TAELER DEER
CHANNELVIEW’S DEER WORKS HER WAY INTO A TOP PLAYER FOR TEXAS ST.
The Channelview grad works her way toward Texas State stardom.
Taeler Deer didn’t see the court much her first two years at Texas State.
The Channelview product averaged only 17 minutes per game as a freshman and made only nine starts as a sophomore.
But she bided her time, and her patience is paying off — for her and the Bobcats.
Deer, who torched Texas Tech for 44 points in the season opener, was honored earlier this month for reaching 1,000 career points, and her squad is on track to reach 20 wins for the first time in 10 years.
They were 12-7 overall, 5-3 in conference after Saturday’s loss to Louisiana.
“The best thing about Taeler here, to me — and I’ll say this forever — is Taeler Deer always wanted to be a Bobcat,” coach Zenarae Antoine said.
“Through all adversity in life, socially, academically and on the basketball floor, she wasn’t a young woman who was saying I want to quit, I want to transfer, or in my office complaining. She kept on going, kept plugging away, so she earned her minutes … and all the accolades she’s getting.”
‘A humbling experience’
The senior guard agrees — Texas State always felt like home.
She took one other official visit to Southern Mississippi but committed soon after seeing San Marcos, and she never wavered.
“I liked the coaches, the area and the people,” she said. “It was closer to home, and they made me feel welcome.”
That’s not to say riding the Bobcats’ bench was easy for a player who starred on varsity for four years in high school, averaging 18.6 points, 6.4 assists and 5.2 steals as a district MVP her senior year.
“It was a learning experience, and a humbling experience, coming from playing a lot of minutes my freshman year in high school, on varsity, all the way up to my senior year, to coming to college and learning, sitting on the bench and watching, trying to become a better player, and listening,” Deer said.
In other words, she wasn’t a Deer in the headlights.
She improved her scoring each year, from 7.4 ppg as a freshman, to 9.8 two years ago, 10.7 last season — which led the team — and 16.8 through 19 games this season, while also averaging a career-high 5.8 assists.
Antoine, a Katy native who was happy to sign another Houston-area player, isn’t surprised.
She recognized the “sauce” in Deer’s game when she first started recruiting her. It was only a matter of time until her flavor emerged.
“The toughest part was the training, actually, because I never trained that hard in high school, and managing my time, too,” Deer said of the college leap. “I wasn’t really used to doing all the things we do in college, because I didn’t do all that in high school, but it made me a better person in the end.”
Game of her life
A better baller, too. The 44 she dropped on Tech, on Nov. 12 in Lubbock, was the most ever scored against the Red Raiders in regulation.
The 5-5 guard went 17-of-27 from the field, and 5-of-9 from 3, against one of the Big 12’s tallest lineups, adding eight assists and five rebounds on a career night — the kind she dreamed of as a kid.
“I got to the point where I was like, ‘Geez, you’d think they would have a gameplan for her,’” Antoine said. “Because at one point that kid was hitting some shots that I thought, ‘You know what, if they’d made certain adjustments, it would have been really tough.’ But she found herself in a zone.”
That performance caught the attention of Debbie Antonelli, a highly regarded women’s basketball analyst, who called her a “ticket-selling player” afterward — an honor she reserves for the game’s elite.
But to Deer, she was just doing her job.
“I had a great offseason, working on my game,” she said. “The coaches told me before if I’m not scoring this game we’re not going to win …so I came in with an attack mentality, did what I had to do, and we won.”
Thrives on competition
Texas State celebrated Deer’s inspiring career before the South Alabama game on Jan. 4 at Strahan Coliseum, honoring her as the 16th player in program history with at least 1,000 points, and then she became only the program’s third player with 1,000 points and 300 assists during the contest.
She was at 1,159 points and 327 assists before Thursday’s game against Georgia Southern.
After the pregame recognition, Deer supplied 11 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in a 78-63 victory.
Deer also had 18 points and 11 assists in a 72-67 loss to Houston.
“She’s a kid who really enjoys playing against the best,” Antoine said.
Deer was a third-team Sun Belt Conference selection after starting 23 games as a junior.
She’s almost certainly a first-teamer this year.
“If you were going to draft a team and you told each coach you can only pick five, a lot of coaches would pick Taeler Deer,” Antoine said.
Of course, this life-long Bobcat isn’t motivated by individual accomplishments.
“We just want to win basketball games, win a championship — and try to get better every day,” Deer said.