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Xzavier Taylor

There have been hundreds of articles about BU players over the years. There have been many great stories about players past trials and challenges. We have had many who have played great basketball and had great attitudes on and off the court. With all that I can't say I have thought of any players that were really my favorite??¦..the closest was maybe Dwayne Funches ??¦??¦but this was truly a great article about a young man who even with all the adversity really has his head on straight on and off the court??¦.

XT is definitely my favorite player??¦..and I'm guessing gets a huge round of applause when his name is announced Wednesday??¦??¦.

Great article Dave??¦..thanks
 
Loved the article. Like I have said before I think XT will develope into a really good player for Bradley and after reading this newstory it only reinforces my opinion of him. XT I take my hat off to you
 
BU has had an unfortunate history of our big men simply not developing...there were some exceptions such as Bayo, POB...

A few will recall David "Chainsaw" Winslow - who had a good freshman and a better sophomore season - then seemed to get worse every year,
the same happened to some degree with Xanthus Houston, Ben Coupet, Reggie Hall, and also to some degree with Anthony Thompson, NW, and even Jordan Prosser (scoring average and rebounding were good & peaked as a soph, then plummetted since)
We maybe need to bring in a "big man coach" if there is such a thing available at the mid-major level....
 
This decade we have also seen Zach Andrews, Matt Salley, and Will Egolf (despite 2 ACL reconstructions) develop into pretty good post players. And we have had a lot of undersized "4" players like Theron Wilson, Taylor Brown, Marcellus Sommerville, and now Tyshon Pickett who developed into quite productive, All MVC-type players. POB may have been the only NBA prospect, but what other MVC team has had an NBA post player?

I would like to see Xzavier Taylor develop into a top MVC "5", but I also think the need for another big man right now is not high on Bradley's priorities list right now.
IMO, we need;
#1) a reliable perimeter shooting guard- likely will need to come from juco unless we can land a Peyton Allen
#2) a bigger wing ("3") that can score from the perimeter- that can back up Barnes and eventually replace him (like a Jarmar Gulley type of player)
#3) another pure point guard who can shoot the ball to go along with Tramique Sutherland (prefer a freshman, but another juco will do)
#4) another big (a 4 or 5) who can play some minutes right away to help replace Tyshon Pickett and back up Xzavier Taylor next year
 
Carmichael developed tremendously in his four years from a 6 ppg scorer to a guy who got plenty of NBA interest...
Other examples of MVC big men who got better every year and who didn't stall out as freshmen or sophomores include
Echenique, Coleman, Tolliver, Eglseder, Tuttle, Mockevicius, Hall, Jordan Clarke, Adam Koch, Durley, Seck, Creekmore, Dinma, Cox, Clemente, Paul Miller, Stout, Schneidermann.
I know they weren't NBA-caliber but that wasn't my point - most of our recent big guys had better stats as frosh & soph than as juniors & seniors
 
tornado said:
BU has had an unfortunate history of our big men simply not developing...there were some exceptions such as Bayo, POB...

A few will recall David "Chainsaw" Winslow - who had a good freshman and a better sophomore season - then seemed to get worse every year,
the same happened to some degree with Xanthus Houston, Ben Coupet, Reggie Hall, and also to some degree with Anthony Thompson, NW, and even Jordan Prosser (scoring average and rebounding were good & peaked as a soph, then plummetted since)
We maybe need to bring in a "big man coach" if there is such a thing available at the mid-major level....
Click to expand...

Pretty much agree with your assessment. My changes would be ,Winslow didn't improve much but was better than any big we have this year,excluding the potential of XT. Houston, Hall, Thompson, Wells and Prosser not only didn't improve but they were not very good to start with. Maybe we need a big man coach but I'd rather have a coach that cold recruit big men who can play. We've not done a real good job of that IMO.
 
Guys....we already have a thread on post play:D......


The article is a great article about the kind of person XT is.........
 
LOVE BIG X............He just wants it! You can tell.


Get him the ball and let him work.

But, if we are talking the best Bigs to come through the valley, I cannot, I will not, leave Danny Moore of SMS out of the discussion.
 
What's amazing about X is that he has progressed into being a collegiate player after only playing b-ball for 4 years. It really does explain how he's really rough around the edges but does flash some potential. Other than the one half for Swopshire X has been the only freshman who has contributed anything. Hopefully he can gain some more muscle and go to a big man camp this summer that will further his development and be someone we can count on during the next 3 years.
 
DC, I think you will find Wichita has had a big man or two reach the pro ranks. There was one that managed to hang on for a few years in the NBA. He didn't amount to much at the pro level. I can't remember his name.

Who was the big man at center when X was there. He may have been a second center from Wichita to reach the pros.
 
LongTimeFan said:
DC, I think you will find Wichita has had a big man or two reach the pro ranks. There was one that managed to hang on for a few years in the NBA. He didn't amount to much at the pro level. I can't remember his name.

Who was the big man at center when X was there. He may have been a second center from Wichita to reach the pros.
Click to expand...

I was talking about the recent past, perhaps the last 10-15 years. But I am not sure who you are referring to.

Wichita State has not had a big man reach the NBA since Xavier McDaniel in 1986. McDaniel, Cliff Levingston, and Antoine Carr all made it to the NBA in the mid-1980's, and none of them were true post players.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/colleges.cgi?college=wichitast

In fact, Wichita State went almost 30 years without a single player making it to the NBA after those three until this season, when Toure Murry (NY Knicks) and Gal Mekal (Dallas) made NBA rosters. And the only Centers from Wichita State to make the NBA were Nate Bowman in 1967 and Gene Wiley in 1963.
 
but if you have to go so far back to the Antoine Carr or Greg Dreiling eras, then I think my point is pretty strong...
first that not many solid big men ever seem to land in the MVC..
then second - a large number of them (more specifically a lot of our big guys) even when they have promise have not developed year by year - often less productive as seniors than as freshmen and sophomores.
(Jordan Prosser was at one time a 4-Star and Top 3 rated in Illinois and got interest from Indiana, Illinois, & Kentucky)
 
fan said:
Perhaps Greg Dreilling? He was at WSU prior to transferring to Kansas.
Click to expand...

Yes, Greg Dreiling did spend time in the NBA. Maurice Evans is another former WSU player that transferred and finished his college career elsewhere (Texas), then went on to the NBA.
 
McDaniel and Livingston were two I was thinking about. I just can't think of the other player's name. You know what they say about growing old and memory.

I remember that guy must have been at least 6'10", overweight, and not the best practice habits. He lasted for a few years, usually on the bench, just because he was that big in an era of much smaller players. However, he never amounted to anything special. I seem to recall he might have played for the Clippers, it figures, at some point in time and seldom made it off the bench.

It was no big deal. I just had not realized the conversation was limited to the last 10 or 15 years.
 
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