William & Mary hasn’t logged over 11,000 miles on the road for nothing. You might say that they have come a long way in more ways than one to reach the point of being 11-5 on the season, including a 3-0 start to CAA play for just the fifth time in program history, with all three of those wins coming on the road.
Simply put, no one outside of Williamsburg saw this coming about eight or nine months ago. At that time, if anything the Tribe looked like they would be an unfortunate story of a negative reversal of fortune this season. And even before logging all the road miles, this team bonded to a degree no one might expect considering the aftermath.
Many were shocked when the school fired Tony Shaver, the dean of CAA coaches, after last season after 16 seasons at the helm. Shaver was beloved on campus and in the community, and understandably so; he’s the program’s all-time winningest coach and an easy person to get behind, a very likable and accessible family man who deep down has a big competitive streak. He led them to four CAA title games, though they never broke through with a win in one, and was the most successful coach the program has had.
The team had finished fourth last season and was set to return most of the roster. Add that to significant personnel losses with the teams that finished ahead of them, and they were sure to be preseason favorites for 2019-20 in the eyes of many. But that changed once Shaver was fired, as five players entered the transfer portal and Nathan Knight, a first-team All-CAA selection who most figured would be the preseason Player of the Year, entered the NBA Draft.
Ultimately, Knight withdrew from the NBA Draft and return to school (going to another school via the graduate transfer route was not an option), and while that would appear to be the biggest win for new head coach Dane Fischer and his staff in the early days, they got a bigger win before that. A few weeks earlier, Luke Loewe opted to stay in Williamsburg, which at first glance at least gave the team one returning starter pending Knight’s decision. Fischer, however, had a long memory of him before finding out just how well he fits, and getting one player to come back meant someone was buying in.
“When we started our workouts, the thing that stuck out to me is that Luke embodies everything that we want to be about,” said Fischer. “He’s an unbelievable worker, he’s a really good communicator, has great body language, is full of toughness, and I think he’s a really focused kid.”
The junior guard, who is an avid fisherman, is putting up nice numbers such as over 11 points per game and nearly 55 percent shooting from the field, including 44 percent from deep. More impressively, he’s been shutting down opposing guards, especially on the recent northeast trip. Hofstra’s Desure Buie, fresh off a 35-point outing in the Pride’s prior game, was just 3-14 from the field for 10 points, while on Saturday the conference’s leading scorer, Northeastern’s Jordan Roland, had just seven points on the same shooting numbers.
As for Knight, he’s nearly averaging a double-double as he’s just shy of 10 rebounds a game, which would also make him a 20-10 player since he’s averaging just over 20 a night. He and Wisconsin transfer Andy Van Vliet, who sat out last year, combine to give them a frontcourt with the kind of size rarely seen in the CAA ranks, and as they have learned to play together and play off each other, the team’s play has been better as well. Knight was a known commodity and remains so, while Van Vliet was known to the team but not the public as he was a bit player in Madison.
“I remember when Andy came on his official visit transferring from Wisconsin, I told him, just based off the skill set that he had and the pieces that we had, we had the opportunity to be special,” Knight said. “Andy is a jack-of-all-trades, I can’t name something that Andy can’t do very well.”
Knight emphasized the time he and Van Vliet have spent off the court bonding, and that isn’t an accident. As soon as Shaver was fired, Knight said the most important thing was for the team to not let this tear them apart, at least those who opted to stay, noting how long ago those bonds were formed. That was also something the new staff made sure to do, and you can see this paying off as it’s clear this team has a lot of trust in one another. Fischer noted that trust is their first core value, and he saw how this team developed a chemistry quickly.
Added Knight: “We have a core value system, and we all believe that nothing can be done unless you have a strong foundation of core values. One of the biggest things with those values is trust.”
Helping in a smaller way was a video series that ran in the fall called In the Locker with Nathan Knight, where the senior would conduct a brief interview with a teammate. Kris Sears, their media relations contact, had the idea as a way to put Knight out front as the clear face of the program, being their best and most experienced player, and also to introduce the world to a few of the players and let Knight be a leader. It also helped further the building of bonds among the team.
“We all knew each other as a department and as a team, we know each other as teammates and players,” Knight said. “The biggest thing was letting other people know who we are and also finding some interesting things about each other.”
Spend a little time talking to Knight, and you understand the importance he and the rest of the team clearly placed on this. You understand that the team’s relationships and chemistry was paramount, and they had every intention of not letting that be a casualty of the coaching change and any resulting personnel moves following it.
Fischer said he and the new staff were not going to run from what Shaver and those who worked for him had done. The idea was to embrace that, knowing that all of it made the program what it is, and it was obviously attractive enough for him to want the job when it opened. It also meant he and the staff had to run things their own way all the same. In trying to make the most of the situation, they were careful with personnel moves, and when it came to scheduling, a lot of the non-conference schedule was set, but the games the new staff added had a lot of geographic considerations.
After all of this, as well as 12 of 16 games on the road, the Tribe is 3-0 in CAA play and has six of their next eight games at home. That gives them a chance to enter the back half of conference play with a great record and plenty of momentum. They have seven true road wins, which leads the nation, and Saturday’s matchup with College of Charleston will have first place on the line regardless of what the teams do in their Thursday night games. It’s all something that seemed quite possible as soon as last season ended, but then unthinkable back in late March and early April. That was before this team got closer and brought their trust to a new level before translating that into wins on the court.
