The Texas Longhorns Isaiah Taylor was one of the more surprising freshmen in the country last season. He is capable of playing either backcourt spot and is rather interchangeable with fellow starter, Javan Felix. Taylor has been out with a wrist injury after he got hurt driving to the hoop in Texas’ win against Iowa in the 2K Classic on Nov. 20.
In the first three games this season, Isaiah Taylor is averaging 15.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists. In advance of the Horns’ big showdown against #1 Kentucky, Texas Coach Rick Barnes did a national media conference call.
“It is huge,” Barnes said of Taylor’s absence from this game.
“Our speed changes, he plays the point differently. He alleviates a lot of pressure for us obviously, he’s our leading scorer, I think and he’s a guy with a lot of confidence.”
In addition to the SEC/Big 12 challenge, Isaiah Taylor will miss the Stanford and Long Beach State games. With Taylor out, Felix has been inserted into the starting lineup at the one.
Taylor will miss this big show-down, but reportedly he us “adamant” that he will return for the start of Big 12 Conference play on January 3rd versus Texas Tech. So he should be back to be the Longhorn leader challenging Kansas for the conference crown.
“He’s resilient,” said Coach Barnes of Isaiah Taylor.
“And the guys have a lot of belief in his confidence, his leadership, his swagger, there’s no question about it.”
Here’s where we have Taylor in our 2016 NBA mock draft:
26. Isaiah Taylor, PG, Texas, 6-1, Soph.
Extremely quick in the open floor, Isaiah Taylor put himself on the map with an impressive freshman year.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2