{"id":23771,"date":"2023-03-17T09:25:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T13:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=23771"},"modified":"2023-03-17T10:57:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T14:57:51","slug":"the-athletic-furmans-upset-is-the-stuff-of-march-madness-lore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/the-athletic-furmans-upset-is-the-stuff-of-march-madness-lore\/","title":{"rendered":"The Athletic: Furman’s Upset is the Stuff of March Madness Lore"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic requires a subscription.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Athletic reporter Brendan Marks<\/a> wrote a poetic recount of Furman’s upset win against the Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

He captured the drama of the last few seconds of the game:<\/p>\n

“The ball hung in the air forever, it seemed, silencing the Amway Center as it did.<\/p>\n

“And then, kaboom. Eruption.<\/p>\n

“It was almost anticipatory, as if the rows of purple-clad supporters were willing history to happen. With 12.3 seconds left to play, it looked as if Virginia \u2014 still searching for its first NCAA Tournament win since the 2019 national championship game \u2014 would survive Furman\u2019s furious upset bid. Leading by two, all the Cavaliers needed was one inbound pass, a few free throws, get out of Dodge. It started the right way: Virginia inbounded the ball to\u00a0Reece Beekman, who quickly passed back to\u00a0Kihei Clark, Virginia\u2019s fifth-year point guard. Even as Furman\u2019s defenders closed in on Clark in the corner of the court, surely, he of the miracle March Madness pass four years against\u00a0Purdue\u00a0would play his way out of a jam. Beat the trap, get fouled, hit shots, game over.<\/p>\n

“‘I was calling for a foul,’ Furman<\/a> coach Bob Richey said, ‘but the good Lord knew they couldn\u2019t hear me \u2014 and they threw it to us.’<\/p>\n

“Even in hindsight, it\u2019s almost unbelievable. It absolutely was in real time, 8.2 ticks still on the clock, but there Clark was, chucking a right-handed heave up into space. ‘I knew when we were trapping that he was leaning back,’ said Furman guard JP Pegues<\/a>, ‘so I knew it was about to be an air pass.’ The ball floated, seemingly stuck in space \u2014 until its trajectory changed course, rocketing back to earth like a meteorite. Garrett Hien<\/a>, his feet fittingly planted on the dual Ms of the midcourt MARCH MADNESS logo, saw it speeding his way before it arrived. ‘I just told myself I need to make a play,’ Hien said. ‘I know someone on my team will hit the big shot.’<\/p>\n

“There was still time, some 6.1 seconds, but not much. Hien took a single dribble to his right, and his eyes widened as he saw something else unthinkable: Pegues, posted up behind the 3-point arc, wide freaking open.<\/p>\n

“‘As soon as I\u2019d seen it go in Garrett\u2019s hands,’ Pegues said, ‘I\u2019m telling myself, \u2018I know he sees me. I want the ball.\u2019’<\/p>\n

“And he got it. There was no second thought in the sophomore guard\u2019s mind, no hitch or hold or doubt about what to do next. He did what true hoopers do, what he\u2019d always dreamed of: fire up a would-be game-winner.<\/p>\n

“Nothing but net.”<\/p>\n

Marks provided some background about Pegues, writing, “His first two months on campus he committed to making 1,000 3-pointers a day, even knowing he\u2019d be behind two senior guards on the depth chart, ultimately scoring 97 total points all year in 12.6 minutes a game. More than that, he even warms up from that specific spot on the court before every game, and during practices back in Greenville, S.C. ‘Sometimes he\u2019ll miss \u2019em and take out managers or stuff like that underneath the basket,’ teammate Ben VanderWal<\/a> said, ‘but today, he freaking made that thing right in. It was unbelievable.'”<\/p>\n

Marks said of the start of the second half, “Virginia exited the halftime locker room on a heater, and built a 12-point lead with 11:54 to play. Against normal teams, who play at a typical pace, that\u2019s daunting. Against Virginia, 360th in the nation in tempo, per KenPom? It\u2019s damn near a death sentence.”<\/p>\n

“(Mike) Bothwell was in foul trouble, but his roommate, (Jalen) Slawson, took matters into his own hands, Marks wrote, “with a takeover, a personal 9-0 run that flipped Furman from down six to up three. Included in that were two incredibly tough and-1s, and a top-of-the-key 3. ‘He was player of the year for a reason,’ Hien said. ‘You know, 9-0 run? We believe he\u2019s the best big, honestly, in this tournament.’ At the same time, Richey made a risky coaching move: He told his team to break out its 1-3-1 zone defense, a rarely-used tactic the Paladins hadn\u2019t practiced in months.<\/p>\n

“Understandably, the Cavaliers were stumped. ‘I think 0.6 percent on Synergy, or whatever,’ Bennett said postgame, when asked if Furman had shown any zone on tape. ‘Maybe 15 possessions this year,’ Pegues added, smirking as he said so.<\/p>\n

“Between Slawson\u2019s singular brilliance and that 1-3-1 zone, the game tightened into a knot, all the way down to those final 12.3 seconds.<\/p>\n

“That unthinkable, unbelievable final sequence.”<\/p>\n

Read the entire story online at The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Athletic reporter Brendan Marks wrote a poetic recount of Furman’s upset win against the Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, capturing the drama and emotion of the game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":23772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6,1887],"tags":[1697,1927,1939],"class_list":["post-23771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-in-the-news","category-the-athletic","tag-furman-mens-basketball","tag-mens-basketball","tag-ncaa-mens-basketball-tournament"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23771","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=23771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}