Taylor aces intro with flying colors
COLLEGE STATION — Joni Taylor had a question of her own for reporters Thursday — one immediately endearing her to Aggies across the land.
“I can’t believe they let you wear orange here. Is that allowed?” wondered Taylor, A&M’s new women’s basketball coach.
Informed a specific reporter’s shirt was a “light orange” rather than the burnt hue of rival Texas, Taylor grinned and allowed the inquiry.
Taylor, who had coached Georgia since 2015, was introduced Thursday as the retired Gary Blair’s replacement.
“When you come to College Station — and I’ve been on the opposing sideline — the atmosphere and the experience here is something I’ve always appreciated and admired,” Taylor said. “The history and the product that’s on the floor — it’s always something I’ve kept an eye on. … This was an opportunity I didn’t think I could pass up.
“The commitment to women’s basketball is clear, and it’s something I want to be a part of at the highest level.”
Blair, 76, led the Aggies to the 2011 national championship, five conference titles and 16 NCAA Tournament appearances in his 19 seasons at A&M. Taylor at Georgia succeeded Andy Landers, who led the Lady Bulldogs to five Final Fours over 36 seasons, including national title game losses in 1985 and 1996.
“It’s an honor that I’m in the position to be at an institution that had a legend, and I have an opportunity to follow behind and learn from and continue to enhance what was created here,” Taylor said. “That has been my experience — and that is what I (still) want to do.
“I want to be involved in a program that has that type of tradition and that type of history. The fact that I have an opportunity to replace a legend is a great thing.”
Taylor, 43, is married to Darius Taylor, an assistant general manager with the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA, and the couple have two young daughters.
“Darius has found his niche in terms of being in a front office. It’s something he really enjoys doing,” Taylor said when asked about her husband’s future. “It also allows us to balance our family really well. When my season ends, his season starts.”
Despite A&M basketball’s unprecedented overall success under Blair, Taylor inherits a program that finished 14-15 in 2022 and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005. A&M had made the tournament only twice before Blair’s arrival in 2003.
“Coach Taylor is going to do big things here,” said A&M guard McKinzie Green, a junior from Manvel. “She’s very straightforward and knows what she wants. She has ‘non-negotiables,’ and I like that.”
What is an example of a non-negotiable?
“Effort,” Green responded. Taylor was 140-75 over seven seasons at Georgia and made the NCAA Tournament four times in that span, including advancing to the second round the past two seasons.
A&M athletic director Ross Bjork declined to release specifics of Taylor’s contract, adding that it should receive A&M regents’ approval in May, but she’s expected to earn more than $1 million a year. She made $850,000 annually at Georgia, according to the Atlanta JournalConstitution.
“With coach Blair announcing his retirement last fall before the season, it allowed us to really study the landscape of college basketball,” Bjork said. “In the 2021 SEC tournament, we were the SEC (regular-season) champions, and we had to play Georgia, and that didn’t go so well. Georgia is 2-1 in the last three games against us. We had a front row seat (to Taylor). When I talked to coach Blair, he said, ‘You’re getting a great person.’ ”
Blair quietly took in Taylor’s introductory news conference from the back of the room at Reed Arena on Thursday, and he said Aggies will be pleased with Taylor in coming years — and not only because she doesn’t care for the color orange.
“In today’s world of the transfer portal and (name, image and likeness) and summer coaches and all of that, you better have the contacts, and you better have the (right) staff, but you also better do what I did first,” Blair said. “And that’s build a road around the university right here and then build it around the state of Texas. There are very good players in this state, and I always said if you give me Georgia and Texas, I’ll give you the other 48 states in recruiting.
“Those two states are loaded in recruiting. She already has the Georgia pipeline, and now she’ll (have) the Texas pipeline.”