WILLIAMSBURG — Former William & Mary standout Anders Nelson recently inked a professional contract to play with Starwings Basket Regio Basel in the Swiss Basketball League.
In his lone season with the Tribe as a graduate student in 2022-23, Nelson led the team in scoring at 11.2 points per game. His 143 assists were the fifth most in a single season in school history, and he ranked fourth in the CAA in assists per game (4.3).
The Edina, Minn., native scored in double figures on 19 occasions, including four games of 20 or more points. He recorded a season-high 27 points vs. Stony Brook in Kaplan Arena and more impressively, was 8-of-8 from the field and 4-of-4 from 3. It marked the most made field goals without a miss for a Tribe player since 2004. Nelson also erupted for 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting and 4-of-7 from 3 in the third game of the year at Virginia Tech.
Nelson becomes the fifth former Tribe standout to play in Switzerland. Matt Milon ’19 also played for Starwings Basel in 2020-21 and won the Swiss Basketball League title with Fribourg Olympic last season. Zeb Coupe ’04 (BC Boncourt), Adam Payton ’07 (BC Boncourt), and Sean Sheldon ’16 (BC Winterhur) all played in Switzerland as well.
The 6-1 guard joins a list of nine former Tribe players that played professionally last season, including 2020 graduate Nathan Knight who played in the NBA. In total, eight former W&M standouts played professionally in Europe last season. The list includes Marcus Thornton ’15 (Fortitudo Kigili Bologna – Italy), Terry Tarpey ’16 (Le Mans – France), Omar Prewitt ’17 (Petkim Spor – Turkey), David Cohn ’18 (Newcastle Eagles – England), Thomas Papas ’18 (Mykonou – Greece), Matt Milon ’19 (Fribourg Olympic – Switzerland), Justin Pierce ’19 (KK Mornar-Barsko Zlato – Montenegro) and Andy Van Vliet ’20 (Bnei Herzeliya – Israel). Knight played his third season in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves and signed with the New York Knicks in the off-season.
