The Twelve Days of Gheorghemas: Day Four

On the fourth day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe gave to me:

Four Players Playing
Three Nutty Squirrels
Two Chilean Bangers
And a British Lass Slingin' Hot Meat (and a Fat Guy in a Sweet T)

Just a short week ago, we took a trip down memory lane to celebrate William & Mary's best men's basketball players of the past decade - the most successful ten-year stretch in school history. Two of the ten Wrens we highlighted were drafted by the Boston Celtics, while several others continued their basketball careers as professionals in far-flung locales.

Today we catch up with a quartet of those pro ballers, spreading the Gospel of the Wren from Israel to Turkey and places in between.

Let's start, as these things often do, with the Sports Rabbi. As you know, and as they advertise, the Rabbi is the ONLY Source for Israeli Sports in English. Bookmark that. Of relevance to our interests, the linked piece on Omar Prewitt, currently averaging 16.7 points per game with Turkish club Bandirma. Prewitt's played in Lithuania, Greece, and Poland since leaving Williamsburg. His move to Bandirma gets him into Basketball Champions League play, the highest echelon of European hoops. Omar geliyor, as the hip kids say.

David Cohn was mentioned in the Sports Rabbi article about Prewitt, as W&M's all-time assist leader plays professionally in Israel for Maccabi Haifa. Cohn's a bit player early in his career, getting 6.5 minutes a game in his second pro season after scoring 1.8 ppg in 8 minutes with Hapoel Eliat as a rookie in Israel's top league.

W&M's best all-court player is one of two Wrens getting paid to play in France, and he's on a French passport to boot. Terry Tarpey won a French Pro A title with Le Mans Sarthe in 2018-19. He's now in his third season at Le Mans, where he's battled injuries but still stuffed the stat sheet this season, getting 7.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.3 apg, and nearly a steal per game in 23 minutes. His pro career is on a similar trajectory as his collegiate run, so he'll probably own the place in a couple of years.

Omar Prewitt was preceded by a season at Bandirma by the GOAT. Marcus Thornton's now in his fifth season as a professional, having played in Australia, Turkey, and Italy, in addition to a pair of stints in the G League (and a 10-day contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers that ended without Thornton seeing NBA action). Thornton now competes against Tarpey in the French Pro A league as a starting guard for Elan Chalon, where he's averaging 10.2 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists.

We'd be remiss in not at least mentioning Daniel Dixon, who's on the roster for the G League Northern Arizona Suns, but currently injured. That's all we've got to say about that, because saying more means we'd have the wrong day of Gheorghemas. And we've got to honor the rituals.