WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Following its home-opening win on Wednesday night, the William & Mary men's basketball team heads to the Sunshine State to square off with American Athletic Conference foe UCF on Saturday afternoon. The teams meet for just the second time in a 2 p.m., matinee at CFE Arena in Orlando, Fla.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN3. Tribe fans can also catch the men's basketball action over the Tribe Radio Network with
Andrew Phillips and
Kris Sears on the call. The basketball game will begin on both the flagship stations of the Tribe Radio Network, The Tide 92.3 FM and 107.9 Bach FM, and remain on 107.9 Bach FM in its entirety. The Tide 92.3 FM will switch over to Tribe football beginning at 2:30 p.m., for the pregame show, before W&M meets Richmond in the Capital Cup. Audio for both Tribe men's basketball and football will be available over the web at TribeAthletics.com.
Catch up with the Tribe through social media. 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 (@WMTribeMBB),
Facebook (WMTribeMBB),
Instagram (WMTribeMBB) and Snapchat (TribeMensHoops).
W&M News and Notes
- The Tribe is 44-55 all-time against the current members of the American Athletic Conference. W&M has played nine of the 12 members of the AAC with the majority of those meeting coming against former CAA member East Carolina.
- Against Hampton, sophomore
Nathan Knight established a new Kaplan Arena, going 18-of-22 from the free throw line. Along with facility records in both attempts and makes, it was the second-most attempts and third-most most makes in program history. The totals were the highest for a W&M player since Kurt Small was 19-of-24 at The Citadel in 1993.
- Through two games, sophomore
Nathan Knight leads the country in made free throws (29) and is second in attempts (36). According to KenPom.com, he is second nationally in fouls draw per 40 minutes at 15.3. The website also ranks him 12th in free throw rate at 189.5.
- According to KenPom.com, the Tribe ranks 12th nationally in free throw rate (60.4), which captures a team's ability to get to the charity stripe (FTA/FGA). Over the first two games, W&M is averaging 24.5 free throws made per game and shooting 80.3 percent. A total of 32.9 percent of the Tribe's offense is coming from the free throw line, which ranks seventh nationally.
- The Tribe's top three scorers are members of the program's sophomore class in
Nathan Knight (23 ppg),
Matt Milon (11.5 ppg) and
Justin Pierce (15.5 ppg). The trio is averaging 50 points per game, accounting for 67.1 percent of W&M's offense. In the win over Hampton, Knight (31), Milon (15) and Pierce (13) combined for 59 of W&M's 83 points.
- Sophomore
Nathan Knight set career-highs with 31 points and 14 rebounds in the win over Hampton. It was the first 30-point, 10-rebound double-double for W&M since Danny Sumner in 2008 and only the second in the 55 years of Tribe basketball.
- In his first collegiate start, sophomore
Justin Pierce tallied a career-high 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go with seven rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots vs. High Point.
- Sophomore
Nathan Knight became just the third player in W&M history with two games of six or more blocked shots in a career. His six rejections at High Point are tied for ninth in program history. He joins elite company in David Cully '96 and Terry Tarpey '16 with two games of six or more blocked shots.
- Junior
Paul Rowley holds a distinction that few ever have in college basketball. After graduating from W&M in just three years with a double major in finance and computer science, Rowley started his first year of law school this fall. Last year, he became the first men's basketball player since 1912 to be named Phi Beta Kappa. Rowley is currently one of two Division I players in law school (Pepperdine's Kevin Hempy), but he is the only men's player to be a recruited scholarship player and attend law school at the same institution that he earned his undergraduate degree.
- The Tribe took part in a seven-day international trip to Jamaica in August to get a jump start on the 2017-18 season. W&M went 3-0 during the excursion, winning by an average margin of 37.7 points. The Green and Gold downed the Jamaican Youth National Team (103-59), Jamaica Select (98-53) and the Minto 79ers (71-47). As a team, the Tribe averaged 90.7 points and 21.7 assists, while shooting 47.7 percent from the field and 44 percent from 3.
- W&M is one of only two teams, along with 2017 national runner-up Gonzaga, to rank among the top 30 nationally in field goal percentage each of the last five years. The Tribe was 10th in the country at 49.1 percent in 2016-17.
- According to the website KenPom.com, W&M ranked among the top 25 nationally in effective field goal percentage each of the last five seasons. W&M was 11th at 56.2 percent in 2016-17 and finished as high as No. 6 in both 2013-14 (55.9) and 2014-15 (56.3).
- With an offensive system predicated on long-range shooting and sharing the basketball, the Tribe topped the CAA in 3-point percentage (38.2) and assists per game (17.5) in 2016-17. It marked the fourth time in the last five years that W&M led the league in both categories.
