Nov.11 vs Elon (Home-opener)
The Elon Phoenix are starting a new era of basketball in 2019-20 as former Ohio State assistant coach Mike Schrage has taken over the program from Matt Matheny, the Phoenix’s head coach since the 2009-10 season. Last season, the Phoenix finished with their second worse record of the Matheny era, going just 11-21 overall. Despite being better in conference play at 7-11, their struggles in non-conference play ultimately doomed them.
- Head Coach: Matt Schrage (1st year, 0-0)
- Last Season: 11-21 (7-11) – under Matt Matheny
- PPG: 70.8
- PAPG: 76.4
Key Returners:
The top returner for the Phoenix this season is junior guard Nathan Priddy. Priddy was the ffith leading scorer for the Phoenix last season, averaging 7.3 points per game, 2.8 rebounds per game, and 2.5 assists per game. He’s quality from beyond the arch, shooting 35.2% for three a season ago.
Sophomore Kris Wooten had a decent freshman year, averaging 5.4 points per game but will need to bump those numbers up greatly in 2019. Along with Priddy, Wooten will have the opportunity to be one of the Phoenix’s top scoring threats this season.
Key Losses:
Unfortunately for Schrage, the Phoenix lost each of their top four scorers from last season in Tyler Seibring (16.5 ppg), Steve Santa Ana (16.0 ppg), Sheldon Eberhardt (10.3 ppg), and Danian Swoope (8.0 ppg). For those counting at home, that’s 50.8 points of the Phoenix’s average of 70.8 points per game last season. That’s 71.8% of their scoring and will be nearly impossible to replace.
Key Additions:
The Phoenix added two transfers over the offseason in Butler transfer, Jerald Butler and Stanford transfer Marcus Sheffield. Butler wasn’t an impact player for the Butler Bulldogs over his two years, scoring just 26 points over his career but he also missed time with a hand injury. Sheffield was a quality depth player for Stanford over his first three seasons in college and will have the chance to become a top scoring option for the Phoenix in 2019, his final year of eligibility.
Overall:
It goes without saying but this season rides on the performances of Nathan Priddy, Kris Wooten, and Marcus Sheffield. Those three will need to step up their games in 2019-20 if the Phoenix hope to be competitive this season. It’s hard for any team to not see a drop off in play after losing their top four scorers from the season before. It could be a tough first season for Matt Schrage to say the least.