Todd Golden has made it known that he’s looking for an explosive scoring guard to add to Florida’s transfer class. Ideally this would be a player capable of playing some point guard, ensuring that the Gators have a backcourt loaded with ball handling, shooting, and scoring ability alongside Riley Kugel and Iona transfer Walter Clayton.
A player who checks all the boxes hit the portal this past week in Marshall’s Andrew Taylor–and the Gators have reportedly reached out.
Taylor was one of the most productive players in college basketball this past season averaging 20.2 points, 4.7 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.2 steals, stuffing the stat sheet in just about every way possible. Backing the numbers is the fact that Marshall was a solid mid-major program finishing 83rd in KenPom in a quality Conference USA, meaning these weren’t empty numbers. Taylor has been in a constant state of improvement throughout his four years in college averaging 10.1 points as a freshman, 12.0 points as a sophomore, 14.2 points as a junior, and now 20.2 points as a senior.
Standing at 6’3” Taylor has good length when playing the point guard position and adequate size when he needs to play away from the ball. At Marshall he was a full time point guard and playing 36.6 minutes per game–the Thundering Herd really didn’t need another full-time ball handler. While he’s a solid passer who finished 229th in the country in assist rate, everything about Taylor is about stressing the defense with his scoring ability. Putting up 20 points per game at any level of college basketball is tough to do and requires a versatile scoring package which is exactly what Taylor has.
Everything with Taylor’s game starts with the threat of the three-point shot. At a career 35.5% he isn’t someone who jumps out from an efficiency standpoint–but where he does shine is with volume. Last season Taylor took over 7 three-point attempts per game and hit 36.6% of them and on that kind of heavy volume the percentage is mighty impressive. When he’s not pulling up from deep Taylor has the ability to change direction and change pace and a dizzying rate allowing him to get to the paint whenever he wants despite not being a high level athlete.
After proving he can score at a ridiculous rate at the Conference USA level Taylor will be looking to show it can translate to the highest level of the college game.
Of course, an interesting element of Florida’s recruitment of Taylor is that the Gators have already secured a commitment from Taylor’s teammate–center Micah Handlogten. It’s not often that teammates transfer together but it’s not unheard of–such as when Florida point guard Kyle Lofton’s former teammates Jaren Holmes and Osun Osunniyi both transferred from St. Bonaventure to Iowa State the same offseason.
Taylor is in an extremely different position than Micah Handlogten. Handlogten is a young freshman who just finished his first season at Marshall before proving his upside and earning an up-transfer to Florida. Taylor, on the other hand, will be one of the older players in college basketball this season. An older player in the class of 2018 recruit, Taylor started his career at Furman–though things didn’t last long. He ended up leaving the Furman program only a few weeks into his time with the Paladins, citing an environment he didn’t fit in. That meant a true redshirt year to transfer to Marshall, and he made his college debut as a 20 year old. Taylor will turn 24 years old this June, putting him on the opposite end of the spectrum to former (and potentially future) teammate Micah Handlogten.
It’s early in Taylor’s recruitment and it’s not yet known who is in a good position, though it’s safe to say Taylor will have all kinds of suitors. Everyone in college basketball is looking to get older, and Taylor put up massive production for a quality team in a good league which suggests the possibility of success at the high-major level.
Let’s get him!