Northern Iowa at Furman

Furman beat Bob Jones 121-52 on Wednesday with a 56-30 rebounding edge, 58 points in the paint to 14, and just three turnovers. Jordan Butler, the 7-foot senior, set a career high with 15 points in a game-high 26 minutes, and seven Paladins reached double figures. Tom House, a graduate-student guard who made the SoCon all-tournament team last March, added 17 on 6-of-8 shooting. Northern Iowa opened the Kyle Green era Tuesday with a 106-70 win over Division III Cornell College after leading by only three at halftime. The Panthers also trailed by six at the half of their 85-78 exhibition win over Upper Iowa, so the second half has done the work in both games. Green was named head coach on April 1, after Northern Iowa won the Missouri Valley tournament, and six players are back from that team. The Panthers forced 29 turnovers against Cornell, and Furman gave the ball away three times against Bob Jones. Furman gets my vote on the spread tonight, with Bob Richey in his tenth season and a 44-point paint edge from its last game behind it.