Elon freshman guard Austin Hamilton took the honor bestowed on him with his usual humility.

"It's a great honor," he said about being named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman Team by both the league's coaches and media. "There's a lot of good very talented freshmen this year in the conference and I'm very honored to have been chosen."

Hamilton was one of five SoCon freshmen named to both teams Wednesday, joining College of Charleston forward Adjehi Baru, Samford University guard Raijon Kelly and forward Tyler Hood and Wofford College guard Karl Cochran, who was selected as the Freshman of the Year by both coaches and media.

"Austin was a big factor in our early season success for sure before he got sick," Elon head coach Matt Matheny said. Hamilton missed six games from Feb. 2-15 with mononucleosis.

Teammates noticed Hamilton's effect on the court as well.

"He's been great all year for us, definitely deserving of the all-freshman honor that he got," sophomore guard Jack Isenbarger said. "Even more impressive is that he was able to stay focused on come back after missing a good chunk of conference games and conference play and come back and attack and play well for us."

Isenbarger is no slouch either. The SoCon coaches put him on their All-Conference Team, while the media named him to the All-Conference Second Team.

"It feels good, but it's a result of hard work," he said. "It goes to show that the coaches have really helped improve my game individually and the other players."

Isenbarger came in as one of the de facto leaders of the team. With just one senior (guard Drew Spradlin), he was looked upon by coaches to be a model on the court.

"Just stepping up and being more of a verbal leader on the court has helped elevate my game and be a leader on the court," he said. "I think in the past I led more by example."

Hamilton had high praise for his teammate and sometimes running mate at the guard positions.

"He's a great player to have on and off the court," he said. "He's taught me a lot about running the point, just (by me) watching the game. I've learned a lot of things watching his game. He's a knock-down shooter, but he's not selfish. He's a great basketball player and teammate."

His coach added to the words of acclamation.

"Jack deserves it," Matheny said. "He had a very, very good year. His year was typified when Austin went out. The three-game homestand (against College of Charleston, the Citadel and Appalachian State University Feb. 2-6) solidified his All-Conference nomination for sure. And then he continued to play well after that. He's just finished the year very, very strong."

Matheny has spent the past couple days preparing for both the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Georgia Southern University. The Phoenix have a 1-2 record against those teams this season, the lone win coming Jan. 21 against the Mocs by the score of 88-87.

"We do know these teams," Matheny said. "They're certainly teams that are capable of beating us. With our improvement (recently), we're capable of beating them. I like the way we've improved, especially in our intensity Saturday."

The Phoenix are taking it day-by-day, game-by-game. They don't know who they're playing, so they can focus on one thing: themselves.

"We'll prepare a little bit for each team," Isenbarger said. "But we're focused on working on the things that we do and just making sure we're sharp in our schemes and just getting ourselves mentally prepared for a long weekend. That's the goal."

The goal: NCAA Tournament bid, a bid that only comes for the Phoenix through a Southern Conference Tournament championship.

"It definitely is (the goal)," Hamilton said. "I've always dreamed of playing on that stage. It would definitely be a blessing to achieve that."

But he added, "We're going to take it one game at a time and play as hard as we can, and hopefully we'll be able to get that experience."

For Matheny, whatever happens, it is another step forward for the program of Elon University men's basketball.

"We're excited about the opportunity that we have," he said. "We had some great highs and valleys during the season. It's an elevation of the program"