Undefeated after its final road game of the non-conference slate. No. 5 UVa returns home tomorrow afternoon when the Wahoos host in-state foe William & Mary (2 p.m., ACCNE). And the 80th meeting between these two programs certainly seems pretty one sided.
The Tribe (4-7) have struggled thus far this season. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, are 10-0 after dusting South Carolina earlier this week. The Hoos will get a week off after facing W&M before hosting Marshall next Monday in advance of the start of league play.
Tony Bennett may not have been expecting him to play this soon but freshman point guard Kihei Clark returned to action against the Gamecocks just 10 days after having surgery to repair his broken left wrist. It remains to be seen how much time he'll play in this one but it's likely that Bennett lets his younger guys get some burn in what will likely be a lopsided matchup.
William & Mary Tribe (4-7)
Head coach: Tony Shaver 16th year (216-258 at W&M)
Series: UVa leads the all-time series 54-26.
Last Meeting: The Cavaliers beat the Tribe 67-52 in Charlottesville in December 2015.
Three Things We Know
1. William & Mary has never made the NCAA Tournament and likely won’t this year either.
Despite coming very close to breaking through in recent years, the Tribe are one of just four remaining original D1 teams never to make the NCAA Tournament, along with Army, St. Francis (NY), and The Citadel. And with a 4-7 record to start the 2018-19 season, we wouldn’t recommend betting on William & Mary to end that drought this year. The Tribe were picked fourth in the CAA preseason poll and returned three players that averaged double-figures last season. After winning the opener against High Point, they dropped four straight games to Duquesne, UIC, Notre Dame, and Radford, putting Shaver’s team behind the 8-ball. William & Mary has won its last two heading into tomorrow's game but they came over a struggling Hampton program and a non-D1 opponent in William Peace. Still, the CAA isn’t as strong as it once was after membership shakeups in recent years and there is plenty of time for the Tribe to get back on track once league play begins. Despite its record, W&M is the fourth-highest ranked team in the CAA in the KenPom rankings.
2. The Tribe have struggled on the defensive end of the floor.
Shaver’s squads have been known for being solid offensively, ranking in the top 100 nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency in each of the past six seasons. The Tribe are 70th in that category this year but it hasn’t been enough at times to make up for being 310th on the other end of the floor. They have given up 80 points in seven of their 10 games and have allowed opponents to shoot unsustainably high percentages. W&M has also allowed opponents to shoot 39.6 percent from beyond the arc and 54.2 percent on two-point tries. For comparison, opponents are shooting just 26 percent from 3 against UVa and 45 percent inside the arc. To make matters worse, the Tribe don’t force many turnovers and opponents have been successful at the free-throw line.
3. Junior Nathan Knight is W&M's top scoring option.
If the Tribe are going to pull off a major upset on Saturday or at least keep the game competitive, they will likely need a big game from Knight. The junior forward has seen his role expand over the past two years and now leads the team in scoring at 19.1 points per contest. He has scored 20 points or more six times this season and has posted three double-doubles, including two of them in the most recent pair of games. Knight doesn’t shoot a lot of 3s but instead does a lot of his damage from inside the paint. The 6-foot-10 Syracuse native is also very adept at getting to the free-throw line, shooting 30 from the charity stripe over the past two games. Knight is joined in the lineup by a pair of other double-digit scorers, Justin Pierce and Matt Milon. Pierce, a 6-foot-7 wing, is averaging a double-double with 17.6 points and 10.2 boards per game. Milon, a transfer from Boston College, is the team’s most prolific outside shooter, making 40 percent of his attempts on the season.
