When William & Mary hired Brian Earl to the men’s head coaching job in the spring of 2024, it came with the expectation that it would help return the Tribe not only to the top tier of the CAA but also to a more exciting style.
Early returns seem good, as the Tribe drubbed Dickinson College 84-36.
Sure, Dickinson is a Division III. I’m not sure many were excited about opening with a non-DI (except for assistant coach Jimmy Fenerty, who played for the Red Devils). But as a glorified scrimmage, an opportunity to work out some of the kinks and see how the fast-paced, turbocharged-Princeton style looked in green and gold.
Wait, turbocharged Princeton? That sounds familiar.
Indeed, the offensive side of the floor looked stylistically similar to much of what W&M did during the Shaver era. They were quick to push in transition or get the ball out of the net and up the floor, looking for threes in transition and backcuts in the halfcourt.
“If you can make a shot, and you’ve practiced it, and you’re open, we expect you to shoot it,” said Earl postgame. “As long as we’re in the mindset of the ‘we,’ we want to score, I think we’re in a good spot.”
But things look different on the defensive end. Instead of the passive zone that the late-era Shaver teams would often drop into, this Tribe gets after it on the defensive end. W&M kept the full court press on for nearly the entire contest and forced 21 turnovers, leading to 26 points.
“Coach always emphasizes that we go hard,” said Kyle Pulliam, a junior guard who scored 10 points and notched a pair of assists and steals in his first game for the Tribe. “Sometimes teams might try to preserve their energy and stuff, but he really emphasizes us to go hard in practice and then max out [in the game].”
Against an overmatched opponent, the numbers don’t mean much, but the effort players exerted each possession was apparent. And they could only put out that much effort and energy because of their depth.
This was the way Earl’s teams at Cornell played, and it came as no surprise that the Tribe followed suit. 12 players saw the floor before the under-8 timeout in the first half, often entering and exiting the game as four- or five-man platoons. Only one player – Kyle Frazier – logged more than 20 minutes.
To some extent, one would expect the Tribe to lean more heavily on their ‘better’ players as the year progresses. But Earl’s philosophy seems to indicate otherwise.
“I think [the rotation] was pretty good,” Earl said. “They’re getting used to each other, we’re getting used to what we’re doing. Nothing’s set in stone. … One of the biggest ways you can disrupt your own team is by how you substitute.”
Not everything was perfect Monday night. The Tribe was streaky shooting the ball, at one point missing 11 threes in a row. W&M finished 12-of-36 from behind the arc.
“We have some shots that we have to see go in more, but I thought the tempo and the pace is what we wanted it at,” Earl said.
More troubling was the team’s performance on the defensive glass, giving up 11 offensive rebounds. The issue was better in the second half, but the style the Tribe plays and its lack of a true big on the floor at most times mean that the Tribe’s guards will have to chip in as rebounders.
But those things can be corrected. The most important piece – W&M’s new identity – is in place.