{"id":23721,"date":"2023-03-15T14:25:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T18:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=23721"},"modified":"2023-03-15T15:23:38","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T19:23:38","slug":"banded-together-ngus-band-to-play-for-paladins-in-ncaa-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/banded-together-ngus-band-to-play-for-paladins-in-ncaa-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Banded together: NGU’s band to play for Paladins in NCAA opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of January, the Furman Paladins men\u2019s basketball team was on a winning streak. If they kept it up, they\u2019d have a chance to make it to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 43 years.<\/p>\n

\"Outside,

Gary Rhoden ’11, M’17, is interviewed by WYFF before leaving for the NCAA Tournament. Rhoden directs the North Greenville University band, which is filling in for Furman’s band.<\/p><\/div>\n

But if the team made the tourney, they\u2019d be without the pep band, which was scheduled to play in Ireland for St. Patrick\u2019s Day. You can\u2019t play in the NCAA tournament without a pep band!<\/p>\n

Drew Ingraham, senior associate athletics director for external affairs, picked up his phone and called Gary Rhoden, director of athletic bands at nearby North Greenville University. Would North Greenville\u2019s band play for the Paladins?<\/p>\n

Absolutely! Rhoden is a Paladin alumnus. He graduated twice from the university, with a bachelor\u2019s in 2011 and a master\u2019s in 2017. He said Sue Samuels, Furman director of bands, is terrific, and the band director community is tight, so he was happy to help. Plus, there were obvious up sides for NGU students.<\/p>\n

As a Division II school, NGU \u201cstudents don\u2019t get a lot of chances to go to events like this,\u201d he said. \u201cMy first thought was, this would be a fun time for my students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bands from the two schools got together and practiced, and the NGU learned the musically challenging Furman fight song, \u201cThe Paladins Song.\u201d Then, Rhoden said, Samuels handed over the reins. The combined band is made up of 21 NGU students and seven Furman students who didn\u2019t make the Ireland trip.<\/p>\n

The band played for the NCAA Selection Sunday watch party in Timmons Arena on March 12, getting a feel for the rhythms and tempo of the Furman fans. Meanwhile, Samuels, in a Zoom interview with WYFF 4News reporter Peyton Furtado<\/a>, said the Furman band was in a Limerick, Ireland, hotel, huddled around a computer, watching the selection, cheering and yelling.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, the NGU\/FU band loaded into busses and headed for the airport. The flight to Orlando would be the first time flying for many NGU students. Rhoden said they\u2019re excited and ready to play. They\u2019ll be decked out in Furman gear and tuned up, and even ready to go All Dins with the \u201cFU All the Time!\u201d cheer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having a great time,\u201d Rhoden said.<\/p>\n

Fans of the Paladin Regiment Marching Band can catch the crew on St. Patrick\u2019s Day, Friday, March 17. Samuels said they will likely be on Irish TV, RTE, around 8 a.m. Furman time. Go to RTE\u2019s Website<\/a> or Facebook<\/a> page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Paladin men’s basketball team heading to the NCAA Tournament, the Paladin Regiment Marching Band was in Ireland. A call to an alumnus at North Greenville University assured the music wouldn’t miss a beat. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":23723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,39],"tags":[1940,765,1941],"class_list":["post-23721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-music","tag-marching-band","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-paladin-regiment-marching-band"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41329,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23721\/revisions\/41329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}