In anticipation of the season opener on Saturday, I’ve been doing a little research on William and Mary basketball. In doing so, I’ve found three tidbits that somebody might find interesting. Since here in the Eyeball to Eyeball section, I usually tend to take a weird spin on things, that’s where I’ve decided to start: spin.

1. Spin

William and Mary are known as the Tribe, and their logo used to be a W (for William), an M (for Mary), and two feathers (I’m assuming for Tribe, but you can never be too sure). As of this season, the Tribe have gotten rid of those feathers because the NCAA ruled that they could be viewed “hostile and abusive” to Native Americans. Why am I going into this, you may ask? Well, if you look at their new logo upside down, guess what you’ll see: a W and an M. It’s practically the same thing when you spin it upside down as it is when it is rightside up. See?

Now I looked at the logo of every Division I college basketball team, and I could only find eight teams that could make that claim: William and Mary, Hawaii, Illinois, Nebraska, Northeastern, Oregon, Syracuse, and Xavier. And the Georgetown Hoyas play two of those teams - W&M and Syracuse - in the upcoming season. That’s borderline amazing. (It’s also borderline boring.)

But get this: throw in the past two seasons, and the Hoyas have played two more of those teams - Illinois and Oregon. Based on the recent surge of logo-spinnable teams in the Hoyas’ scheduling, it would appear that Coach Thompson is on a mission to play all such teams. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hoyas were in Lincoln and Honolulu next season. Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if Thompson let Jonathan Wallace jump for the opening tip, so don’t book your flights just yet.

2. William Gaston

#00 for William and Mary is a sophomore forward named Steven Hess. Hess is by no means a superstar, but he provided the Tribe with about a point and a rebound a game last season with his limited playing time. But what I was more interested in was his hometown. Hess went to Gaston Day School in Gastonia, NC.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Could Gaston Day and Gastonia both be named after the same person? And could that person be the tall, dark, strong, and handsome brute from Beauty and the Beast?” Well yes and no.

Gastonia, Gaston County, Lake Gaston, and yes Gaston Day, are all named after one William Gaston, a Congressman from North Carolina. But more importantly to Hoyas fans, William Gaston was also the first ever student at Georgetown University. Maybe after the game, Steven Hess can head over to campus and check out Gaston Hall.

3. 3-23

And for the last tidbit about the upcoming Georgetown - William and Mary game, I looked back at what happened the last times the two teams met up. On January 27, 1972, the Hoyas hosted the William and Mary Indians, as they were then called, at McDonough Gymnasium.

The good news: The Hoyas won 85-78 in overtime.

The bad news: That was one of three victories in a 3-23 season in which the team went 0-16 on the road.

The really good news: After the worst season in Hoya History, the Athletic Department decided to change directions and hire a new head coach - a certain John Thompson.

 

So those are my three things to keep everybody entertained until Saturday. Let’s see if the Hoyas can get more than three victories this season.