The Elon University men’s basketball team goes into the Southern Conference Tournament, starting Friday, already having a successful season, by the numbers at least.
But head coach Matt Matheny still thinks there’s plenty left to do.
“I like where we are because I think we’re hungry,” he said. “We have lost a few down the stretch and our rhythm was broken a bit due to injuries, so I think we’re still in search of our best performance.”
A quick review of the past season shows the best year in Elon basketball since 1987-1988. That’s evident from the postseason awards to the seeding in the tournament.
On Tuesday, junior forward Lucas Troutman was named to the all-SoCon first team by the media and the all-conference team by the coaches. Junior guard Jack Isenbarger was picked to the third team by the media and the coaches’ all-conference squad, while head coach Matt Matheny was selected as the Anton Foy Coach of the Year by the conference media.
Troutman finished fifth in the conference in scoring (15.1 points per game), second in field goal percentage (55 percent) and first in blocked shots (2.2 per game) in the conference.
“It’s an honor,” Troutman said. “It’s a really big accomplishment to get after we worked so hard over the summer, over the preseason and getting into the season and continuing to play well and play well game after game. It means a lot to be recognized for it, and it’s an extreme honor to be able to get that.”
Isenbarger was named to the second team by the media and the coaches’ team last year, so this is his second go-round. He was 14th in the SoCon in scoring (13.7 points per game), 13th in assists (2.8 per game) and second in free-throw percentage (87.1 percent).
“It just sort of happens. It’s a great honor,” Isenbarger said. “I’m humbled to be among a list of other great players in the conference, but at the same time it was never necessarily a goal that I set.”
Matheny’s award is a sign of where this program has come in the last four years, as Matheny took a 9-23 squad in his first year to a North Division champion 20-10 team this season.
“He definitely deserves it, especially after the last two years from where we started to where we’re at, that’s a huge step,” Troutman said. “Of course, it’s not as far as we want to be yet, but it’s still a huge step and I definitely think he deserves it.”
The head coach placed the praise on his staff.
“I think it’s positive affirmation of the hard work that our staff does,” Matheny said. “It will say my name by the award, but it’s a staff award in my mind. It was never a goal, but it’s a nice award.”
The real goal stays the same: be at their best in March. It’s been a catchphrase of sorts for the Phoenix this season, even all the way back in August when players were arriving for classes. So while health is returning to Elon in a general sense (Troutman said he’s almost entirely back to 100 percent), there’s still that SoCon championship to win.
Players and coach agree that the maturity this team has is incredibly important compared to prior years.
“That’s something we’ve gone on the whole year, how much our team has grown up,” Troutman said. “This year, it’s really come together. It’s amazing how far we’ve come since (the beginning). The way we’ve been able to jell together and play and at all times know where each other is going to be or know what the other person’s thinking or what they’re doing. That’s a big step for us as far as leadership and as far as becoming an actual team.”
“Not only have we been through (the tournament) once, we’ve been through it together in some cases three times, in some cases twice,” Matheny adds. “Veteran leadership has probably been our biggest strength all year, and we fully expect that will be a factor in the tournament.”
The Phoenix will not know who it will face until about 8 p.m. Friday night. The No. 7 seed University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and No. 10 seed University of North Carolina at Greensboro square off at 6 p.m. Friday night on ESPN3, with the winner to face Elon Saturday night at 6 p.m.
Elon assistant coaches will attend the game, with player attendance optional. Fortunately for the Phoenix, it’s seen both teams twice this season.
“We know both the two, we’ve played both of them for our third year now,” Troutman said. “So we basically know what to expect.”
Matheny said the team has been focusing more on the basics of the system earlier this week, while later in the week there will be a more specific focus on the teams.
Either way, the head coach still thinks his team needs to improve before tipoff Saturday night.
“I think that we’ve got our health better and closer to where we want to be going into the tournament, and I think that helps us,” he said. “I think we’re hungry because we’ve had some success, but in order for us to be better, we need to play better.”