HIGH POINT, N.C. – The William & Mary men's basketball team tips off the 2017-18 season at High Point on Friday night inside Millis Arena. The teams meet for the fifth time in the last six seasons at 8 p.m. The contest is the second of a men's and women's doubleheader for the Panthers with the latter beginning at 5 p.m.
The contest will be streamed over the Big South Network and available at no charge online at
BigSouthNetwork.com. Tribe fans can also catch the men's basketball action over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley and Charlie Woollum on the call. The Tide 92.3 FM and 107.9 Bach FM are the flagship stations of the Tribe Radio Network and the audio is also available over the Web at TribeAthletics.com. Click
HERE to check out the 2017-18 season preview through Adobe Spark.
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
- W&M opens on the road for the 10th time in the last 12 years at High Point on Friday night. It marks the fifth time in the last six seasons that the Tribe and Panthers have met.
- The Tribe is 22-15 all-time against the Big South, including a 16-8 mark under head coach
Tony Shaver. W&M is 9-2 against Big South teams over the last four years and has won four-straight against the league. The Tribe defeated Presbyterian and Liberty last season.
- 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).
- The Tribe ranked 52nd nationally according to KenPom.com in adjusted offensive efficiency (112.0) in 2016-17. The Green and Gold has ranked in the top 60 in adjusted offensive efficiency each of the last four seasons, including a high of No. 31 in 2015 (113.9).
- 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.
- In 12 of
Tony Shaver's 14 seasons, W&M ranked among the top 100 in the country in assist percentage according to KenPom.com. The Tribe ranked in the top 50 in seven of the last 10 seasons, including 15th nationally last season at 61.6. The Green and Gold's 17.5 assists per game in 2016-17 established a new school record and ranked seventh nationally.
- When the CAA released its preseason awards in October, senior
David Cohn and sophomore
Nathan Knight were named honorable mention Preseason All-CAA. It marks the fifth-straight season that the Green and Gold had two players honored as preseason All-CAA selections.
- The Green and Gold roster includes a pair of transfers who figure to impact the rotation in 2017-18. Sophomore
Matt Milon sat out last year after transferring from Boston College. He was limited to one game during the Jamaica trip due to a minor injury, but led the Tribe with 22 points.
Cole Harrison joined the program as a graduate transfer from Dartmouth in August. He averaged 6.7 rebounds per game in 20 minutes of action during the Jamaica trip.
- 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. Last season, the Tribe advanced to the conference tournament semifinals for the fourth year in a row, the only CAA program that can make the claim.
- 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.
- Each of the last four years, the Tribe has ranked among the top 40 in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio, including back-to-back top-20 performances. Last season, W&M ranked 18th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.40 after coming in 11th at 1.51 in 2015-16.
