Elon is now two seasons removed from their back-to-back CAA championships. After a couple hard years, are the Phoenix ready to be back in contention?
Behind James Madison, Elon may have been the second best program of the past decade. Delaware also won two CAA titles back to back, but they were behind perhaps the best women’s basketball player in the world — Elena Delle-Donne — who initially planned to play at UConn before deciding to play at Delaware to be closer to her family.
However, the past two years have been out of form for Charlotte Smith’s squad. A 9-21 year followed the second of the Phoenix’ repeat titles in 2018-19, before another below-.500 season last season. Elon finished 8th in the conference two seasons ago before stalling out at 6th last year. Regardless of their recent finishes, Coach Smith and the Phoenix feel confident about this campaign.
One reason is because of their youth these past couple of seasons. Elon graduated just one senior last year — guard Jada Graves, who won CAA Defensive Player of the Year in 2017-18. Grave started at the beginning of last season, but by conference play, was coming off the bench. That speaks to the young talent on this Phoenix team.
That doesn’t mean there’s not a good senior class this year. Ariel Colón, a senior guard, was voted preseason All-CAA Second Team after averaging 11.4 points to lead the Phoenix in 2019-20. Colón is a shooter, hitting 37.4% of her threes. She also plays incredibly hard and is a great offensive rebounder — Colón was in the 91st percentile of the entire NCAA in offensive rebound rate her sophomore season.
Forward Jaylin Powell and guard Saadia Munford will also play a part. Munford is a good passer, dishing out 2.7 assists per game. She can also get to the free throw line nearly at will — Munford scored 35.9% of her 8.2 points from the line, in the country’s 98th percentile. Meanwhile, Powell averaged 8.9 points and 3.5 rebounds coming off the bench last season. Powell stretches the floor from the 4 spot, shooting 32.5% from three but also getting to the hole.
That’s not to say that the seniors are the only ones that will carry the team back into contention. Junior guard Brie Perpignan was the Phoenix’ second-leading scorer last season, with 10.1 points per game. Perpignan can score, but also create — her assist rate of 24.3% last season was among the leaders in the CAA. She makes plays.
Junior guard Kayla Liles scored 7.1 points per game last season, but really makes her money… err, scholarship on the defensive end of the floor, like much of the roster. She averaged 1.3 steals per game but also impacts the game in ways that don’t make the box score.
Overall, the Phoenix are going to play fast this season. They’ll hound you defensively, but can also shoot the ball on the other end of the court. It’s not a coincidence that they got a first place vote in the CAA preseason poll.
Even with that first place vote, Elon was placed tied for fourth in the poll, which means that a number of voters did not think they would be a top-half-of-the-league team.
Smith and her team obviously dispute that. Their talent might not be quite what it was in the championship years, but it’s certainly enough to put pause into some of the perennial front-runners in the CAA. If some of the younger players on the team get rolling, it’s hard to argue that Elon could be a candidate to overperform their preseason poll finish.
Thanks to HerHoopStats.com for the advanced stats utilized in this article.