Shooting guard set to make decision Friday

Taylor is set to make his decision Friday.

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Thu Oct 08 18:01:03 GMT-04:00 2020

Clemson is in the mix for another big-time shooting guard.

Lucas Taylor is a 3-star prospect out of Wake Forest (NC) who will announce his college commitment Friday at 6:00 PM working with the Twitter site HighSchoolOT for live streaming. Taylor has narrowed his decision to Clemson, Marquette, Wisconsin, Davidson and Cincinnati. Taylor said he settled on those five due to the relationships he built with the head coaches.

“The relationships I have with those head coaches are big for me, just having that relationship with them because they’ll be the main ones putting you in and out of the game,” Taylor said. “And also, the fit where I could see myself coming in and having an opportunity to play right away at all those schools.”

Clemson’s coaching staff has been all-in on Taylor. Brad Brownell, Anthony Goins, Dick Bender and Antonio Reynolds-Dean have all at one time or another had extended conversations with Taylor.

“I’ve been dealing with Coach Brownell and Coach Goins, those two have been the main ones recruiting me, but I also talk to Coach Bender on a consistent basis and Coach Dean as well,” Taylor said. “With them, I like the way that I would have a lot of opportunities within their offense. In the half-court, they have some isolation situations, and some good stagger screens to come of off and get some easy buckets. And the relative distance to home is big for me as well. Also, I just feel like I really connected with their staff and built a strong relationship. And they have some guys from North Carolina. John Newman is from North Carolina, so I’m really familiar with him and he’s talked to me a lot before and being able to get more and more info on them has been great.”

Taylor has not taken a recruiting visit to Clemson but he has driven through the campus following an AAU event. But he’s learned a lot from the coaches and others and sees a program moving up nationally.

“I feel like they are definitley building something and trending in the right direction. They have some really good guys. PJ Hall, Lynn Kidd and O-Max (Olivier-Maxence Prosper), three really good bigs. Once I will come my freshman year, the main guy that would be in my spot would be John, that’s about it,” Taylor said of the potential scenario with Clemson. “They have a lot of great bigs to play off of, which I think is really intriguing. I’ve played against PJ before. He’s really, really good. And in my class, they have Josh Beadle and Ian (Schieffelin) committed which are really good guys to play off of from my position. That’s really intriguing. I feel like they are really trending in the right direction. They are getting better and better guys and Coach Brownell is really great coach. He has a lot of different things that he can do with them and with the better guys, it makes things a lot easier on them.”

Taylor averaged 21 points, 6 rebounds and two assists per game last season. He’s ranked as the No. 36 shooting guard prospect in the country in the 247Sports Composite, and the No. 7 prospect in North Carolina.

“Being a big guard, 6-6, also being able to handle it and score at all three levels, being really versatile are thre things they really like,” Taylor said. “I can come off screens, score in transition, handle it, get guys involved and see over the defense with my size, things like that.”