T.J. Taylor

[strobl2]

He is a 6'3 SG from Denison, Texas. He is in the 2010 recruiting class and according to rivals he says that MU and Oklahoma are high on his list.

http://www.marquette.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=2&pr_key=77363
Here is the link to his bio.

[Rockmic87]

We need 4 or 5 star recruits, we have higher standards!

[muwarrior87]

since they haven't updated the rankings or really started focusing on '10 recruits yet, that star value may go up. Also, I'm more interested in bringing in coachable kids with high ceilings for growth than top recruits that may be near the pinnacle of their talent.

[dw3dw3dw3]

He's ranked #2 in Texas for 2010 by Texas Hoops.
http://texashoops.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=2057

[🏀]

We need 4 or 5 star recruits, we have higher standards!

He's a 90 on ESPN. He's been offered by about 10 quality programs. He's ranked second in Texas for 2010.

I have a feeling he's a decent player.

[MR.HAYWARD]

Long ago I learned that the best way to evaluate a recruit sight unseen is to see who has offered him a scholarship.  Guys that have offers from numerous other top 10-15 type programs are legit regardless of what some guru thinks. i will defer to the coaches on that.  When you start signing guys like Kinsella, Lott, Blackledge, christopherson, Hazel, etc. etc. and their other best offers are mid majors you know you are in trouble...sort of like this year when we had 5 legit BE players on the roster.  Buzz knows what type of talent it takes, look at the Texas A&M roster...also he watched first hand the last two years what having 5-6 non BE players will do to you. 

[Chili]

Long ago I learned that the best way to evaluate a recruit sight unseen is to see who has offered him a scholarship.  Guys that have offers from numerous other top 10-15 type programs are legit regardless of what some guru thinks. i will defer to the coaches on that.  When you start signing guys like Kinsella, Lott, Blackledge, christopherson, Hazel, etc. etc. and their other best offers are mid majors you know you are in trouble...sort of like this year when we had 5 legit BE players on the roster.  Buzz knows what type of talent it takes, look at the Texas A&M roster...also he watched first hand the last two years what having 5-6 non BE players will do to you. 

When Scott committed his sophomore (i think) year he was a top 25 player.

[VegasWarrior77]

When Scott committed his sophomore (i think) year he was a top 25 player.

Seriously?  Top 25 in the state or country?  Shows the rankings are not an exact science!

[ecompt]

No offense to Scott, but if he was a Top 25 in the country, that country certainly wasn't the United States.

[Pakuni]

No offense to Scott, but if he was a Top 25 in the country, that country certainly wasn't the United States.

Perhaps, but it's true. SC was a top 25 player as a sophomore.
Of course, that's why player rankings, particularly at that age, are so irrelevant.

[ecompt]

Yeah, you're right. But that's a hell of a drop from Top 25 in the country to a garbage-timer who other than one shot against Cincy never looked like a BE player.

[Avenue Commons]

Stephen Baird is another Texas kid on this list who purportedly was offered by Marquette. 6'8" and 190 lbs? That's pretty skinny. http://texashoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=68386&Sport=2

I don't like all this Texas recruiting. Marquette should always have the Great Lakes area as its priority.

[MR.HAYWARD]

This texas site and MU must be pretty high on tAylor as while rivals and scout have him as a three star he is rated above anumber of 4 star big time recruits...heck Kentucky has signed a kid rated #22.

[GOMU1104]

Stephen Baird is another Texas kid on this list who purportedly was offered by Marquette. 6'8" and 190 lbs? That's pretty skinny. http://texashoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=68386&Sport=2

I don't like all this Texas recruiting. Marquette should always have the Great Lakes area as its priority.

Yea lets just ignore an area of the country that produces more D1 basketball players than they know what to do with...


I want the best players possible, regardless of location.  Buzz knows the area well, has connections in Texas, has the respect of AAU coaches (HUGE)...but yea, were doing too much damn recruiting in the area.

[bamamarquettefan]

Agree, after watching Jimmy Butler's progression, I am going to have to defer to any Texas kid he is interested in.

As for recruiting Chicago-Wisconsin - it was interesting that he structured his coaching staff to be able to pull the best kids from anywhere in the country except Marquette's home base.  It's a gamble - do you assume we can get a shot at those guys anyway because they know about Marquette while your coaches introduce Marquette to stars from the rest of the country?

It's a gamble.  Jury is out, but he could be a genious if we end up pulling 4 and 5 star kids from everywhere in the US.  If not, we may need to get back to our geographic base.  In any event, this is another reason I never want to leave the Big East.  A Midwestern exclusive conference does cut off our shot at most kids from other areas.

[Pakuni]

Yea lets just ignore an area of the country that produces more D1 basketball players than they know what to do with...


I want the best players possible, regardless of location.  Buzz knows the area well, has connections in Texas, has the respect of AAU coaches (HUGE)...but yea, were doing too much damn recruiting in the area.

+1000
I would be nice to see Buzz land more players from the Midwest, and hopefully he will as he continues to make inroads in local recruiting circles.

But in the meantime, why wouldn't he continue to go to a place where a) he's familiar with the players and coaches, b) people seem to like him and c) produces more D-1 talent in one year than Wisconsin does in five?

I may be mistaken, but a made three-point shot from a Texas kid is worth the exact same number of points as one from a Wisconsin kid.

[cheebs09]

Also we are getting the Mr. Basketball from Wisconsin next year. I'd be more concerned about Chicago than Wisconsin, and with some time I think Buzz will be able to start pulling some top recruits out of there. An article earlier said how huge having the first practice there was in terms of building back relationships and advertising MU to the area. But as other people have mentioned, Buzz is comfortable recruiting Texas and if he can keep getting good players coming up to MU I'm all for it. So far the only non-injured texas recruit of buzz's has been Butler, and he has played very well. I think Otule and Fulce will come be contributers in the future. Also before the injury, I thought Erik Williams was ranked in the 40's and moving up, so I think recruiting Texas will be a big positive in the future.

[Blackhat]

since this is our de facto Texas recruiting thread:

Rickey Scott, also a 2010 shooting guard, picked up offers from Drake and Nevada to go along with offers from Baylor, Marquette, Texas Tech and others.  6'2" 190 lbs

[Avenue Commons]

Yea lets just ignore an area of the country that produces more D1 basketball players than they know what to do with...


I want the best players possible, regardless of location.  Buzz knows the area well, has connections in Texas, has the respect of AAU coaches (HUGE)...but yea, were doing too much damn recruiting in the area.

Um, where did I say to ignore any area of the country?

My point was simply that its illogical for Marquette, in Milwaukee, WI, to prioritize the state of Texas a lot. That's it. If we can get great players from Texas or Alaska or Timbuktu, I don't care. But I don't think we should ever lose out on kids that are "in play" in Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago, Chicagoland, etc.

The best players of the past 15 years at Marquette are from the Great Lakes area, including one player who will be in the Hall of Fame (Wade) and 5 others who do or will play in the NBA (Novak, Diener, James, Matthews, McNeal). When Texas gets us those kinds of players, let me hear about it then.   

[GOMU1104]

Um, where did I say to ignore any area of the country?

My point was simply that its illogical for Marquette, in Milwaukee, WI, to prioritize the state of Texas a lot. That's it. If we can get great players from Texas or Alaska or Timbuktu, I don't care. But I don't think we should ever lose out on kids that are "in play" in Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago, Chicagoland, etc.

The best players of the past 15 years at Marquette are from the Great Lakes area, including one player who will be in the Hall of Fame (Wade) and 5 others who do or will play in the NBA (Novak, Diener, James, Matthews, McNeal). When Texas gets us those kinds of players, let me hear about it then.   

Why is it illogical?

Our coach is rooted in that state, has numerous connections, seems to be respected by high school/AAU coaches. Not to mention there are alot of really good players there.

To me, based on those factors, NOT making in a priority would be illogical.

Buzz is a relative outsider in this Great Lakes Region.  Benford has some connections, but for Buzz, this is a brand new area.  It is going to take him awhile to build the kinds of relationships it takes to get top talent in Chicago. 

[NCMUFan]

A win is a win and a loss is a loss.  The players can be from anywhere.  Marquette welcomes them. 

[Lennys Tap]

Al had his roots (connections) in New York and ressurected the program with George Thompson and Dean Meminger from NYC. Later came players from Pittsburgh (Maurice Lucas), Chicago (Bo Ellis) and Wisconsin (Jim Chones). Seemed to work pretty well.

[Mayor McCheese]

UNC doesn't have many recruits from NC... yet they don't seem to mind.


Who cares where they come from, in fact it is fun to say that we have a pipeline to Texas, better than a pipeline to Montana.

[DomJamesToTheBasket]

I found this in the local paper there:

T.J. Taylor, Jr., Denison

 All-state selection was the Offensive Player of the Year in 9-4A.

 Averaged 27.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.6 steals per game.

[Fred Garvin]

Maybe we get a little edge if Capal goes to Arizona.