WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - Fresh off three-straight 20-win seasons and loaded with a roster featuring nine upperclassmen, the William & Mary men's basketball team kicks off the 2016-17 season hosting Bridgewater on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast for FREE in HD on Tribe Athletics TV via Stretch Internet.

Tribe fans can also catch the men's basketball action over the Tribe Radio Network with Andrew Phillips and Kris Sears on the call. With the football game noon, the men's basketball opener will begin on 107.9 Bach FM and be joined at the conclusion of the football contest on The Tide 92.3 FM. Complete audio coverage will also be available over the Web at TribeAthletics.com.

Catch up with the Tribe through social media. Follow the Tribe on Twitter @TribeAthletics and for in-game updates @TribeGameDay. Check in with the Tribe on Facebook at WMTribeAthletics, and see what happening with the Green and Gold on Instagram @TribeAthletics. Finally, follow along with the catalog of video content on TribeAthletics.com or check out the Tribe YouTube page. Fans can keep up with W&M men's basketball by following the program on social media as well. Be sure to check out the Tribe on Twitter (@TribeMensHoops), Facebook (TribeMensHoops), Instagram (TribeMensHoops) and Snapchat (TribeMensHoops).
 

News and Notes
• The Tribe opens a season at home for just the second time in the last 11 years. Under head coach Tony Shaver, the Tribe is 12-1 in home openers and 4-0 when the season opener comes at home.
• W&M owns a 13-game home court non-conference winning streak, dating back to 2013. The Tribe's home record over the last three seasons is 34-9 (.791).
• The Green and Gold has won all 12 meetings with Bridgewater all-time. The teams were members of the Virginia Collegiate Conference together from 1922-34.
• While the Tribe has not met Bridgewater since 1986, head coach Tony Shaver was 20-15 against the Eagles during his 17 years at Hampden-Sydney. The Tigers won 11 of the Shaver's final 13 games against Bridgewater from 1998-03, including three wins during the program's 2003 NCAA Division III Final Four.
• The Tribe was picked No. 3 in the CAA's preseason poll released in October behind 2016 champion UNCW and Towson.
• W&M has won 20 games in each of the last three seasons. The Tribe is one of 50 teams nationally and one of only 19 mid-major programs with 20 wins each of the last three years.
 
Scouting Bridgewater
• Bridgewater finished the 2015-16 season at 7-18 overall and 6-10 in the ODAC under first-year head coach Shawn Postiglione.
• The Eagles were picked 10th in the ODAC Coaches' Preseason poll released on Oct. 27 at the league's annual Media Day hosted by the Salem Civic Center.
• Bridgewater returns seven players, including all five starters, from last season's team. Four of those five returning starters were freshmen in 2016. The Eagles welcomes a freshman class of seven to the fold this season.
• Sophomore guard Jesse Case led the Eagles in scoring last season at 13.6 points per game, while shooting on 38.1 percent from 3-point range. Sophomore big man Efe Balfour averaged double figures in his rookie campaign at 10.2 points per game. He led Bridgewater in rebounding at 6.1 rebounds per contest.
• W&M will be the first of two Division I games for Bridgewater this season as they travel to Campbell on Nov. 16 as well.
• The Tribe has won the previous 12 meetings against the Eagles. The most recent game came on Dec. 1, 1986 when W&M upended Bridgewater, 73-57. W&M and Bridgewater were part of the Virginia Collegiate Conference together from 1922-34.
 
Shaver vs. Bridgewater
• While the Tribe hasn't face Bridgewater since 1986, W&M head coach Tony Shaver has after spending 17 seasons on the sidelines at Hampden-Sydney in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) from 1986-03.
• Shaver owns a 20-15 all-time against Bridgewater. Hampden-Sydney won 11 of 13 games against Bridgewater from 1998-03, including three wins during Shaver's final season on the way to the 2003 NCAA Division III Final Four.
 
Success Opening at Home
• The Tribe opens the season at home for just the fifth time in head coach Tony Shaver's 14 seasons at the helm. After opening the year at home in each of Shaver's first three seasons, W&M begins at home for just the second time in the last 11 years.
• The Tribe is 44-16 since 1911-12 when opening the season at home, including a 23-6 record when opening the year inside Kaplan Arena. 
• The last season opener to come inside Kaplan Arena for W&M was in 2012 when the Tribe downed Hampton, 69-51.
• Since Kaplan Arena opened in 1971, W&M is 35-11 (.761) all-time in home openers. Head Coach Tony Shaver has enjoyed even more success in home openers, going 12-1 as the Tribe headman at Kaplan Arena.
• In its 13 home openers under Shaver, W&M is averaging 76.5 points per game and winning by an average margin of 14.6 points per game.
 
Preseason Prognostications
• The Tribe was picked third in the CAA by vote of the league's coaches, media and sports information directors. W&M has finished in the top three in the CAA each of the last three seasons, including winning the regular season title in 2015. UNCW was the preseason favorite to win the league followed by Towson and the Tribe.
• CBS Sports college basketball writer Matt Norlander picked the Tribe to win the CAA as part of the websites predicting the champions of all 32 conferences.
 • The ESPN Insider 2016-17 college basketball rankings placed the Tribe 87th nationally and third in the CAA.
 
Preseason All-CAA
• Seniors Omar Prewitt and Daniel Dixon were selected to the Preseason All-CAA team by votes of the league's coaches, media and sports information directors. Prewitt was a first team choice, while Dixon garnered second team honors.
• It marked the fourth-straight season that W&M placed two players on the preseason All-CAA team. In fact, the Tribe has enjoyed multiple postseason All-CAA honorees in each of the four previous campaigns.
• Prewitt was a First Team All-CAA selection in 2016 after being a third team honoree in 2015 and the league's rookie of the year in 2014. The All-CAA honor is the first of Dixon's career.
 
Difficult Schedule
• The Tribe schedule is challenging in 2016-17. W&M faces three preseason top-25 teams in the non-conference, traveling to No. 1 Duke (Nov. 23), No. 13 Louisville (Nov. 14) and No. 23 Rhode Island (Dec. 22).
• Of the Green and Gold's 11-game non-conference slate, five contests will be against teams that competed in the 2016 postseason and four of those squads recorded 20-win seasons. In total, the Tribe's Division I non-conference opponents averaged nearly 19 wins last season.
• Seven of the program's 11 non-conference games come against teams that are either ranked in the preseason top 25 or played in the post season in 2016. Hampton (Dec. 3) is the two-time defending MEAC Champion and played in the 2015 and 2016 NCAA Tournaments. Central Michigan (Nov. 29) and Savannah State (Dec. 19) both played in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in 2016, while Old Dominion (Dec. 29) won the inaugural Vegas 16.
• Of the Tribe's 29 games in 2016-17, 11 will be against teams that played in the post season in 2016 and 12 come versus 20-win teams from a season ago.
• For the second-straight season, W&M faces a pair of Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) foes, traveling to Louisville (Nov. 14) and Duke (Nov. 23).
 
Three-straight 20-Win Seasons
• With its 20 wins in 2016, W&M won 20 or more games in three-straight seasons for the second time in school history and first since 1948-49, 1949-50 and 1950-51.
• The Tribe is one of only 50 teams in the country to record 20 or more wins each of the last three seasons; one of only 19 mid-major programs; and one of only three schools in Virginia (along with Virginia and VCU).
• In fact, the Green and Gold have won 20 games in four of the last seven seasons under head coach Tony Shaver. By contrast, W&M had only five 20-win seasons in the previous 104 years.
• The senior class of Omar Prewitt and Daniel Dixon are trying to become the first W&M class to record 20 or more wins in each of its four seasons. They currently own the 11th most wins for a senior class with 60 and are 22 behind the program's winningest senior class.
 
Lighting Up the Scoreboard
• The Tribe lite up the scoreboard in 2015-16 to the tune of 76.9 points per game. It was the sixth-best scoring average in program history and the best since 1970.
• In fact, the Green and Gold has averaged 73 or more points per game each of the last three years. It marks the first time that has occurred in program history.
• Each of the last four seasons, the Tribe produced point totals among the top 10 in program history. Since 2010, W&M tallied five of the top 10 scoring seasons in Green and Gold annals.
• The Tribe scored a school record 2,414 points in 2015 and came up just shy of that mark last season at 2,384. In 2014, the Tribe scored 2,340 points, which ranks third in program lore. The 2010 team is fourth in school history at 2,213 points, while the 2013 team is ninth at 2,064.
• W&M has ranked among the top three in the CAA in scoring each of the last four years, the only program in the league to do so.
 
Prewitt Getting Noticed
• As one of the top scorers in the country, senior Omar Prewitt has received some national attention during the preseason.
• Prewitt was on a pair of honorable mention lists among the top players in college basketball. He was on the honorable mention list for USA Today's The Big Lead 50 Best Players in College Basketball for 2016-17 and for SB Nation's College Basketball Top 100 players.
• He was also on a list of Non-Power 5 conference guards who will become household names in 2016-17 by College Court Report.