- W&M opens the season at home for the third-straight season. The Tribe is 62-55 (.530) all-time in season openers and 48-19 (.716) when those openers come at home. W&M is 26-7 (.788) in season openers inside Kaplan Arena.
- The Green and Gold is 17-4 in it last 21 home openers. The Tribe is 83-34 (.709) all-time in home openers and 40-14 (.741) in home openers inside Kaplan Arena.
- Monday's match-up with Dickinson marks the 17th year in the last 18 that the Tribe has faced a non-Division I opponent. Over that stretch, W&M has won those games by an average margin of 41.4 points. The Tribe has scored at a 93.5 points per game clip in those contests.
- W&M and Dickinson have a connection beyond the lone meeting between the two teams in 1975. Second-year Tribe assistant coach
Jimmy Fenerty played for Red Devil head coach Alan Seretti, before graduating from Dickinson in 2009.
- The Tribe begins the
Brian Earl era on Monday night after the former Cornell head coach was named the 32nd leader of the Tribe in March. Over his final three seasons in Ithaca, the former Ivy League Player of the Year at Princeton went 54-30, including leading the Big Red to its first NIT behind 22 wins last season.
- Senior
Gabe Dorsey was named to the Preseason All-CAA First Team by vote of the league coaches. He is the first Tribe player to earn preseason first team honors since Nathan Knight in 2019. Dorsey ranks third among returning players in the CAA at 14 points per game.
- Junior
Chase Lowe, who was recruited by
Brian Earl to Cornell before signing at W&M, was a honorable mention Preseason All-CAA selection. He was one of only 16 players in the country to average 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists per game in 2023-24. Lowe ranked seventh in the CAA in rebounding (7.3), 10th in assists (3.2), and 18th in scoring (12.5) a season ago.
- W&M's 11 nonconference DI opponents this season averaged 18.5 wins and posted a 54.7 winning % in 2023-24. The Tribe's non-conference slate includes three games against 2024 NIT teams – Richmond (at home on Dec. 18), VCU, and App State – and a Final Four team in defending ACC Champion NC State.
- Earl's teams are known among the fastest paced and highest scoring in the country. According to KenPom.com, Cornell ranked among the top 25 nationally in adjusted tempo each of the last three years. In terms of points, Cornell averaged 81 points per game over the last three years and ranked among the top 20 in the country in scoring each season.
- Along with the Dorsey brothers, the Tribe has two more former teammate connections on the roster. Junior guard
Kyle Frazier, who transferred from DII Belmont Abbey, is a former high school teammate of
Chase Lowe. The pair won two state titles and won 49-straight games at Weddington High School (N.C.) in 2021 and 2022.
Malachi Ndur, who graduated from Brown before enrolling at W&M, was an AAU (with the Northern Kings) and Canadian Youth National teammate of
Matteus Case. The duo helped Canada to the silver medal at the U16 FIBA America Championship in 2017.
- In his two seasons at W&M,
Gabe Dorsey has established himself as one of the top 3-point shooters in the country. Last season, he set school records for 3-pointers (113) and 3's made per game (3.42). Those numbers ranked fourth and sixth, respectively, in the country. In 2022-23, he was fourth nationally in 3FG% (44.4) and 18th in 3's made per game (3.04).
- In 2023-24, the Tribe hit 296 3-pointers, which ranks second in program history. W&M ranked among the national leaders in % of attempts from 3-point range (13th at 47.7%), % of scoring from 3-point range (20th at 38.6), 3-pointers attempted per game (15th at 27.8), and 3-pointers made per game (37th at 9.0).
- Three-point shooting has been a key piece of head coach
Brian Earl's offenses at Cornell. His teams ranked among the top 10 nationally in 3-pointers made and attempted each of the last two years.
- W&M returns 59.4% of its scoring (1370-of-2305), 59.4% of its starts (98-of-165), 58.3% of its rebounding (677-of-1161), 57.6% of its minutes (3819-of-6625), and 56.8% of its assists (231-of-407) from last season.
- Head coach
Brian Earl had a few familiar faces join him from Cornell. Graduate student
Keller Boothby played for Earl, averaging nearly seven points per game at Cornell. On staff,
Max Ginsberg and
Alex Mumphard joined the Tribe as assistants after spending time on Earl's Cornell staff. Ginsberg worked as an undergraduate and returned to Cornell as an assistant over the last three years, while Mumphard was a member of Earl's staff for five years before spending 2023-24 at Denver. W&M's director of operations Marcus Fillien played for Earl at Cornell before spending his graduate season last year at UAlbany.
