W&M News and Notes
- W&M opens the season at home for just the third time in the last 13 years when it welcomes High Point to Kaplan Arena on Wednesday night. Since Kaplan Arena opened in 1971, W&M is 37-11 (.771) all-time in home openers. Under head coach
Tony Shaver, the Tribe is 14-1 in home openers and 5-0 when the season opener is at home.
- It marks the sixth time in the last seven seasons that the Tribe and High Point have met. The Panthers lead the all-time series at 5-3, but W&M won the last meeting in Williamsburg, 78-75, in overtime in 2015. HPU is led by former National Champion head coach Tubby Smith and was picked seventh in the Big South preseason poll.
- The Tribe is 22-16 all-time against the Big South, including a 16-9 mark under head coach
Tony Shaver. W&M is 9-3 against Big South teams over the last five years. The Tribe will also host reigning league champion Radford on Nov. 20 and travel to Big South newcomer Hampton on Dec. 8.
- The Tribe owns a 23-game home court non-conference winning streak, dating back to 2013. It is the second-longest streak in school history behind only the 31-game stretch from 1946 through 1952. It is the seventh-longest active streak in the country. The Tribe's home record over the last five seasons is 58-13 (.817).
- W&M was picked fourth in the preseason CAA poll released in October by vote of the league's coaches, SIDs and media. Northeastern was the preseason CAA favorite followed by Charleston and Hofstra. The Tribe has finished inside the top four in the league each of the last five seasons, producing double-digit CAA wins.
- After earning All-CAA honors at the end of the 2018 campaign, juniors
Nathan Knight and
Justin Pierce were voted among the top 10 players in the league as Preseason All-CAA Second Team picks. It marks the sixth-straight season that the Green and Gold had two players honored as preseason All-CAA selections. Last season, Knight was a second-team selection, while Pierce was a third-team honoree.
- Knight has gained quite the reputation nationally. In November, he was named one of 21 players nationally to the Watch List for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. A Lou Hensen Mid-Major All-American in 2018, the 6-10 center was selected to the NBC Sports Preseason Mid-Major All-America Second Team in September.
- Senior
Paul Rowley and junior
Matt Milon both rank among the active NCAA Division I leaders in career 3-point percentage. Rowley is seventh on the list at 45.1 percent (88-of-195) from long range, while Milon comes in ninth at 44.8 percent (116-of-259).
- Nine of the Tribe's 11 Division I non-conference opponents in 2018 finished in the top five of their respective leagues a season ago. The slate also features six games against teams that competed in the 2018 post season, including NCAA Tournament foes Marshall and Virginia. In total, the Tribe's opponents won 60.8 percent (226-146) of their games in 2017-18, including 62.8 percent (123-73) in conference play.
- Rowley holds a distinction that few, if any, have in college basketball. After graduating from W&M in just three years with a double major in finance and computer science, he started Law School last fall and is in his second year in 2018-19. Rowley is the only current Division I player in law school. Last year, he was named the CAA Overall Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year after taking home the award for men's basketball.
- According to advanced statistical website KenPom.com, the Tribe has ranked among the top 25 nationally in effective field goal percentage each of the last six years and in the top 60 in adjusted offensive efficiency during the same stretch. Last season, W&M finished with program highs of second in effective field goal percentage (59.5) and 27th in offensive efficiency (115.3). Previously, the Tribe was as high as No. 31 in offensive efficiency in 2015 and sixth in effective field goal percentage in both 2014 and 2015.
- W&M produced the top two scoring seasons in program history in 2016-17 and 2017-18. The Tribe ranked among the top 25 nationally in both campaigns and are averaging 83.4 points per game during that time frame. Last season, the Green and Gold averaged 85 points per game, which ranked fourth nationally and was the third-highest average in CAA history. It topped the school record set a season earlier at 81.7 points per game, which was 21st in the country.
- The Tribe has been one of the top teams in the country in terms of sharing the basketball. Each of the last two seasons, W&M ranked seventh nationally in assists per game at 17.5 in 2016-17 and 17.7 in 2017-18. In five of the last six years, the Green and Gold led the CAA in assists per game. The Tribe has also ranked among the top 20 nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio each of the last three years.
- Since 2013-14, the Tribe is shooting nearly 40 percent from 3-point range (39.7). The Green and Gold has topped the CAA in 3-point percentage in five of the last six seasons and in 3-pointers made per game in three of those campaigns. The Tribe has averaged 9.1 3-pointers made per game over the last five years.
