Taylor reaches tourney by way of Brazil
After mission trip, Houstonian at 25 helps guide Utah St.
Anyone within an earshot inside Nationwide Arena on Friday might hear Portuguese spoken between Quinn Taylor and a few of his teammates.
For two players on Utah State’s basketball team, it is their first language. The senior Taylor picked it up during his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission in Brazil from 2013-15.
They consider it an effective way to communicate without tipping off the opponent.
“After living in the country for two years and trying to speak only in that language, you pick up on things pretty quick,” Taylor said.
Maybe it helps once again in the eighth seed’s NCAA Tournament first-round game against No. 9 seed Washington.
It’s Utah State’s first appearance in the Dance in eight years. Taylor, a Houston native and Langham Creek product, hopes to be part of the program’s first Tournament victory since 2001.
The abundance of local ties to March Madness means there is an abundance of rooting interests, but it’s easy to get behind Taylor, who has waited seven years for Friday.
Taylor used his redshirt season at Utah State immediately out of Langham Creek in 2012, and his mission — common in the LDS Church which has a substantial amount of members in Utah — started the following year in São Paulo.
In 2013, Utah State moved from the Western Athletic Conference to the Mountain West Conference. The Aggies would post 16, 14 and 17 wins before this year’s 28 victories, share of the regular-season conference crown and conference tournament trophy.
Taylor has contributed considerably to that success. He has started all 34 games in 2018-19, averaging eight points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
“I don’t think I’ve really thought about playing in the Tournament beforehand just because it had been out of reach,” Taylor said. “But during the year, we knew we had ourselves in position to be playing for it.”
Taylor’s mission work also makes for an interesting distinction he holds on the team as the oldest player.
He’s 25 and married. There are four players on the team who are married and two others who are engaged.
Aside from the fact that Portuguese is an optional language on this team, it’s an older group. Taylor said it makes for a closeknit group of players who each have similar experiences.
“It’s a little bit of a different dynamic than most college teams,” Taylor said.
Taylor still found his way to a court during those two years in Brazil. He said some athletes who go on these missions don’t touch a ball at all.
But mission trips are first and foremost about community service and dedicating life to others.
Langham Creek coach Charles Ament said that was Taylor to a tee in high school — always giving rides homes and picking people up. He wasn’t about being a star on the AAU circuit as much as he was about playing with friends like Danny Newsome, who ended up at Texas.
Taylor was on the 2011-12 Langham Creek team that set the school record for wins with 27. That was Taylor’s senior year, but Ament cites the center’s junior season as the one that put him on the radar.
Ament said Taylor’s faith has led him many places, but he still ended up where he wanted to be.
“To see him continue to be the same person and for his team to reach that moment and enjoy that success is exciting to see because it’s easy to pull for him and all the things he does for everybody else,” said Ament, who will be in Columbus, Ohio, for Friday’s game.
And Taylor hasn’t forgotten his Houston roots. He reached out to Ament, hoping he could attend Utah State’s NCAA opener.
“He still helps me out,” Taylor said of Ament. “What he taught me as a person and a player but also just as a human. Teaching me the right thing. It really helps you grow up. Coach Ament did a good job with that with us. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without that teaching and coaching from him.”