RICHMOND, Va. – William & Mary men's basketball senior
David Cohn and sophomore
Nathan Knight garnered preseason All-Colonial Athletic Association honors, the league announced on Wednesday. The CAA held its first digital conference media day on Wednesday, announcing its predicted order of finish and preseason All-CAA awards along with coach and player interviews and media press conferences.
Cohn and Knight, who received honorable mention nods, were two of 18 CAA players recognized on Wednesday. It marks the fifth-straight season that the Green and Gold had two players honored as preseason All-CAA selections.
Charleston's Joe Chealey was named the CAA Preseason Player of the Year. He was joined on the first team by teammate Jarrell Brantley, UNCW's Devontae Caock, Tyler Seibring of Elon and Hofstra's Justin Wright-Foreman. Six players comprised the All-CAA Second Team, including Delaware's Ryan Daly, Elon's Brian Dawkins, Hofstra's Rokas Gustys, Drexel's Kurt Lee, Towson's Mike Morsell and Charleston's Grant Riller. Joining Cohn and Knight on the honorable mention list were Northeastern's Devon Begley and Jeremy Miller, Towson's Deshaun Morman, Hofstra's Eli Pemberton and UNCW's Jordon Talley.
Charleston was selected as the preseason favorite to win the CAA by vote of the league coaches, sports information directors and media. Towson was second followed by Elon, Hofstra, UNCW, Northeastern, Delaware, the Tribe, Drexel and James Madison.
Cohn garnered honorable mention All-CAA honors as the Tribe's lone returning starter. In his two seasons with Green and Gold, he has started 61 of 62 games and is on pace to set the Tribe record for career assists. He owns 283 helpers over his two seasons, averaging 4.6 per contest. His career assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.8 is currently a Tribe school record, and he has ranked among the top 26 nationally each of the last two years in the category. Cohn scored 489 points over his two Tribe seasons and was the Green and Gold's leading scorer on its international trip to Jamaica over the summer, averaging 14.3 points and 8.0 assists per game.
Knight was a CAA All-Rookie Team selection in 2017. He is W&M's top returning scorer at 8.2 points per game to go along with 4.4 rebounds per contest. He led the CAA in blocked shots per game at 1.3 and ranked 90th nationally, according to ESPN.com, in field goal percentage (58.4). Knight recorded 10 double-digit scoring games, including a career-high 20 on 8-of-10 shooting to go with seven rebounds against Towson in the regular season finale.
Over the last four years, the Tribe owns 77 victories, the third-best four-year stretch in program history. W&M is the only team in the CAA to win 10 or more league games and finished among the top four in the league each of the last four seasons.
W&M is one of only two teams, along with Gonzaga, to rank among the top 30 nationally in field goal percentage each of the last five years. The Green and Gold has ranked among the top 25 in effective field goal percentage and top 30 in 2-point field goal percentage each of the last five years as well. The Tribe topped the CAA in assists and 3-point percentage in four of the last five years. Each of the last five years, W&M is the only CAA team to rank among the top three in the league in scoring offense. In fact, the Tribe is the only team in the league to averaged better than 73 points per game each of the last four campaigns. With its school-record 81.7 points per game in 2016-17, W&M is one of only two CAA programs to average 80 or more points per game over the last 12 years.
The Tribe will host an intrasquad scrimmage as part of #WMHomecoming Saturday, Oct. 21. Fans are invited to check out the 2017-18 Tribe at noon inside Kaplan Arena.
W&M begins the season at High Point on Friday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m. The game will be streamed for FREE on the Big South Network. The Tribe opens its home slate against instate foe Hampton on Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. All Tribe home games will be streamed for FREE in HD on Tribe Athletics TV via Stretch Internet.
