team to be coming out of the SoCon and one that you wouldn’t expect to see when you’re a 2-seed facing off against a 15-seed.

Beasts on the block

One of the individual matchups that peaks my interest the most in this game is the one down low between Tarris Reed Jr. and Cooper Bowser. We all know what Reed can do, most recently being the only viable option to get any sort of offense in the Big East Championship game. Bowser is fascinating as well. He and Johnston alternate who is acting as the true “center”, but Bowser does most of his work around the rim and does it well. Bowser shoots 77% from the field, the highest mark in the nation amongst qualifiers. Last year, Samson Johnson shot 76.6% from the field, so picture his efficiency, just double the production.

Upset watch?

One final point on Furman. The last time that the Paladins made the NCAA Tournament in 2023, they surprised a lot of people and knocked off 4-seed Virginia in the Round of 64 on a last second shot after a foolish Cavalier turnover. Leading by two, Kihei Clark of Virginia threw an errant pass while the Paladins were trying to foul and Furman got a steal that led to a buzzer beating heave from JP Pegues from beyond the arc that went down, handing the team their second NCAAT win in program history.

Furman would lose to San Diego State in the next round, the same Aztec team that UConn beat in the National Championship that year. The roster is nearly completely different for the Paladins — only Vander Wal remains in terms of players who played in that game against Virginia — but they’ve still have that under t...

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