Friar Basketball

A Closer Look: Jacquil Taylor

jacquiltaylor

Throughout the 2013-14 season, Friarbasketball.com will take a closer look at a number of key Friar targets. Our staff will continue to provide in-person reports on the top Friar targets all season and share updates on prospects that have been previously featured. 

Prospect: Jacquil Taylor

Position: Power Forward

School: Beaver Country Day

AAU Program: Prodigy/Expressions Elite

Class: 2014

Overview:

Jacquil Taylor has been one of the most under the radar power forward prospects in the country. Very early in the season last year Jacquil suffered a quite severe foot injury which kept him out of most of the high school season and all of the AAU season.

Many of the high major programs backed off of Taylor after the injury, but the Friars and a few other programs maintained contact throughout the summer. He has been recently cleared for basketball activities, but his summer did not go to waste – he worked hard in the weight room adding 15 pounds of muscle.

Taylor is an extremely mobile big man who posesses nice athletic ability with a unique ability to get his hands on the ball to block shots. He also has a nice touch under the basket with some good low post moves.

This highlight video courtesy of HoopDreamsMagazine really shows off his low post moves and his shot blocking ability:

As Jacquil has recently resumed basketball activities high majors had begun going to see him at Beaver Country Day’s open gyms. He has decided on four schools and is planning to officially visit all four. Fortunately, the Friars are on his list.

What Others Are Saying:

ESPN says Taylor is “a young big man with tremendous long term potential thanks to his combination of size, length, and mobility. He runs the floor beautifully with long and fluid strides, is equally mobile laterally, and gets his hands on a ton of balls because of his ability to cover the court. The left-hander also has good touch around the rim, easy bounce, and a positive attitude.”

RIVALS says that Taylor “is skilled at rebounding, running the floor, blocking shots and improving at finishing in traffic, there has been a constant improvement in Taylor’s game.”

NERR  ranks Taylor as the 8th best player in New England in the class of 2014 despite missing just about all of last year.

SCOUT says that “at 6’9, and possessing a 7’2 wingspan Jacquil is a menace on the defensive end. Coaches love his shotblocking ability.”

The Competition:
Along with PC, Purdue, St. Joseph’s and North Caroling A & T (where his brother is currently a player) are in Taylor’s final four.

Bottom Line:
Providence has been recruiting Taylor for a long time and he has been to the Dunk to see PC play in person. They stayed in contact while he was recovering from his very severe injury. High majors were trying to get back into the picture this fall, but Taylor decided on his final four. PC should be in it to the end with Taylor, and hopefully Friar fans can soon start dreaming of a combo of Jacquil and Paschal Chukwu on the defensive end absolutely terrorizing opposing teams.

Mixtape Time:
Here are a couple of more mixtapes of Jacquil courtesy of Ballas TV:

And finally here is an interview that Adam Finkelstein did with him courtesy of Cox Sports:

651 Comments

  1. JACK O'HALLORAN

    September 30, 2013 at 12:35 am

    KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK I LOVE IT CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SEASON TO START GO FRIARS

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