Brian Earl

Title

Head Coach

In two seasons in Williamsburg, Brian Earl has established William & Mary as a winner. He has done so introducing style of play featuring a fast-paced tempo with an offense predicated on scoring up and down the lineup and sharing the basketball.

In his season second in 2025-26, Earl engineered the 10th 20-win season in program history. W&M reached a number of heights seldom seem for the Green and Gold. The Tribe reached its highest NCAA NET ranking in school history, coming in as high as No. 50 in December. W&M also ascended to its highest KenPom rating since the 2016-17 campaign.

Earl is 37-27 (.578) in his first two seasons at the helm of the Tribe program. His 37 wins are tied for the most for a W&M head coach in his first two seasons in Williamsburg.

Named the 32nd W&M head coach on March 23, 2024, Earl revamped his team’s playing style during the 2020-21 season at Cornell when the Ivy League canceled its season due to CoVID. The results have been demonstrated success over the last five years, averaging of 18 wins, including two 20-win seasons, and a 46-32 (.590) league record.

Earl-coached teams have ranked among the national leaders in a number of key categories including:

- Top 5 nationally in average possession length in each of the last five years
- Top 25 in adjusted tempo in each of the last five years
- Top 10 in bench scoring each of the last four seasons, including three seasons in the top five
- Top 25 in assist rate each of the last three years, including both at W&M in the top 10

The 1999 Ivy League Player of the Year at Princeton, Earl joined W&M after spending the previous seven seasons as the head coach at Cornell, where he led the Big Red to numerous offensive milestones and its first-ever NIT bid in 2024.

2025-26 Season
During its 20-win season in 2025-26, the Tribe swept CAA regular season champion UNCW, including an 85-78 win in Wilmington on national TV, and defeated CAA tournament champion Hofstra during the regular season. The Green and Gold also tallied notable non-conference wins at MAC foe Bowling Green and A-10 opponent Duquesne. W&M was also co-champions of the Jacksonville Classic thanks to victories over UTEP and Abilene Christian.

The 2025-26 season marked just the 10th time in program history that W&M won 20 games in a season. The Tribe reached as high as No. 50 in the NCAA NET Rating during December, which was its highest standing since the tool was introduced in 2018-19. W&M jumped 86 spots from its preseason KenPom rating to finish at No. 145. The improvement was among the best in the country and the largest in the CAA. It was the program’s highest end of season ranking since 2017.

W&M was once again one of the fastest teams in the country in 2025-26, ranking first in the nation in average length of possession (13.7) and seventh in adjusted tempo (72.6). The Green and Gold was also among the nation's best in bench scoring (fourth at 34.8 per game), fastbreak points (seventh at 16.7 per game), assists (14th at 17.9 per game), free throws (14th at 19.0 per game), and scoring (31st at 83.1 per game).

2024-25 Season
In his first season in Williamsburg, Earl was named a finalist for the 2024-25 Hugh Durham Award by CollegeInsider.com, which is presented annually to the top mid-major head coach in college basketball. He led W&M one of the top turnarounds in the country, a 7.5-game improvement, to finish with 17 wins, which is the 13th most in program history.

In CAA play, Earl led the Tribe to a double bye in the CAA Championship for the first time in school history. W&M posted an 11-7 record which was a seven-game improvement from the previous season and ranked eighth in the country.

The Tribe won its first 12 home games under Earl, including victories over MEAC Champion Norfolk State, A-10 foe and rival Richmond, and two-time defending CAA Champion Charleston. It marked the longest single-season home court winning streak in Kaplan Arena history and the third-longest single-season streak in school history and longest since 1951.

W&M was one of the fastest paced teams in the country in 2024-25, ranking among the top 20 nationally in fastest average length of possession on offense (third), adjusted tempo (18th) and fastbreak points per game (16th). W&M ranked among the best teams in the country in terms of 3-point shooting, ranking fifth in 3-pointers attempted per game (30.0) and 15th in 3-pointers made per game (10.5). The Tribe’s 336 made 3-pointers in 2024-25 rank second in school history and are the sixth most in CAA history. Nationally, W&M also ranked eighth in bench scoring (31.9) and 25th in assists (16.5).

At Cornell
In 2023-24, Earl led the Big Red to 22 wins, tied for second-most in school history, and Cornell’s first-ever bid to the NIT. The team ranked 17th in the nation in scoring offense (82.1 points per game), eighth in assists per game (17.9) and 10th in 3-pointers made per game (10.3). The Big Red finished the regular season with an RPI of 49. For his efforts, Earl was named the National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC) District 13 Coach of the Year.

Earl and the Big Red compiled a record 31-5 in home games over the past three seasons, including a perfect 15-0 non-conference mark.

Earl’s 2022-23 team posted 17 wins and led the Ivy League in 11 categories while ranking in the top 10 nationally in scoring offense, assists, bench points, fast break points, steals and 3-pointers made and attempted.

In his seven seasons in Ithaca, Earl led the Big Red to four Ivy League Tournament appearances (top four earn a tournament berth). Additionally, Cornell qualified for the post season in two of the last five seasons. Along with the 2024 NIT, the Big Red appeared in the CIT in 2019, returning to the post season for the first time since reaching the Sweet 16 in the 2010 NCAA Tournament.

At Princeton
Earl entered the coaching profession in 2007 after four years as an account executive at Sallie Mae. Former teammate Sydney Johnson asked him to join his staff at their alma mater. He served as an assistant and associate head coach at Princeton over nine seasons, during which the Tigers posted a 143-69 overall record and a 72-26 record in Ivy League play, winning 20 or more games five times.

Playing Career
During his playing career at Princeton, Earl set the Ivy League record of 281 3-pointers and won 95 games in four seasons, a mark that remains an Ivy League record. The Tigers earned a postseason bid in each of his four seasons, including a win over UCLA in the 1996 NCAA Tournament and a victory over UNLV in the 1998 tournament as the East Region’s No. 5 seed.

Earl graduated from Princeton with a degree in economics in 1999. Deciding he wasn’t finished with playing, he continued his career in the United States Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Alliance, then played in Germany and England from 1999-2002.

Personal
Earl comes from a strong basketball family. His father, Denny, was a starting forward for Rutgers where he played with the late Jim Valvano. His brother Dan played at Penn State and is the head coach at Chattanooga. Earl and his brother are one of four active sets of brothers directing Division I programs, joining Bryce and Scott Drew, Joe and James Jones and Archie and Sean Miller.

Earl and his wife Jennifer have three sons, Dylan, Owen, and Cooper.

Career Record as a Head Coach

Year	Overall Record	Winning %	League Record	Winning %	Finish	Other
William & Mary
2025-26	20-12	.625	10-8	.556	T5th	CAA Quarterfinals
2024-25	17-15	.531	11-7	.611	4th	CAA Quarterfinals
Career at W&M	37-27	.578	21-15	.583
Cornell
Year	Overall Record	Winning %	League Record	Winning %	Finish	Other
2023-24	22-8	.733	11-3	.786	t-2nd	Ivy League Semifinals / NIT
2022-23	17-11	.607	7-7	.500	t-4th	Ivy League Semifinals
2021-22	15-11	.577	7-7	.500	4th	Ivy League Semifinals
2020-21	Season canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2019-20	7-20	.259	4-10	.286	t-6th
2018-19	15-16	.484	7-7	.500	t-4th	CIT
2017-18	12-16	.429	6-8	.429	t-4th	Ivy League Semifinals
2016-17	8-21	.275	7-7	.500	t-6th
Career at Cornell	96-103	.482	46-52	.469
Career	133-130	.506	67-67	.500