Now that the Shaver era has officially ended, I want to take this moment to thank Coach Shaver for 16 years of hard work and many good memories.

Thank You Coach and wish you nothing but the best.

Thank you Coach. You did things for our program that I did not think I would ever see in my lifetime. You passionately cared about my Alma Mater and for that alone I will always be eternally grateful to you. Thank you also for the thoughtful way that you would answer our questions when we were given an opportunity to ask them.

Best of luck. You will truly be missed.

(04-02-2019 05:52 PM)tribeintexas Wrote:  Now that the Shaver era has officially ended, I want to take this moment to thank Coach Shaver for 16 years of hard work and many good memories.

Thank You Coach and wish you nothing but the best.

AMEN to that!!

Thanks for starting this chain. 100% agree. We were a lucky bunch these last 16 years. I hope Shaver eventually finds his way back into the W&M fold in some way.


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Thank you ... for:

Being a fine human being and setting a wonderful example
Being a teacher
Always being a gentleman
Being a great coach
Representing us so awesomely
Getting us out of second division status and into first division status in our own conference
Beating Wake and Maryland on the road in the same year
Beating JMU like a drum
Beating ODU consistently
Beating VCU in the tourney in Richmond
Being so good that Richmond and VCU will no longer play us
Installing a visually pleasing brand of hoops
Being so good that everyone has forgotten the bad days of the late 80’s and 90’s
Recruiting fabulous W&M student athletes
Not cutting corners in the dirty world of college hoops
For giving us four nights in 16 years in which we were poised to kick in the door

And when the door is kicked in, some lucky coach, and some lucky players, will have done so as a result of the solid foundation which you and your teams poured.

Really looking forward to your return to Kaplan so that you can get the proper send-off that you deserve.

Thanks Coach Shaver!

(04-02-2019 06:28 PM)nj alum Wrote:  Thank you ... for:

Being a fine human being and setting a wonderful example
Being a teacher
Always being a gentlemen
Being a great coach
Representing us so awesomely
Getting us out of second division status and into first division status in our own conference
Beating Wake and Maryland on the road in the same year
Beating JMU like a drum
Beating ODU consistently
Beating VCU in the tourney in Richmond
Being so good that Richmond and VCU will no longer play us
Installing a visually pleasing brand of hoops
Being so good that everyone has forgotten the bad days of the late 80’s and 90’s
Recruiting fabulous W&M student athletes
Not cutting corners in the dirty world of college hoops
For giving us four nights in 16 years in which we were poised to kick in the door

And when the door is kicked in, some lucky coach, and some lucky players, will have done so as a result of the solid foundation which you and your teams poured.

Really looking forward to your return to Kaplan so that you can get the proper send-off that you deserve.

Thanks Coach Shaver!

I echo these eloquently said sentiments. Thank you Coach Shaver!

(04-02-2019 05:52 PM)tribeintexas Wrote:  Now that the Shaver era has officially ended, I want to take this moment to thank Coach Shaver for 16 years of hard work and many good memories.

Thank You Coach and wish you nothing but the best.

+1

With your leadership and perseverance MBB became relevant again. Thank you and best of luck for the future!

Sacre Bleu!

.... And thanks for beating the State University of New Jersey at the RAC when your boys started the second half of that game on a 19-0 run!

Well said. Just wish he would have been able to get us to the dance 1 year as nobody else deserved it more than him

(04-02-2019 06:28 PM)nj alum Wrote:  Thank you ... for:

Being a fine human being and setting a wonderful example
Being a teacher
Always being a gentleman
Being a great coach
Representing us so awesomely
Getting us out of second division status and into first division status in our own conference
Beating Wake and Maryland on the road in the same year
Beating JMU like a drum
Beating ODU consistently
Beating VCU in the tourney in Richmond
Being so good that Richmond and VCU will no longer play us
Installing a visually pleasing brand of hoops
Being so good that everyone has forgotten the bad days of the late 80’s and 90’s
Recruiting fabulous W&M student athletes
Not cutting corners in the dirty world of college hoops
For giving us four nights in 16 years in which we were poised to kick in the door

And when the door is kicked in, some lucky coach, and some lucky players, will have done so as a result of the solid foundation which you and your teams poured.

Really looking forward to your return to Kaplan so that you can get the proper send-off that you deserve.

Thanks Coach Shaver!

Amen! Tony, thanks for always being a class act on and off the court! You are, and always will be, a very special member of our Tribe!

Any success we have in the future stands on you, your staff and your teams’ shoulders.

Best of luck and best wishes in whatever the next chapter of your life has for you.


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Thanks for bringing our program out of the dark days (Swenson/Boyages) into what we are today. Wish Omar had made that free throw for you.

(04-02-2019 08:39 PM)Tribester Wrote:  Thanks for bringing our program out of the dark days (Swenson/Boyages) into what we are today. Wish Omar had made that free throw for you.

There we go!

:-)

(04-02-2019 07:47 PM)WMtribe17 Wrote:  Well said. Just wish he would have been able to get us to the dance 1 year as nobody else deserved it more than him

+1000

Thanks Coach !!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks coach! Made our program relevant in the conference. Accomplished a lot with not much institutional support and recruited and graduated true student athletes.

Your contributions to our program are many. Thank you.

Coach...you are the best. Looking forward to future lunches as we had before.

You made W&M Basketball relevant again and gave all Tribe supporters wonderful teams, players,
moments and games!

Wishing you and Ann and your family joy.

I have a Coach Shaver story that I've wanted to share but could never find the proper thread for it so thank you for this. Apologies if I've told you this one before.

When I was a student, Tony's son was on the baseball team and we would occasionally see Tony around Plumeri. One game (I don't remember who we were playing) a couple of friends and I started heckling the opposing pitcher. All of a sudden Tony's wife comes running down from a few rows back and says "Tony knows he can't say this himself but make sure you call that pitcher a 'short reliever.'" (The pitcher was about 5'4".) We all laughed and thought it was great that our head basketball coach was so willing to just be one of the fans with the students. Later in the game the sun set and the temperature dropped dramatically. I had one friend in just a t-shirt who was shivering without a jacket. Tony came down to our row, took his coat off, and gave it to my friend. He said that he had to head back to campus but that my friend could get him the jacket back whenever because we'd "see him around". That experience has always stuck with me about the kind of man Tony Shaver was. He was willing to, literally, give you the coat off his back.

Thank you Coach Shaver for everything you've done for our basketball program and university. You will be missed. And the program is and will be better off because you coached here.

(04-03-2019 10:24 AM)zablenoise Wrote:  I have a Coach Shaver story that I've wanted to share but could never find the proper thread for it so thank you for this. Apologies if I've told you this one before.

When I was a student, Tony's son was on the baseball team and we would occasionally see Tony around Plumeri. One game (I don't remember who we were playing) a couple of friends and I started heckling the opposing pitcher. All of a sudden Tony's wife comes running down from a few rows back and says "Tony knows he can't say this himself but make sure you call that pitcher a 'short reliever.'" (The pitcher was about 5'4".) We all laughed and thought it was great that our head basketball coach was so willing to just be one of the fans with the students. Later in the game the sun set and the temperature dropped dramatically. I had one friend in just a t-shirt who was shivering without a jacket. Tony came down to our row, took his coat off, and gave it to my friend. He said that he had to head back to campus but that my friend could get him the jacket back whenever because we'd "see him around". That experience has always stuck with me about the kind of man Tony Shaver was. He was willing to, literally, give you the coat off his back.

Thank you Coach Shaver for everything you've done for our basketball program and university. You will be missed. And the program is and will be better off because you coached here.

Zable and I go way back so his story inspired me to post, even though I'm more of a lurker than a poster these days. As Zable noted, we were lucky to have a coach that supported the College as a whole to the extent that he did. I’ve been devastated about how this has all played out, but look forward to the program continuing to grow.

Couple quick anecdotes here…I helped start the Tribal Fever student fan club back in 2009. As I was fundraising for the project to get it off the ground, Coach sat down with me, discussed how he could support the project, and was one of the first donors to the Tribal Fever. He wrote a personal check before we even got the project off the ground. He made it clear from the very start that he was 100% behind the project and he’d provide anything we needed from him to help with student engagement. He invited me to the team dinner my senior year, always greeted me by name even years after I left the College, and made me feel like I was part of the program at large.

Also, thanks to Austin Shaver for his dedication to the program. I had the pleasure of sitting down with him during the final four last year and chatting with him. He went out of his way to get together with me. I have no doubt he’s got a bright future ahead of him and look forward to seeing where he goes from here. I’ll always be cheering for him.

I don’t get back to a ton of games these days, but Coach’s wife never failed to greet me with a hug whenever I was in town. As a non-athlete, the Shavers made me feel part of the Tribe Basketball family.

And that’s exactly it…It sounds cliché, but under Coach Shaver’s leadership, the program always felt like family. Coach is a great man and an incredible ambassador for W&M. Thank you for welcoming so many of us into the program and creating a culture of a winning program at W&M Coach.

This got me thinking about the best games of the Tony Shaver era. I wasn't a Tribe fan yet for the first half of it (a lot of tough years in there anyway), so you guys can help me complete the list. I've only included the games I remember watching (or listening to on the radio). In chronological order I have:

1. WM 78 Wake Forest 68 (2009). The game that showed the 2009-10 team was for real. Fourth victory in a winning streak that stretched ten games; the Tribe was dominant from horn to horn.

2. WM 75 VCU 74 (2009). A great win for one of the best Tribe hoops teams ever. We had a good crowd on hand in Kaplan as I remember it. This was a strong VCU squad--Larry Sanders, Bradford Burgess, Darius Theus, who am I forgetting? A tight, thrilling matchup that came down to the final possession.

3. WM 83 Maryland 77 (2009). Another signature road win for Schneider & Co. Shaver's offense was firing on all cylinders in College Park, stunning a Terps team that went 24-9 and finished the season ranked in the top 20.

4. WM 74 Delware 73 (2010). Down seven points with 30 seconds remaining, on the road. You know what happened next.

5. WM 72 UNC 80 (2010). Yes, a loss. But a great game in an electric Carmichael arena in the first round of the 2010 NIT. I got compliments from UNC fans for weeks about how well the Tribe acquitted themselves in this one. If Quinn McDowell had been healthy maybe the outcome would have been different.

6. WM 71 ODU 62 (2012). First win over ODU in a loooong time. Great crowd and fun atmosphere at Kaplan.

7. WM 72 Rutgers 62 (2013). Cathartic beatdown of Rutgers, powered by a 19 point run. A very good WM team finally got its legs underneath it and earned a signature road win.

8. WM 75 Towson 71 (2014). Marcus Thornton & Co. finally solved Jerelle Benimon and Towson in the CAA semifinals.

9. WM 76 UNCW 72 (2015). Readers of this board will remember it as the "Heart. Miles and miles of heart" game (thanks Rocco) where the Tribe erased a 22 point deficit (20 at the half) to climb to first place in the CAA. As gutty and thrilling a performance as I've ever seen from the Tribe.

10. WM 78 Northeastern 62 (2015). The inaugural "Gold Rush" game. Marcus Thornton and friends put a hurting on the Huskies in front of 5,000 + and NBCSN. Terry Tarpey stole a pass in the frontcourt and missed the ensuing layup, Oliver Tot followed and slammed it home. We went nuts. The rest is history.

11. WM 92 Hofstra 91 (2015). The shot. Enough said.

12. WM 86 NC State 68 (2015). WM shocked the Wolfpack in their season opener in Raleigh. This one wasn't even close.

13. WM 55 ODU 48 (2015). Absolute slugfest at Kaplan, with neither team hitting a single three all night. Ugly yet satisfying win; always good to beat the Monarchs. Speaking of which,

14. WM 79 ODU 77 (2017). Oliver Tot from half court, at the buzzer.

15. WM 89 JMU 82 (2018). A preposterous late-game rally you'd have to see to believe. Beating JMU and going to 5-0 in the CAA, oh how sweet it was.

16. WM 114 Charleston 104 (2018) Senior day overtime barnburner at Kaplan.

Thanks for the memories, Coach!

Next season if we make it to the CAA Championship game with these players, and if we’re winning with under a minute to go with the game already decided, how cool would it be to get the entire arena chanting TONY, TONY, TONY.

Lots of IFs. I’m heartbroken he didn’t get the chance to finish what he assembled with these 5 starters, but i’m hopeful if we reach that point next year, the entire W&M community will realize the magnitude of the achievement and the role he played in the process, and honor his legacy with the entire crowd chanting his name.

I read today where Antwon Jackson was hired by Mike Young for one of his assistant positions at Tech. It referenced that Jackson had been an assistant at W&M under Tony for 3 years starting in 2005/06. I dug a little more because I didn't remember him and realized how much I had stopped paying attention to W&M basketball during that era.

I found it an interesting piece of Tribe basketball history to put in perspective where the program has come from under Tony, beyond just record and player talent, when realizing that Jackson had come to W&M as only an assistant AAU coach and assistant HS coach at Paul VI, and had brought Danny Sumner with him. Think about that. Just 13 years ago, Tony was having to fill his staff, which was probably only two coaches at the time, with someone who was not even a head HS coach, and as a way to get some talent here. A credit to Tony for finding potential in adding to his coaching tree, and another startling picture for what Tony had to work with to build the program during his earlier years of turning it around. Anyone who thinks the early losing years shouldn't be ignored with respect to Tony's record/accomplishments at W&M is off base.