For his high school career, Taylor played basketball for three years at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, Ind., before transferring for his senior year to play for his uncle at Western High School located in Louisville, Ky. There he averaged 26.6 points and 14.2 rebounds a game.
He was ranked the No. 32 best small forward and No. 132 overall by Rivals in spring of 2011. However he opted to spend a year at Hargrave Military Academy so he could focus on become a better basketball player and student.
In the 2011 season, he helped Hargrave to a 38-1 record and a ranking of No. 2 nationally. The team’s one loss was in the prep school national championship game against Brewster Academy. In that game, he scored 22 points and had 10 rebounds before having to leave the game due to injury. In his year at Hargrave he averaged a double-double, with 22 points and 11 rebounds a game.
Several organizations wanted Taylor for his offensive playing capabilities and for his intimidating stature. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound forward was recruited by many elite teams such as Cincinnati, Indiana and Purdue. However, he decided to come to Marshall instead, a place where he said he knew he would get more playing time.
Taylor’s addition to the team makes him the third member of the Herd roster who was a former Kentucky high school all-state first team pick. The other two members are senior Elijah Pittman and sophomore Tamron Manning.
Taylor said the transition from prep school to a Division-1 basketball team was not easy.
“It’s been different coming from prep school,” he said. “It’s a higher level, faster pace and the players are a lot stronger.”
Although he hasn’t played a regular season game as a part of the Herd yet, Taylor already has a method of how he thinks the team will be successful this year.
“We aren’t as big as in the past few years,” Taylor said. “But we are going to make our defense turn into offense. Get dunks and get the crowd in the game at home and out of it away”
He also said he plans on having a winning season, no matter what it takes.
“Take charges, diving on the floor, I mean it won’t hurt us too bad, we’ll go and get ice after the game,” he said. “Just all in for the 40 minutes so we can come out with a win”
Unlike Taylor, head basketball coach Tom Herrion has contained his emotions about the upcoming season, however he still has high hopes for the season. After the first exhibition game, he said he believes the team still has lot of work.
“We were very skittish early with so many new players, which is expected, but our depth was key for us tonight and will be strength of ours,” Herrion said. “The positives outweighed the negatives a lot of players had a lot of good moments for us.”
In Marshall’s first exhibition game against the Concord Mountain Lions, Taylor was 6 for 9 in field goals, and scored 14 points for the Herd in just 21 minutes of play. Postgame, Taylor just commended his teammates.
“We played as a team,” Taylor said. “We didn’t really care about who scored and we weren’t selfish with the ball. We went out there and had fun.”
In Marshall’s exhibition trip to Canada, Taylor averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds in his first two games, before rolling his ankle in game three, which limited his playing time for the final three games. Even though he was injured, Taylor still gained 12 points and 10 rebounds in just 17 minutes of play in game four of the tour.
Taylor’s positive attitude and overall excitement to be a member of the Thundering Herd brings a refreshing outlook for Herd fans as the Herd starts a season with a clean canvass in the 2013-14 season.
Courtney Sealey can be contacted at sealey3@marshall.edu.
As seen in the Parthenon: http://www.marshallparthenon.com/ryan-taylor-expected-to-have-big-impact-on-herd-1.2845983#.UoJiBpGFGgE
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