Taylor Ready For Kansas

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.”