Following a season-ending 92-61 loss against Hofstra in the Coastal Athletic Association tournament quarterfinals, William and Mary men’s basketball returns to the court looking nothing like the team that left the floor in March.
With roster turnover far beyond anything he faced in his first two offseasons at William and Mary, head coach Brian Earl must rely on a wave of newcomers to keep the Tribe’s momentum alive.
Only two players return to the team that recorded 20 wins during its 2025-26 campaign: senior guard Ethan Connery and junior guard Colin Ndaw. To make Earl’s job harder, the pair combined for just 2.4% of the Tribe’s scoring average last season, with Ndaw appearing in four games and Connery missing the whole season due to injury.
With over 80 points per game lost to graduation and the transfer portal, Earl and his staff turned almost entirely to transfers to complete the roster. Of the 13 newcomers, only freshman guard Nick Byrd and freshman guard/forward Chris Richards are arriving straight from high school.
“Everything is sort of [like] speed dating when you are recruiting,” Earl said. “We are hoping we made some of the right choices.”
Earl added he was not just chasing talent.
“We do a lot of work to make sure we are bringing in the right caliber player but also [right] character kid to the university,” he said.
Among the incoming transfers, graduate student guard Tre Blassingame brings a wealth of experience from his previous campaigns at Idaho and Fairleigh Dickinson. During his freshman year at Fairleigh Dickinson, Blassingame was part of the 16-seed Knights team that stunned top-seeded Purdue in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.
After entering the transfer portal again following his senior year at Idaho, Blassingame said William and Mary’s recent success made it an easy choice.
“Based on the schools that I was talking to, William and Mary was a winning program,” he said. “Something I wanted to do with my last year was be in a position where we are actually going to win games.”
Blassingame highlighted his new teammates and the program’s positive energy.
“It is a bunch of high-character dudes who do not have a lot of ego, who want to win,” he said.
Sophomore guard Jesse McIntosh also brings experience after representing Australia at the U-18 level internationally.
A major obstacle for Earl is teaching a new group his fast-paced playing style. Earl said he feels his team has been quick to learn up to this point in practice.
For Blassingame, that high-tempo pace of play was another major selling point.
“Adapting to the style has been fun,” Blassingame said. “Some bumps in the road, coach telling me that I need to go faster, but it is all things out of love.”
Defensively, Earl said he is excited about how the new group’s length fits his high-pressure system.
“I think we are maybe a little longer and more athletic than we have been in the last few years and so we are going to stick with some of the principles we have had in pressing and defense,” he said.
Flipping a roster on the court is hard enough, but building chemistry off it brings its own challenges. For Earl, however, it is not a cause for concern.
“There is nothing like going out there and playing with friends and going through good times and bad times to get you closer,” he said. “They live together, they are around each other.”
The nonconference slate features a marquee road test Sunday, Nov. 15, when the Tribe will travel to Ann Arbor, Mich. to face defending national champion Michigan.
It is a tall task, but neither Earl nor Blassingame are backing down from the challenge.
“The score will take care of itself, but I think our guys will be excited to go out there,” Earl said.
In the preseason CAA poll released Thursday, Oct. 15, coaches selected the Tribe to finish sixth — matching its final standing from last season. Despite being picked in the upper half of the league, no William and Mary players were named to the Preseason All-CAA First, Second or Honorable Mention Teams.
The Tribe opens the season at home Monday, Nov. 2 against Division III Bridgewater at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va.
