In the volatile landscape of modern college basketball, William and Mary senior guard Chase Lowe is an anomaly.
The last few years have been anything but stable for the Tribe men’s basketball program. In spring 2024, former head coach Dane Fischer was fired after his squad posted its fourth consecutive losing record. His exit prompted a significant talent exodus, with four of William and Mary’s top eight contributors graduating or hitting the transfer portal. New head coach Brian Earl managed to retain several key players and mount a winning 2024-25 campaign, but the Tribe continued to suffer further turnover, losing its three leading scorers over the summer. Including William and Mary’s current roster, 36 players have passed through the program since 2022.
It is remarkable that any of Fischer’s recruits remain with William and Mary, let alone one whose well-rounded statistical profile makes him an attractive target for other schools, but Lowe is still here, preparing for his fourth season with the Green and Gold. The longest-tenured member of the Tribe alongside senior guard Miles Hicks, Lowe has seen it all. Now facing his final college campaign, he’s ready to lead William and Mary to its first-ever National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament by any means necessary.
“As far as personal goals, this might sound crazy, but the only thing I’m really concerned about is going to March Madness, going to play in the tournament, whatever my role looks like,” Lowe said. “I think I bring experience to the team, and I think I bring leadership, and I think I can make my teammates play better. But as far as my main goal for the season, it’s going to be to make it to March Madness.”
It would be inaccurate to claim Lowe has never considered transferring — in fact, he says the possibility “definitely” crossed his mind upon the firing of Fischer, with whom he enjoyed a “very close relationship.” However, the Tribe’s hiring of Earl, a former Cornell coach who once extended an offer to a high-school-aged Lowe, reassured the guard he was in the right place.
“I had a conversation with [William and Mary Director of Athletics] Brian Mann when it happened, and he assured me that he was gonna try to find the best coach to bring in for this program,” Lowe said. “Sure enough, a couple days later, he hired Brian Earl.”
Earl’s first year on the Tribe sideline was an unambiguous success. William and Mary went 17-15 and 11-7 in Coastal Athletic Association play, posting a 12-2 record at Kaplan Arena. The Green and Gold eventually flamed out with a loss to Delaware in the conference tournament, but the campaign was good to both the Tribe and Lowe. After averaging 3.3 points per game in his first season and 12.5 in his second, Lowe adopted less of a score-first role during his third season, sporting averages of 8.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per outing. He credits Earl’s high-octane, up-tempo system with putting him in positions to succeed.
“I think coach Earl has done a great job of bringing in guys that can really score the ball,” Lowe said. “That makes my job really easy because I’ll be able to find them.”
Although Lowe was not satisfied with every aspect of William and Mary’s performance, emphasizing the team’s poor showing in road games, he was ultimately pleased by the outcome of the regular season.
“For starters, it was the first winning record that I’ve had during my time here,” Lowe said. “So that was something of a step in the right direction. We played very well at home.”
However, that step in the right direction was offset by a summer in which many of the Tribe’s most productive players departed Williamsburg. Guard Gabe Dorsey ‘25, William and Mary’s leading scorer and one of the greatest three-point shooters in school history, graduated. Forward Noah Collier, who averaged 12.2 points per game before suffering a season-ending injury in February, transferred to La Salle. Guard Matteus Case, the Tribe’s third-leading scorer, graduated. Guard Isaiah Mbeng, a CAA All-Freshman team selection and William and Mary’s leader in assists, transferred to East Carolina. Also leaving were graduate student forwards Keller Boothby and Malachi Ndur, and senior forwards Caleb Dorsey and Nick Evans.
The defections would have been enough to sink a rudderless program, but for Lowe and other returners like senior guards Kyle Pulliam and Kyle Frazier, there was no moment of crisis. Lowe cited the “great culture” and “next-man-up mentality” Earl has fostered as evidence of the Tribe’s resilience. This resilience is apparent in Lowe’s reaction to William and Mary’s personnel losses.
“We know in this day and age that many people are gonna want to exercise their right to transfer,” Lowe said. “So that wasn’t much of a surprise to us that we had a guy — we had a couple guys — hop in the portal, and we had a couple guys graduate too. That’s all I have to say. I wish nothing but the best for those guys.”
Rather than panicking over the departures of their teammates, Lowe says the returners spent the offseason making the Tribe’s newcomers — of whom there are many — feel at home. Although they were not involved in the finer details of a roster-building process that eventually brought eight new faces to Williamsburg, the returners met numerous potential recruits on their visits to William and Mary and managed to convince every one of them to commit to the Tribe. Upon the recruits’ arrivals, the new-look team quickly established a sense of camaraderie.
“[We] certainly wanted to make them feel welcome,” Lowe said. “We spent a lot of time together on and off the court. We would go fishing and go to College Creek. So it’s already a very tight-knit group, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
With its roster established, William and Mary finally turned its attention to the season ahead, which promises to be a continuation of the success the Tribe achieved in Earl’s first year. During October’s CAA Media Day, William and Mary was picked to finish fourth in the conference. Although the expectations surrounding the team are the loftiest they have been in recent memory (previously, Lowe had never seen the Tribe picked higher than seventh in the CAA), the senior feels no pressure. With 89 career games under his belt, Lowe is ready to help William and Mary meet and exceed its preseason projections.
“[The expectations don’t] stress me out at all,” Lowe said. “I have 14 other teammates that I know have my back, and I have their backs. I know I have coaches that I believe in, that believe in me. So no, I don’t feel any pressure.”
The veteran, who says he “knows all the teams in the conference like the back of [his] hand,” singled out Charleston and UNC Wilmington as opponents he’s particularly looking forward to battling. With an injured Lowe sitting out one of the games, the latter program swept the Tribe last year. On the court, he expects to serve as a “facilitator” and a “pass-first guard,” spraying assists to the array of potential shooters assembled by William and Mary’s coaching staff.
But, most importantly, Lowe is prepared for the off-court role he’s been tasked with assuming. Again referencing the Tribe’s next-man-up mentality, he says the culture of the program makes leadership easy.
“There are no 20-point scorers or any ball hogs in our system,” Lowe said. “It’s the next-man-up mentality, and guys are very selfless in this program. So I’m happy to be a part of that.”
