The Elon University men's basketball team had its best season under current head coach Matt Matheny this past season, going 15-16 and reaching the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament. The Pendulum caught up with Matheny to discuss what happened over the summer, the Maui Invitational and the rest of the non-conference schedule, which Matheny said would be released later this week.

How was your summer?

We had a productive summer. The NCAA made a new rule that we could individually work out with our players, or at least in small groups. And I feel like we took advantage of that in the right way. In June, most of our players were here on campus. I think we invested in player development as coaches and players, and we got a lot of productivity out of it. Our two incoming freshmen, Tanner Samson and Tony Sabato, were here in July and they also had the opportunity in July to work with coaches. It gave them a head start at least ahead of what previous incoming freshmen would have. I think, as a program, we had a really positive program.

What is your initial impression of Tony and Tanner?

I think they fit very well with what we look for in an Elon student-athlete. Both come from great high schools. Tony comes from (Archbishop) Moeller High School (in Cincinnati, Ohio), which has produced many great student-athletes at various sports, whether its football, baseball or basketball*. They had success at the state tournament the last two years, his junior and senior years. Tanner comes from Regis (Jesuit High School in Aurora, Colo.), which we here at Elon know very well because of (sophomore forward and fellow Regis Jesuit alum) Ryan Winters. He was part of two state championship teams and was coached by a great coach in Ken Shaw. And Tony’s got a great coach at Moeller. So two very well-prepared student athletes.

What does it mean for this program that Elon was invited to be a part of the Maui Invitational, and how did that come about?

The Maui Tournament, the exempt tournament, is one of the best, if not the best, exempt tournaments and has been for a very long time. As much as we’d love to go to Maui and play in Lahaina (a city in Hawaii) over Thanksgiving like many great programs have done throughout the years, to be a part of the expansion of that tournament, and not only be a part of it, but to play at Butler (University Nov. 10) as part of it, and then host what is now called “Maui on the Mainland,” is an honor. Dave Odom, who coached at Wake Forest (University) and (the University of) South Carolina, is now in charge of finding the teams for the Maui. Just having a relationship with him through the years, just having a relationship with some Elon coaches of the past. (Former Elon tennis coach) Tom Parham and Dave Odom are very close friends, and that relationship helped start the conversation, and it resulted in us being part of the Maui. So we’re excited for it.

[box]Recapping Last Year Need a reminder about what happened in the 2011-2012 men's basketball season? Check out our season-in-review piece from March.[divider_flat] [/box]

What are you looking to get out of playing Butler Nov. 10 in Indianapolis?

Butler has had great success, recent success. It’s a school very simliar to Elon. To go up there and play a program that has had national success recently is really good for us, for our team. And then also to play in Hinkle Fieldhouse. I don’t care how old you are, but you’ve probably heard of or seen Hoosiers, and there’s great history in the building we get to play in. That’s a great experience, something we want from our players every year. Then to host. When I got the job three years ago, Dave Blank and I have talked about how can we host a tournament here on campus, how can we attract schools to come and play us in a tournament format. The Maui Invitational makes that possible by allowing us to be the host for the Regional Teams.

Can you tell us anything else about how the non-conference schedule is shaping up?

We’re excited about it. We return a game to South Carolina. We play Duke (University) in Cameron Indoor (Stadium), and we’re putting the finishing touches on the schedule right now. What we try to do with our non-conference schedule is play with the best teams we can play against, and also play against schools that are like-minded in terms of their value of academics. So we like to play schools from the Ivy League. We’re fortunate enough to have scheduled a game against VMI (Virginia Military Institue), which is a Southern Conference name-blast from the past. We try to touch different regions of the country, regions that we recruit, and we try to play in venues that are attractive and will help us in our recruiting process as well as the enjoyment of the student-athlete.

What’s the process that you and the coaches and the team are going to go through from now until Nov. 10?

It’s very important. We had a good summer. This team needs to develop leadership and it’s something we had in spots last year, but going forward, we need to have strong leadership for our team to be successful. We want to take September and October and not only work on improving ourselves individually, but improving the team as a whole. And it starts with veteran leadership. We have good veteran leadership that needs to lead the way as we continue to improve in the fall workouts.

Interview by Zachary Horner, Sports Editor

*Note: Archbishop Moeller High School produced athletes such as MLB legends Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey, Jr., Xavier University all-time leading men's basketball scorer Byron Larkin and current University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs head football coach Russ Huesman, who played football and baseball for the Mocs.