By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
In his debut at William & Mary the first week of November, Kyle Frazier positioned himself behind the 3-point arc, slightly to the right of center. Chase Lowe, playing his 62nd game with the Tribe, drove to the lane and picked up his dribble.
 
Instinctively, as if he and the new guy had done this before, Lowe pivoted to his left and kicked it out to Frazier. Catching the ball in rhythm, Frazier knocked down the triple.
 
Of course, Lowe and Frazier had done this before — a countless number of times, in fact. For two years at Weddington (N.C.) Middle School and four at Weddington High, they were teammates. Their careers there ended with a 49-game winning streak and state championships in 2021 and '22.
 
And now, two years after going their separate ways, they're together again as teammates at William & Mary.
 
"The day I got the offer, I called up Chase and told him I was coming to school with him," said Frazier, who played his first two seasons of college ball at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. "It was one of the greatest feelings I've ever felt."
 
"It's very cool being teammates again," Lowe said. "Our playing styles go together so well. And off the court, we've been very close friends since we were little."
 
Lowe and Frazier aren't the only pair of former teammates who are together again at William & Mary. Guard Matteus Case and forward Malachi Ndur went to different high schools in Ontario but played together at the AAU and Canadian Youth National level for three summers.
 
Case came to W&M in 2022 as a transfer from Providence. Ndur played three seasons at Brown and, with the Ivy League not allowing graduate students to compete in varsity athletics, entered the transfer portal.
 
W&M basketball had two strong drawing cards. First and most obvious was Case, his close friend and former teammate. Second was Brian Earl, the Tribe's newly hired coach from Cornell, Brown's Ivy rival.
 
"When I graduated and had an extra year, we were kind of joking, 'It would be cool if we could play at the same school,'" Ndur said. "Then it was announced that Coach Earl was taking the job at William & Mary, and having played against him for the past three years, I was familiar with his system and how they want to play.
 
"I felt like I was a perfect fit for the style they wanted to play and how I wanted to play. I was already in the transfer portal for my fifth year, so when the coaching staff got settled in, they reached out to me."
 
Ndur and Case had remained close in the four years since they had played together. And a chance to play on the same team again was too good to pass up.
 
"It was cool because Mal and I always talked about playing together," Case said. "Once he was in the transfer portal, Coach Earl and (Assistant) Coach Max Ginsberg told me they were recruiting him. I was excited because he was on their radar before I could even tell them."
 
Last season, another pair of former teammates reconnected here when Caleb Dorsey transferred from Penn State. He joined his younger brother, Gabe, with whom he had played three seasons together at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pa.
 
Lowe and Ndur are two of five players who have started every game this season for the Tribe. But in Earl's system, depth is essential. Case and Frazier are averaging 19.1 and 17.7 minutes, respectively, off the bench.
 
Lowe is averaging 8.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and nearly 3 assists a game. Frazier is third on the team in 3-pointers with 27 and is averaging 6.5 ppg off the bench. Case is scoring at a 7.0 ppg clip, and Ndur is averaging 4.7 ppg and is third on the team at nearly 2 assists a game.
 
Frazier knew he was taking a chance by entering the transfer portal. But after a solid sophomore season at Division II Belmont Abbey, he was ready to take it.
 
"I heard some talk that if I entered the portal, I could get some interest and D-I offers," Frazier said. "It was a big risk because I liked Belmont a lot, I was a starter, and I loved the people and friends I made there. But with the help of my family and friends, especially Chase, I was able to get an offer from William & Mary."
 
While at Cornell, Earl had recruited Lowe out of high school and considered him the complete package, on and off the floor. So his word carried some weight.
 
"Chase helped us in finding Kyle," Earl said. "I don't think he was at the top of a lot of people's radars, but Chase vouched for him. A kid who's in the gym constantly and does the right things, to get a first-hand account of that goes a long way."
 
Although Earl was familiar with Ndur from the Ivy League, a good word from Case also helped.
 
"We couldn't get him at Cornell, but we knew him as far back as when we were recruiting him out of high school," Earl said. "Matteus told us about him, but we were more familiar with him than Kyle."
 
Of Frazier's 83 field goal attempts this season, 73 have been from the 3-point arc. That's 88%, the highest clip on the team, and rarely (if ever) is his shot choice questioned.
 
"It's an amazing feeling playing here," he said. "Coach Earl and the staff have so much confidence in us and they allow the whole lineup to take shots we're comfortable with. It really is a shooter's dream, a great atmosphere to be around."
 
Like Frazier, Ndur is happy to be playing with his close friend again.
 
"What started as a funny little 'what-if' kind of thing got real serious real quick," he said. "It's pretty cool, for sure."