W&M News and Notes
- W&M opens the season on the road for the 11th time in the last 13 years when travels to High Point on Tuesday night. The Tribe will look for its first road win to open a year since 2015 when it won at NC State, 85-68. Tuesday's start date, Nov. 5, is the program's earliest season opener.
- The Green and Gold tips off the season against High Point for the third-straight year. In fact, W&M and HPU meet for the seventh time in the last eight years. The Panthers lead the all-time series at 5-4, but the Tribe has won two of the last three contests.
- The Tribe is 24-17 all-time against the Big South, including an 11-4 mark against Big South teams over the last six years. Last season, W&M went 2-1 against the Big South with wins over High Point and at Hampton to go along with a setback to Radford. HPU is the first of two Big South foes this season for W&M as the Tribe welcomes Hampton to Williamsburg on Nov. 15.
- The 2019-20 season is the program's first under new head coach
Dane Fischer. A rising star in the coaching profession, Fischer takes over the helm of the Tribe program with 16 years of college coaching experience, including the last four years as the top assistant at George Mason.
- Fischer was instrumental in turning multiple programs into winners at Mason, Bucknell, Rider and Williams College. Throughout his career, he has helped teams earn seven post-season appearances, six regular-season conference championships, three NCAA Tournament bids, three conference tournament crowns, two NIT berths and an NCAA Division III National Runner-up finish.
- Headlining the Tribe's group of returners is senior
Nathan Knight who is one of the top players in the country. After being a top-five finalist for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year award presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last season, the 6-10 bigman was selected as one of 20 players on the award's watch list for the second-straight season.
- Knight, who was the first player since Tim Duncan in 1996-97 to average 20 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots per game, is a name to know nationally. He was named one of the top 20 bigmen in college basketball by Brian Bennett of The Athletic. Andy Katz of the NCAA March Madness listed Knight as one of the 20 most-exciting players in the country and No. 19 on the list of the top 25 seniors in college basketball. NBC Sports' Rob Dauster (No. 71) and Stadium's Jeff Goodman (No. 86) ranked the Tribe center as one of the top 100 players in the country.
- W&M will have an influx of seasoned talent in 2019-20 with the addition of a trio of transfers.
Bryce Barnes (Milwaukee) and
Tyler Hamilton (Penn) are graduate transfers who are both in the MBA program at W&M's Mason School of Business. Barnes started 41 games over the last two years at Milwaukee and has scored 506 career points. A cerebral player, Hamilton appeared in 42 games with one start over his first two season at Penn before injuries limited him to six contests over the last two years. Senior forward
Andy Van Vliet is eligible after sitting out last season as a transfer from Wisconsin.
- Van Vliet is one of the top transfers in the Colonial Athletic Association. He is the only 7-footer in the league and demonstrated his ability to make an impact at the highest level of college basketball in the Big Ten. In his four starts at Wisconsin in 2017-18, Van Vliet averaged 8.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. He is a 48.4% career 3-point shooter, including hitting at a 52.2% clip in 2017-18.
- W&M's roster has a distinct international flavor in 2019-20. The Tribe has four student-athletes from European countries on its roster, including Van Vliet (Belgium), junior
Miodrag Dronjak (Serbia), freshman
Miguel Ayesa (Spain) and
Rainers Hermanovskis (Latvia). Van Vliet, Ayesa and Hermanovskis have each represented their home countries in the European Youth Championships.
- W&M will play its first three games on the road for the first time since 2010. It is the Tribe's most consecutive games away from home to start a season since 2001 when the program played its first five away from Williamsburg. It is the start of a road-heavy schedule for the Green and Gold as the Tribe will play nine of its 13 nonconference games away from Williamsburg. W&M also has its first three CAA games on the road, giving its 12 of its first 16 away from home.
- The Tribe was picked seventh in the CAA preseason poll by vote of the head coaches, media and SIDs. Knight was a preseason All-CAA First Team selection as well.
