By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
Because what would have been his freshman season of college basketball was canceled, and because Ivy League schools do not allow graduate students to compete in varsity sports, Keller Boothby chose a new setting for his final year of eligibility. And with that, he chose to reinvent himself.
 
Not his game — himself. Having followed Brian Earl from Cornell to William & Mary, Boothby quickly became a go-to source for 15 teammates he had previously never met.
 
"I took this as an opportunity to walk into a new situation with no prior bias or anything like that," said Boothby, who has made a major impact on and off the floor with the Tribe. "This is my last season, and I want to go out on a high note. And if we wanted to win, I needed to step up and bring guys along.
 
"This system takes some time, and it's a complete 180 for the guys coming back. But all the guys coming back were super talented. I could see how the pieces could fit into the bigger picture. I think it was a culmination of guys coming to me and me wanting to develop personally and athletically."
 
Boothby transferred from Cornell, where he earned his degree in economics and played 83 games (37 starts) on Earl's team. Boothby is an MBA candidate in the Mason School of Business.
 
It was during his freshman year of 2020-21, which the Ivy League canceled due to COVID, that Earl began transitioning his team's identity to an up-tempo, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later system. Boothby was there for the rollout as the Big Red went from averaging 68 points a game in 2019-20 to 80 ppg in '21-'22.
 
Hired at William & Mary last March, Earl brought that system with him. When 16 players began workouts over the summer, only one fully understood what it looked like. So Boothby stepped up.
 
"Almost right away, he came in a little more vocal," Earl said. "Having someone in the locker room is a lot different than just the coaches barking down at people. And I think he recognized that without any prodding from me or the staff."
 
Boothby, a 6-foot-7 forward, is one of four players who has started all 22 games for the Tribe this season. He's second on the team in minutes a game (25.8) and 3-pointers (38) behind only Gabe Dorsey.
 
Of course, one of Boothby's threes should count extra. On Jan. 11 against North Carolina A&T, W&M had just given up a game-tying 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left. That didn't leave the Tribe much time to go the length of the floor, but it turned out to be more than enough.
 
The play called for Chase Lowe to take the inbounds pass and get the ball to Boothby, who would then pass to Noah Collier for a shot around the basket. But when Boothby took Lowe's pass just past midcourt, there were only 1.6 seconds left on the clock. A pass of that distance would be risky.
 
So Boothby audibled and put up a rainbow jumper from 35 feet, right at the second peak of the M on the logo. A&T's Ryan Forrest did a good job of contesting it, but Boothby put just enough arc on his shot for the first buzzer-beater of his college career.
 
"After it went in, I think I blacked out a little bit," said Boothby, who was mobbed by his teammates afterward. "That's a once-in-a-lifetime thing you dream of growing up. I couldn't tell you what was going through my head. I just remember looking into the crowd and people were going insane.
 
"It felt great. I was just waiting for it to go in. It felt like it took forever."
 
Boothby was born and raised in Plano, Texas, about a half hour north of Dallas. He's a lifelong Mavericks fan and believes he modeled his shot, especially the high release, after Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki. Which, if so, was a fine choice.
 
After graduating from Prestonwood Christian Academy, Boothby spent a year at Wilbraham & Monson in Massachusetts. Then came Cornell, and then William & Mary.
 
Undoubtedly, Earl coming to Williamsburg was a huge draw. But so was the Mason School of Business, one of the most renowned in the country.
 
"Coming into that whole (transfer) portal process, I wasn't sure what I wanted to get out of it," Boothby said. "But as I thought about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life after basketball, coming here and getting my MBA would set me up and put me in a great position. That definitely sweetened the pot.
 
"And obviously knowing Coach Earl, that took the ambiguity out of the basketball side of things. I could just focus on bonding with my teammates and my schoolwork. That made the transition easy. And I think I've helped him make the transition easier as well."
 
Boothby is in the first of a two-year MBA program, but this is his final season of eligibility on the floor. As a player, anyway.
 
"I would like to have some role with the program, like as a GA (graduate assistant) or whatever I can do," he said. "I would love to help."
 
Boothby already has some experience with that.