{"id":41444,"date":"2026-03-17T11:36:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=41444"},"modified":"2026-03-20T08:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:58:25","slug":"furman-gets-national-attention-while-fans-celebrate-socon-win-and-ncaa-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-gets-national-attention-while-fans-celebrate-socon-win-and-ncaa-appearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman gets national attention while fans celebrate SoCon win and NCAA appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Selection Sunday, Furman University\u2019s Men\u2019s Basketball Team has been in the spotlight for their upcoming match Friday against UConn in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

On the CBS March Madness Selection Show, hosts praised Furman\u2019s offense and remarked on how tall the team is overall. First-year guard Alex Wilkins \u201929 earned a highlight on CBS Sports<\/a>, where analyst and former player Clark Kellogg called him \u201cthe best supporting actor in a year when there are bright, bright neon newbies everywhere.\u201d Sports Illustrated<\/a> called it the “Alex Wilkins Factor,” and said the Huskies should be reading up on him before the game.\u00a0On ESPN\u2019s SportsCenter<\/a>, one commentator said forward Cooper Bowser \u201927 has what it takes to put pressure on the rim against UConn.<\/p>\n

\"A

The Furman men\u2019s basketball team reacts to the news of their No. 15 seed placement in the NCAA Tournament during a Selection Sunday watch party at Timmons Arena. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

Local news outlets joined the festivities on campus as Furman fans gathered at Timmons Arena for Selection Sunday to celebrate the No. 15 seed draw. Fox Carolina<\/a>, WYFF4<\/a> and Greenville News<\/a> touted Furman\u2019s upcoming date with UConn in Philadelphia the night it was announced.<\/p>\n

But as the Paladins prepare for their March Madness match-up, the team wants to enjoy its successes alongside the fans. As SoCon Champions after their win against East Tennessee State, Vander Wal said he wanted his fellow Paladins to take it all in. He had the chance to travel with the team as a first-year player when they made the NCAA Tournament in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to do it twice at the same place, in the current era of college sports, is rare and something I am grateful for and will not take for granted,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will represent you all and this university to the best of our abilities, and we are so thankful for the support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furman faces off against UConn at 10 p.m. Friday. To buy tickets, click here<\/a>. To watch live, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Furman Men\u2019s Basketball team is receiving praise for their tenacity as they gear up to face UConn in Philadelphia on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":41424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1792,1991,1569,118,6,3508],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-cbs-news","category-espn","category-fox-carolina","category-greenville-news","category-in-the-news","category-wyff-news-4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41444","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\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41444"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41450,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41444\/revisions\/41450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}