New Aggies Coach Joni Taylor Has Dream of ‘Positionless Basketball’
Joni Taylor’s desire was the new women’s basketball coach at Texas A&M is to embrace the era of ‘positionless basketball.’ Taylor actually used the word “hybrid,” but the terms could be seen as interchangeable.
“We love to move players around, pieces around,” Taylor said. “So we look for players who can do multiple things. We want everybody, one through four, that can rebound it and push the basketball, push the pace. So those are things that we look for.”
But can the current personnel do what Taylor wants next season? It takes time to build a program in that sort of image and the Aggies, at least of this writing, aren’t losing much in terms of numbers.
But that doesn’t mean they’re not losing key players.
The Aggies are losing three of their top four scorers — guard Kayla Wells (16.0 points), guard Qadashah Hoppie (10.4 points) and forward Destiny Pitts (10.4 points). All three are out of eligibility and Hoppie is already working out toward impressing pro scouts. Regardless of whether they might have been a fit for Taylor’s philosophy, that’s nearly 30 points out the door.
That leaves Taylor with three full- or part-time starters for next season. Junior guard Jordan Nixon averaged 10 points and led the team with 119 assists. Junior center Sydnee Roby started half of last season’s games and averaged 6.0 points and 4.1 rebounds.
Aaliyah Patty is the wildcard. The forward averaged 6.4 points and 7.4 rebounds last season. She appears to have a year of eligibility left due to COVID-19, but it’s not clear if she’s made a decision to come back.
After that, Taylor has a wealth of players that Blair recruited, signed and developed, to varying degrees, that all have eligibility remaining.
The only other junior is guard McKinzie Green. From there, the Aggies have four sophomores — guard Kay Kay Green, forwards Sahara Jones and Maliyah Johnson, and center Kenyal Perry, who at 6-6 would be next season’s tallest player. Three freshmen are on the roster — guard Keslynn Oxendine, along with forwards Eriny Kindred and Jada Malone.
Taylor also has Blair’s three incoming recruits, all guards — Gia Cooke, Mya Petticord and Brianna McDaniel.
Unofficially, Taylor has two scholarships to work with. And, according to wbbblog.com, no Aggies are in the transfer portal as of this writing.
Nixon, Patty and Roby give Taylor about 22 points and 15 rebounds to work with next season. The rest of the roster started a combined 11 games (McKinzie Green, 4; Malone, 4; Jones, 2; and Kay Kay Green, 1).
Blair left Taylor a foundation. But he also left her a lot of undeveloped talent and questions about whether they can play the brand of basketball she wants to play.
Taylor says her brand of basketball isn’t all about points, either.
“So we want hybrid players who can do multiple things,” she said. “Obviously scoring the basketball is important but also defending at a high level is important because that's going to be the cornerstone of who we are.”
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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.