Bryce Taylor is more than a basketball player.
He is a student of the game.
“That is something that I take a lot of pride in,” Taylor said. “Growing up in a basketball family, my dad taught me to learn the game and watch things closely and I think that’s helped me ’cause now I consider myself a player who makes reads on different situations and is a step ahead of my opponent.”
Taylor, a senior on the Oregon men’s basketball team, enters this fall fresh and energized from a busy summer.
He passed on going through the NBA Draft process, instead focusing on improving and trying out for the USA’s Pan American team.
But this summer possessed a tie-in to the past, a chance to reconnect with old teammates and now, Pacific-10 Conference foes. He returned to Southern California this summer, and for the third and final time, played in the Say No Classic, an NCAA-approved summer league in Hollywood.
On an otherwise normal Saturday afternoon in July, Taylor, who was in town to visit family, joined Hank’s Franchise Boys, a team featuring Michael Roll and Lorenzo Mata from UCLA, and North Carolina’s Alex Stepheson.
This was the team’s last regular season game. Donning his team’s black jersey, the toned Taylor made it seem easy, attacking the basket and letting long distance shots fly for 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting on an all-black basketball court encased in a Nike-created tent.
Taylor took a fast break pass from Roll, hesitated along the left wing, then drove and banked in a floater. He took a no-look pass from Mata and hammered home a one-handed dunk. On the next possession, Taylor drove through a collection of defenders and flipped in a shot.
His family watched from the stands, along with Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo, former Bruins who are both tied to Taylor’s past and present.
Before Taylor was an Oregon Duck and Farmar wore UCLA blue and gold, the two formed a potent backcourt for Pump ‘n’ Run, an AAU team that in 2003 captured the attention of college coaches, NBA scouts and die-hard basketball fans.
Taylor realized then the talent of a Pump ‘n’ Run squad also featuring Nick Young, Jared Dudley, Mario Chalmers, Rico Tucker, Bryan Harvey, Stepheson, Mata and more. This team offered a glimpse of players who would leave an impact on the Pacific-10 Conference and college basketball across the country.
“It was kind of a special team really being that it was an AAU team and you usually you never know what you’re going to get with those teams,” Taylor said. “But for us, it was probably a lifelong memory that we put together that summer.”
Memorable team
In the summer of 2003, Pump ‘n’ Run traveled to Houston for its first tournament and in the opening game faced Houston Select, a squad led by Joseph Jones and Chamberlain Oguchi. Taylor’s team lost by two on a last second shot by Derek Roberts, but after losing a second game, Pump ‘n’ Run won out and earned the consolation title.
“That was the toughest game that we played all summer,” Oguchi said.
The next weekend, Pump ‘n’ Run visited Las Vegas for the Double Pump Easter Tournament. They didn’t place, but chemistry was building and after adding Mario Chalmers, prepared for the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions in North Carolina.
Pump ‘n’ Run was at LAX waiting to check in and in walked Dudley and Tucker, who left another AAU team, to join the squad coached by Rico Cabrera Jr. and Taylor’s father, Brian.
The AAU scene in 2003 featured a who’s who of future college talent. Joakim Noah, D.J. Augustin, Joey Dorsey, Darius Washington and Glen “Big Baby” Davis were some of the big names.
Pump ‘n’ Run, predicated on a strong backcourt, blew through the Bob Gibbons tournament into the final against one of the biggest and tallest frontlines in AAU history in the Atlanta Celtics, who had Dwight Howard, Randolph Morris and Josh Smith.
Farmar controlled the flow while either making three-pointers or setting up Taylor for wide open shots in a 94-86 win. Farmar racked up 20 points and four assists and earned tournament MVP honors.
Pump ‘n’ Run won the Best of Summer Tournament to complete the AAU season in July with an 85-69 semifinal win against the Celtics in a packed gym full of fans, college coaches and NBA scouts.
“That’s what you wait for especially at that age,” Farmar said. “You want to be playing against the people who have all the hype and who are really good. It gives you a good barometer to judge yourself on.”
Tough decisions
In the midst of AAU play, Farmar and Taylor had college choices to make. The two had bonded and talked about playing together in college, including the possibility of going to Florida as a package.
The two planned on going on a recruiting trip together to Gainesville, Fla., but Taylor’s father had a time conflict and couldn’t go so his son missed the trip and Farmar went alone. Farmar, who says he was intrigued by Florida but committed to UCLA soon after, drawn, he says by the challenge of rebuilding a program.
He tried talking his friend into staying in Los Angeles and Taylor, who had already verbally committed to Oregon, had been recruited by former UCLA coach Steve Lavin throughout high school.
Taylor was interested, but new UCLA coach Ben Howland went after Afflalo. And Taylor, who faced off against Afflalo several times in high school, considered Afflalo a rival and it soon became clear his home was in Eugene.
“Anywhere that (Afflalo) was going I didn’t really want to go at that time,” Taylor said. “Looking back on it, it’s something where seeing someone like him and Josh Shipp playing together – it probably could have worked out but when you’re young and in high school and you have this ego you’re not really looking at playing with your enemy in high school.”
Staying in Eugene
The choice to attend Oregon turned out to a wise one for Taylor, who after a trying sophomore season broke out during his junior year and is poised to become a go-to player his final year in Eugene.
That he’s here now involved a difficult decision he had to make at the end of his sophomore season. He hyperextended his right knee in a Feb. 6, 2006 practice and missed the rest of the season. Oguchi flourished in the Pac-10 Tournament and Taylor had a decision to make.
“I felt like that was pretty much the make or break point in my career where I could kind of take the easy way out and run home or just finish what I came here for,” Taylor said.
Obviously, he stayed. Taylor had little interest in sitting out a season as a transfer and says he wanted to use his sophomore year as a learning experience. He became a regular in the starting lineup and averaged 14.1 points and 4.6 rebounds last season.
The same player who had grabbed attention for his potential and hairdo was now getting attention for what he did on the court. The cerebral Taylor, who cut his hair off after his sophomore year, realizes the irony.
“I found myself as being more known for my hair than what I was doing on the basketball floor so I wanted to take all the extra attention away from myself and just focus on what I was doing and performing at a level where people would recognize me for what I did on the floor than my physical attributes or whatever,” he said.
Now, with Aaron Brooks in Houston, Taylor says he welcomes the additional ball handling and the responsibility of taking big shots in crunch time. His play has allowed him to consider his professional options after his career at Oregon is complete.
Farmar entered the NBA Draft after his sophomore year in 2006 and emerged a first-round pick, going No. 26 to the Lakers. The Detroit Pistons made Afflalo the 27th pick in last June’s draft.
Taylor had the option of testing the NBA Draft process last spring, but declined after talking with his father. He saw this off-season as another opportunity to workout and then continue improving his NBA
stock during his senior season.
Already three of his teammates from the 2003 Pump ‘n’ Run squad have been first round picks in the NBA Draft, including Farmar, Young and Dudley. Multiple 2008 NBA mock drafts have Taylor being selected, whether it’s in the mid-20s of the first round or high in the second.
“I’m confident that if I just continue to work and put in my extra time in the gym and take the necessary steps that I’ll be able to meet them at the next level,” Taylor said.
Farmar, who enters his second season with the Los Angeles Lakers this fall, says Taylor is capable, but a lot depends on how he plays during his senior season, in the NCAA Tournament and in workouts for NBA teams.
“I think he’s in a great position to have a great year and if that happens he can fulfill his dreams,” said Brian Taylor, a former professional basketball player in the ABA and NBA.
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