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It’s
certainly been a wild couple of weeks for Tyshawn Taylor. Shortly after
helping Jersey City (NJ) St. Anthony’s win a high school National
Championship, the six-foot-three inch guard found out that his future
coach Tom Crean was leaving Marquette for Indiana. After obtaining a
scholarship release from Marquette, Taylor took an official visit to
Kansas last week.
Today,
Tyshawn Taylor announced that he’d be joining up with
Bill Self’s NCAA National Championship bunch in 2008-09 after
picking the Jayhawks over
Georgia Tech.
“I had a great time on my visit
Kansas,” Taylor told Phog.Net. “I knew Coach Self was coming today
and I knew that I wanted to tell him face to face if I was going to do
it. But I wasn’t sure because I was stuck between Georgia Tech and
Kansas, because I’ve got so much respect for coach Hewitt.”
It was that respect for Coach Hewitt and his Georgia Tech program that
had Taylor a little uneasy about his decision before he went to sleep
last night.
“I called Coach Hewitt last night and told him that I was down to those
two but that I was leaning towards Kansas,” said Taylor. “I went to
sleep and I woke up and I just felt when I woke up that Kansas was still
the right place for me.
“I feel a lot better now. It’s a little less stressful that’s for sure.”
According to Taylor, it wasn’t any one thing that put Kansas over the
top, but rather the entire program. He also found some appeal in the
fact that he could go from the high school to NCAA National Championship
squad.
“I don’t even know, I just knew that I was leaning towards them,” said
Taylor of why he picked the Jayhawks. “I’m putting myself into a great
situation. The guys are cool, Coach Self is a great coach and I thought
it’d be good to go from a high school National Championship to the
college National Championship.”
A versatile guard who can play the point, attack the basket from the
wing and even defend taller players, Taylor was also sold on the way
Bill Self finds time for multiple guards to see the floor.
“The system that the play, last year they had Rush, Chalmers, Collins
and
Russell Robinson and they all played basically the same minutes,”
said Taylor. “Collins didn’t even start and he played minutes. Coach
said he’d like to use me like a Russell Robinson type guard and that he
liked that I was big and physical.”
According to Taylor, he’s already planning on arriving in Lawrence for
summer school in June. Right now, though, he’s just taking some time to
relax and let it all sink in after getting another chance at his college
decision.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Taylor. “I just want to say that I’m happy
to that I got a second chance at this. I want to thank all the coaches
that recruited me and thank them for giving me the time and the options.
Now, I just can’t wait.” |