ASHAUER: Blaine Taylor’s comments must be taken with grain of salt
Blaine Taylor’s iconic mustache may have been missing from the CAA Media Day, but his signature feistiness, or depending on your perspective, his bitterness, was on full display.
Ben Ashauer
Columnist
ANALYSIS/OPINION
Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter
Blaine Taylor’s iconic mustache may have been missing from CAA Media Day, but his signature feistiness – or depending on your perspective, his bitterness – was on full display.
The ODU men’s basketball head coach’s comments made it tough for a VCU fan not to take them with a grain of salt.
“You can’t value yourself based on the tournament,” said Taylor. “The Tournament can make rock stars out of average people … the tournament is not really the litmus test on whether your team is strong.”
Taylor didn’t specify whom his statements were directed towards, but it’s quite the coincidence that the biggest “rock star” of the CAA is currently VCU head coach Shaka Smart, a relatively unknown figure until the Rams’ wild run in this past year’s NCAA Tournament.
Taylor has never been one to hold his thoughts from the media. However, from his point of view, whatever he’s doing is working, adding that a program’s success should be based on attendance, consistency, competition in league play and getting to the postseason.
Apparently Taylor is all about the Monarchs making it to the NCAA Tournament, but when it comes to your success in it… eh, not a big deal.
Let’s not get confused: Taylor is one of the more respected coaches in college basketball. His style of gritty defense and rebounding is a lost art in this age of college basketball, and it has led to great success in the CAA, even against VCU.
It’s clear that his lack of success in the NCAA Tournament, though – the Monarchs have never made it past the second round – is on his mind. VCU hadn’t made it past the second round until this past year, but Smart made it all the way to the Final Four in just his second year as a coach. Taylor, on the other hand, hasn’t done so in his 10 years as ODU’s head coach. What’s more is that Smart is 34 years old, and Taylor is 53.
“(Taylor) is entitled to his opinion,” said Ed Nixon. He adds that the team “already has its doubters and doesn’t need much extra motivation” after the departure of four seniors.
However, it’s well known that Smart knows how to prepare his team, regardless of the situation. Just ask Nixon.
“Coach Smart is good at making it obvious to his team that we have a bullseye on our back,” Nixon said, “just because of who we are and what we’ve done.”
