Pitt Basketball: Taylor pays no attention to his advanced billing

Sunday, November 01, 2009

By Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Dante Taylor understands the hype surrounding him. He knows that he is the first McDonald's All-American to play for Pitt in the past 22 years, knows DeJuan Blair's giant-size center shoes will be tough to fill, and knows there is pressure to succeed and to succeed immediately.

Taylor knows all this, but that does not mean he is wringing his hands because of it. The easy-going Taylor is attempting to approach his freshman season as if he were just another run-of-the-mill recruit for the Panthers.

Today

• Game: Pitt vs. Slippery Rock in an exhibition game.

• When: 4 p.m.

• Where: Petersen Events Center.

"I try not to pay attention to it," said Taylor, the 6-foot-9 freshman from National Christian Academy in Maryland who is regarded as a consensus top-30 recruit by the recruiting rankings.

"I'm just a regular basketball player like everyone else. I'm just trying to work. I know nothing is going to be given to me."

Taylor, who turned down Kansas, Connecticut, Florida, Villanova, Georgetown and Memphis to play at Pitt, does not have the ego that usually goes along with being a highly touted recruit. That is part of the reason Dixon recruited him.

In addition to being a fine athlete who can help the team with his superior skills, Taylor is the kind of selfless player Dixon recruits, the kind of player who extracts just as much joy from passing the ball for the winning basket as making the winning basket.

The only difference with Taylor is the McDonald's All-American label, which he apparently could not care less about.

"He's going to be a very good player," Dixon said. "We recruited him because he's a good player, not because he's a McDonald's All-American. I don't know what being a McDonald's All-American entails. I don't know what the expectations are. I don't know what people are thinking.

The Big Macs

Freshman Dante Taylor is Pitt's fifth McDonald's All-American. A look at how the other four fared in their Pitt careers.

Charles Smith: Remains Pitt's all-time leading scorer with 2,045 points. Also the career leader in blocked shots (346) and second all-time in rebounds (987).

Jerome Lane: No. 22 on the all-time scoring list with 1,217 points in three seasons. Holds the single-season record for rebounds in a season (444) and is third on the all-time list (970).

Brian Shorter: No. 11 on the all-time scoring list with 1,633 points in three seasons. Holds the school single-season record for field-goal percentage (60 percent) and free throws made (204).

Bobby Martin: No. 17 on the all-time scoring list with 1,282 points. Finished his career with 775 rebounds and 109 blocked shots.

"I do know it probably won't be enough in his first game, but that's to be expected, I guess. He's handling it very well. He sets his own expectations. I don't think he relies on others to do that for him."

Taylor will be playing center at Pitt, which means he will be following in the footsteps of Blair, Aaron Gray and Chris Taft, three players who earned NBA contracts after their time at Pitt. Gray and Blair are in the NBA; Taft is not.

Each of those players had different stages of development. Blair, for instance, was a star in waiting and started the first game of his college career while Taft had to wait until midway through his freshman year to start. Gray, meanwhile, did not start until his junior year because he was Taft's backup.

Early indications are that Taylor is not as far along as Blair and Taft, but the opportunity is there for Taylor to play right away because of the team's circumstances.

Dixon has not named a starting lineup yet -- and likely will not until the Nov. 13 season opener -- but Taylor is in line to play significant minutes because junior Gary McGhee is the only other center on the team, and he has played sparingly his first two seasons.

"He's a great player, a great rebounder," sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs said of Taylor. "He runs the court very well. There is a lot of pressure being one of the first McDonald's All-American at Pitt in a while. But he's handled it well, and I'm looking forward to playing with him this year."

Taylor has had an eventful five months since graduating from high school. In June, he was invited to try out for the USA under-19 team Dixon coached this past summer. He was unceremoniously cut after reporting overweight and out of shape.

Taylor weighed 252 pounds at the Team USA camp after spending the previous weeks caring for his mother, who had spent some time in the hospital. Once he arrived in Pittsburgh, Taylor had to work his way into shape under the supervision of strength and conditioning coach Tim Beltz.

Today, he weighs 230 pounds and feels good about his conditioning level.

"I feel lighter on my feet," he said. "I can run up and down the floor and jump higher.

"I've spent the past couple of months in the weight room working with Tim on conditioning, getting prepared for the season. Now, in practice, we've doing a lot of transition, running up and down the court, so I feel like I'm in tremendous shape."

Taylor got off to a slow start in his first opportunity to impress fans in the Blue-Gold scrimmage Tuesday night when he was 1 for 7 from the field and scored three points with three rebounds. He will get another opportunity tonight when the Panthers play host to Slippery Rock in the first exhibition game at the Petersen Events Center.

"Dante has to do a better job of sealing and posting. He doesn't quite have that down yet," Dixon said. "But he'll continue to improve. I like where's he's at."

Ray Fittipaldo can be reached at rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1230.

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First published on November 1, 2009 at 12:00 am