W&M topped Hampton on Friday, 78-65, to run its season mark to 4-0, the team's best start since 1992-93. Senior transfer Andy Van Vliet scored a career-high 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, grad transfer Bryce Barnes added a career-high 21, and stalwart big man Nathan Knight had a quiet game by his standards, going for 15 points and a game-high 13 board.
Knight's double-double was his fourth of the season - The Commodore has gone for double digit points and rebounds in every one of the Tribe's games and is averaging 18.5 points and 11.8 rebounds. Van Vliet's not far behind him at 17.3 and 9.5 per outing. The 7-footer has recorded double-doubles in three of W&M's four contests.The two (forthwith known as The Pair Up There) present a unique challenge for opposing defenses. Knight's a classic post, with an array of inside moves and a powerful 6'10" frame. He's only made 1 of 9 three-pointers this season, and he's only a 24.5% career shooter from deep. Van Vliet's connected on 43.8% of his threes, extending the opponent's defense to open up the inside for Knight. And in the limited highlights I've seen, the transfer from Wisconsin's also got decent footwork in the paint himself. Oh, and both of the them are lefthanders, a vexing proposition in its own right.
Van Vliet was just named CAA Player of the Week. One of the Tribe's key challenges this season was figuring out whether anyone could share the offensive load with Knight and relieve the All-CAA pivot of the responsibility of carrying the team himself. With Van Vliet and Thornton Scott (12.8 ppg, 52.4% from deep), it looks like coach Dane Fischer's found something that's worked, at least in the early going.
That going gets a lot rougher this evening on the road against Oklahoma. We're not going to win, but it'll be really interesting to see how the dual-big setup fares against a Power Five opponent.
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