Before the 2011-2012 college basketball season got underway, Elon men’s basketball head coach Matt Matheny said “excitement” was the buzzword surrounding his team.
After the season, it’s still there.
“I thought it carried through the whole year,” he said. “There was just excitement, even when there were tough times. We still sold out, people were still excited for the (UNC) Greensboro game (Feb. 25).”
Even though the year ended less-than-happy for the Phoenix with a loss to Davidson College in the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament, players found some positives from the season, most prominently the development of team chemistry.
“All the guys, even from my freshman year to my sophomore year, we saw a huge leap and improvement as far as the cohesiveness and the togetherness of this team,” said sophomore guard Jack Isenbarger. “It was really fun and really special, and I think that’s a result of the Europe trip (during the summer of 2011), getting to hang out, getting to know your teammates better.”
Freshman guard Austin Hamilton saw a lot in his first year on the squad.
“That’s scary for a lot of teams because we’re so young,” he said. “To have that chemistry this early in our careers, it’s definitely going to help us in the years to come. We all get along, so that always helps.”
The team, which was relatively young this past season, remains the same next year. Elon loses just one senior, guard Drew Spradlin, and returns several regulars.
According to Matheny, Spradlin has been a part of Elon’s recently-improved play as a program.
“We’ve asked him to do a ton of different things, and more often than not, he answered the call,” he said. “He’s had a great college career, scored over a thousand points. He helped us go from a nine-win team to a 15-win team, which is the highest win total that ties Elon’s record for the total of wins in a season.”
But it is time to move on, and Matheny is confident in the rising junior class.
“It’s now time to pass the baton,” he said. “It’s ‘pass the baton’ in terms of how we play basketball-wise, but also leadership. It was an interesting team this year that Drew was the only senior. We had very good team chemistry. But we also had sophomores that were leaders. It was a feeling-out process of, ‘Can the sophomores step up and lead? When should they lead?’ and how all that works out. Now with Drew going, he leaves behind the baton and says, ‘Take it over.’”
The rising juniors include Isenbarger, guard Sebastian Koch and forwards Ryley Beaumont and Lucas Troutman. Throw in rising seniors forward Brett Ervin and guard Josh Bonney and Hamilton, and players are confident in next season.
“We’re really starting to click with each other, know what we’re going to do,” Beaumont said. “And that’s really important, especially with losing just one guy. It’s definitely going to help, going into practice next year and knowing exactly what each other does, it’s definitely going to be good.”
There are still some areas to improve, Matheny said. Key among them is the defense.
“We held people to some pretty good (field goal) percentages,” Beaumont said. “A little higher than we wanted. It’s not terrible, but I think it’s something we should continue to improve on. We can always win through stops. It doesn’t matter what happens on offense. If we get stops, we can win games.”
The Phoenix won 15 games this season, a high for Matheny in his three years coaching at Elon. Some highlights included wins over the University of South Carolina in the home-opener Nov. 15, and UNCG on Senior Night Feb. 25, wins that were huge for the program.
“South Carolina stands out,” Matheny said. “As I look back on this year 10 years from now, I’ll remember South Carolina. Not only the game itself, which was exciting, Alumni was full and the energy of the building, but what it meant for our program to have an SEC team here on our campus and to be able to get a victory.”
Isenbarger points to the UNCG game as his highlight.
“Senior Night, we had a record number in attendance, the place was packed,” he said. “It was one of the most fun environments I’ve played in.”
Both Matheny and Isenbarger have noticed an upswing in the team’s popularity on campus, as evidenced by the sell-out of Senior Night.
“Two or three days before the game, people are trying to get tickets and it’s a sell-out and you can’t get a ticket,” Matheny said. “That’s what we want for all of our home games. We want it to be an event, we want it to be the toughest ticket in town. For that game, it was.”
Isenbarger has seen the same.
“It’s cool because I’ve gotten to see just in two years how much more interest and how many more fans are coming out to the games and talking about it,” Isenbarger added. “There’s a little more buzz on campus. People are talking, ‘Oh, Elon basketball! Come check ‘em out. These guys have a chance of doing big things.’”
For now, the Phoenix will take a week off, then get right back into the swing of things.
“It’s a terrible feeling after you lose a game like that, especially in the conference tournament,” Beaumont said. “That’s a feeling you don’t want to forget. Take that throughout each off-season in the spring, summer and in the fall again and use that to get better for next year.”
Matheny likes where the team is at this moment, but he sees the proverbial horizon as brighter than ever.
“We’re at a great place right now,” he said. “We wanted more. We wanted to take a giant leap, and I think we took a solid step. But there’s a great future here, and I think people see that.”