Since the College of William & Mary announced the firing of Tony Shaver, the men’s head basketball coach, five players have entered the transfer portal to explore their options.
“The five who originally put their names in the portal are Justin Pierce, Matt Milon, Chase Audige, LJ Owens and Luke Loewe,” Pete Clawson, spokesman for the university’s athletic department, wrote in an email.
Shaver was fired three days after the Tribe lost to the Delaware Blue Hens in the Colonial Athletic Association semi-finals. It remains unclear if the players intended to transfer before Shaver was fired.
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On May 1, Milon announced his decision to play for the University of Central Florida and a day later, Pierce signed with the University of North Carolina.
Both players graduate this year and have one year of eligibility left.
“Loewe has informed our coaching staff he is staying,” Clawson wrote. “The other two have not announced a decision.”
While only two players have officially announced their intentions to play on other teams, Tribe basketball is losing at least two more players for other reasons.
Paul Rowley and Chris Clark have graduated and do not have any eligibility left and on March 29 Nathan Knight announced his intentions to explore all of his options, including the NBA Draft.
According to the CAA handbook, the men’s basketball team, including coaching staff, must have a maximum of 22 people and 15 players in uniform.
It is not clear how Dane Fischer, the new head coach, plans on recruiting new players and how many players he actually needs.
WYDaily attempted to contact Fischer multiple times and was not able to reach him. On the Tribe Athletic’s website, a phone number for Fischer was not listed.
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Update, May 10: On Friday, Audige, one of the two players still in the ‘transfer portal’, announced in a tweet his decision to join Northwestern men’s basketball team.
