Chemistry has been a core emphasis for the Elon University men’s basketball team. They’ve stressed building camaraderie over the offseason and into training camp with the 2025-26 season now underway.
Head coach Billy Taylor said everyone has put a lot of time and effort into becoming the best team possible.
“We’ve been working hard since June,” Taylor said. “The eight weeks we had in the summertime of workouts and then our preseason have all been building to this moment.”
Having on-court chemistry will be important for the Phoenix. The team will look much different compared to last year’s roster, which went 17-16 for the program’s first winning season since 2016-17. This past offseason, Elon lost nine players to the transfer portal, along with starting forward Sam Sherry, who graduated. To replace the losses, they added eight new transfers to the team.
Half of their transfer additions are graduates, which include forwards Chandler Cuthrell, Kacper Klaczek and Bryson Spell along with guard Ja’Juan Carr. They also brought in sophomore guard Bryson Cokley and junior guard Randall Pettus II.
Taylor said the coaching staff has spent time over the offseason talking about how to get these players acclimated to their system. He said it’s important for everyone to coexist both offensively and defensively as the season begins.
“You want your defense to be connected and you want your offense sharing the basketball,” Taylor said. “Those are some of the things that we’ve been talking about as a coaching staff and as a team for months now.”
However, the heart of the men’s basketball team won’t just be their new additions. Among the team’s five returners is junior forward Isaac Harrell, who played in 32 of the team’s 33 games last season. Although he came off the bench in 26 of those games, his 3-point percentage of 39.4% led all Elon players who played in at least 75% of the season.
Redshirt sophomore guard Ned Hull is another returning player who could have a larger role. After sitting out almost all of last season due to an injury, he played 21 minutes in Elon’s season opening win against Belmont Abbey College.
Taylor said he looks forward to seeing the contributions Harrell and Hull can provide to the team. He said each of them always put the team before themselves, which he is very fond of.
“Ned is someone that I threw out there late in games his freshman year, and then to work his way back from injury is a testament to him in terms of how hard he’s worked,” Taylor said. “Isaac is the perfect team player. Whenever you forget about him, that’s going to make shots, offensive rebounds, get steals and deflections.”
Pettus II said that although not many players have much in-game experience, he noted that everyone is here to win and be the best they can possibly be. He said the players are committed to excelling with one another throughout the season.
“What I believe most in is being a team that’s family-oriented,” Pettus II said. “We all play together and we all want to win so we have to come in every day with a mindset to get better.”
For the team to excel, Cuthrell said everyone has to maintain a high level of play throughout all 40 minutes of a game. He said the coaches have instilled that mindset among the team because they trust each player’s ability to execute on both ends of the court.
“We know how we need to play at all times, and we can never relax,” Cuthrell said. “The coaches always say to continue playing hard at all times, because we know we are a pretty good offensive team, and we have to make the same decisions on defense that we do on offense.”