Elon (Saturday, Jan 26, 4 PM)
Posting this now because I will be leaving for NYC tomorrow thru Sunday. Meaning someone else will be on the PA Mic for both games this week!
Projected Starting 5 (CAA Stats Only)
PG Nathan Priddy (6-2 so.): 6.7 ppg, 3.0 apg, 3.3 rpg, 1.5 A/TO
SG Steven Santa Ana (6-4 sr.): 16.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.4 apg, .846 FT %
G Kris Wooten (6-3 fr.): 5.4 ppg, 1.0 apg, 1.6 rpg, 0.4 spg
PF Chuck Hannah (6-6 fr.): 5.0 ppg, 2.9 rpg, .556 FG %, 0.4 bpg
C Tyler Seibring (6-9 sr.): 18.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg, .419 3-pt %, 0.4 bpg
Key Bench Players
G Sheldon Eberhardt (6-5 sr.): 10.3 ppg, 2.6 apg, 0.9 spg, 24.0 mpg
F Federico Poser (6-8 fr.): 3.6 ppg, 1.4 apg, 1.7 rpg, 14.3 mpg
Injured: Out for Season
G Dainan Swoope (6-0 sr.): NO CAA STATS (started 5 non-conference games)
The Road So Far
Record vs. D-I: 4-14
CAA Record: 2-5 (t-8th)
NET: # 309
RPI: # 303
KenPom Overall Efficiency: # 328
KenPom Offense: # 290
KenPom Defense: # 329
Best Win: @ William & Mary
Worst Losses: neutral vs. UC Riverside (4-13), vs. Towson
Team Strengths
* Free Throw Shooting: The Phoenix haven't made many trips to the charity stripe; their 92 attempts in CAA play ranks only ahead of Towson's 87. But they've at least made the most of their opportunities when they get there, shooting at a .793 clip to rank 2nd in the league. 3 key players (Priddy, Hannah, Eberhardt) are perfect so far in CAA play, combining to sink all 14 of their combined attempts. Santa Ana (.846) and Seibring (.829) are also elite in this category among their league peers, ranking 6th and 7th in the league, respectively. If Elon could only build more late leads, this ability to knock down free throws would help them a lot more than it has.
Team Weaknesses
* Rebounding: Elon are last in the league in rebounding margin, at -4.9. This tends to happen when your scoring margin is -7.0 and you shoot just .434 from the field (8th), but its clear this is still an area of weakness for the Phoenix. This is made evident by their 31.6 offensive rebounds, which ranks 9th. Running a 4-guard lineup is part of it, but teams can and have rebounding well despite that. Their biggest problem is not having a true 5. Seibring is a stretch 5, and at 225 lbs throughout his career has never proven to be comfortable battling on the blocks for boards. Nor is the freshman Hannah helping in the department much either. That leaves 6-4 Santa Ana, who has led the team in rebounding this season. He is also the only Elon player in the Top 15 in rebounding in league play.
* Ballhandling/Point Guard Play: Or lack thereof, as it were. As a team, the Phoenix rank 9th in the league in Assist/Turnover Ratio, and lack of a capable point guard has been the biggest reason for this area of weakness. Priddy and Eberhardt have done their best to fill the void left in the backcourt by Dainan Swoope, who was lost for season 5 games into the 2018-19 campaign. But Priddy is not experienced enough, while the senior Eberhardt evidently hasn't earned the trust of Matt Matheny to enter the starting lineup regularly just yet.
* Turnovers: Alluded to in the previous paragraph, turnovers have been a big issue for Elon. They rank 9th in turnover margin (-2.71), saved only by our Seahawks (-3.00) from being last in the category. And it's not at all a close gap between the Phoenix and # 8 William & Mary (-1.14). Point guard duo Priddy and Eberhardt have combined for 31 turnovers in the first 7 games of league play. Meanwhile, Santa Ana leads the team in the category (20), but this is likely more of a byproduct of having the ball in his hands more than any other player and perhaps trying to do too much on occasion. In any case, the Phoenix are turning the ball over way too much, and aren't doing anything to force mistakes out of the opposition, averaging just 3.1 steals per games as a team (9th).
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