The Utah men’s basketball team is headed to Kansas this weekend, and Brandon Taylor is looking forward to quieting down the crazy atmosphere Wichita State typically has to offer.
Since the team beat the Shockers last season in the Huntsman with what Taylor would call an energized crowd, he is more than ready to play in another hostile environment, this time on the road.
After a strong junior campaign, Taylor struggled to get going at the beginning of the year, and although he cannot pinpoint any one reason as to why he was not hitting a lot of his outside shots, he continued to work hard in the gym. He even put in extra time aside from the team’s regularly-scheduled practices. He would either stay at the gym late or go in early to get in a few more shots, and it has been paying off.
“I’ve got back to putting up shots that emphasize what’s going to be given in the game,” Taylor said.
He’s been playing with more consistency compared to the rough beginning of the season. In the Utes’ first game, he scored only three points and was 0-of-9 from the field. Against San Diego State, he scored just two points.
Since then, his numbers have been going up. When Utah played against BYU last week, he scored 11 points, and although he only had four points against IPFW, he did dish out four assists to help spread the wealth.
“It’s really more about my decision-making that tends to be better,” Taylor said. “I couldn’t really tell you what was going wrong at the beginning of the year. It’s really a matter of getting the ball up with confidence and getting back to what I do best is really key to my improvement.”
Taylor, a senior in his final season at Utah, hopes to carry himself in a positive manner when the team steps out onto the court in Wichita and hopes that by doing this, he can set a standard that his team will follow.
“I just have to be as poised as possible,” Taylor said. “If they were going to go on a run, just me being a senior and having so much experience, I need to be as poised as possible and just be solid and take care of the ball.”
Last season against the Shockers, he was on the court nearly the entire contest, playing 41 minutes, and in doing so, he scored 17 points and recorded four assists. Taylor will be looking to continue this sort of dominance one more time on Saturday.
He’s not just focusing on offense, however. While he does want to have a good showing, he knows that defense is the main priority.
“It’s going to be another hectic environment,” Taylor said. “It’s going to be a great college atmosphere to be a part of, but we really have to be in control of the defense and what they’re doing.”
This week in practice, head coach Larry Krystkowiak has been readying his team to handle anyone who has the ball. Although Taylor found success from three-point range in last year’s slate with the Shockers, Krystkowiak hopes the entire team sees that those shots will be there all night for the taking. The one thing his team will need to realize, however, is when to take those shots and when to hold off.
“They’ve got some good players, they’ve got some big guys,” Krystkowiak said. “They got dilemmas for us for positions one through five.”
But in the end, Taylor is sure the Utes will be able to amp up the pressure on defense.
“Guarding the ball and the three-point line — that’s what we’ve been stressing,” Taylor said. “That’s what we’ve been capitalizing and working on, defense and execution.”
@kbrenneisen