Tag: Elijah Taylor

Former Rutgers recruiting target Elijah Taylor enters transfer portal

Former Rutgers basketball recruiting target, power forward Elijah Taylor, has officially entered the transfer portal

One of the top 50 power forwards and the No. 6 basketball prospect out of Pennsylvania from the class of 2020 is officially a free agent. Former Notre Dame Fighting Irish forward Elijah Taylor entered the transfer portal on Friday.

The Philadelphia, PA native is transferring out of Notre Dame after just one season with the Irish. His freshman season was shut down before it got started. Taylor underwent ankle surgery on December 11, 2020, and sat out the entire 2020-21 season through rehabilitations.

He saw game time in three contests in the 2021-2022 season, averaging under four minutes per contest and totaling eight points, two rebounds, and a block.

A three-star recruit in the 247Sports Composite, Taylor was noted as being a tough, aggressive guy who would can mix it up in the paint and add good athleticism to boot.

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Prior to committing to the Fighting Irish, Taylor received offers from Seton Hall, Florida, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Penn State, George Washington, and Rutgers. His first offer came from the Scarlet Knights.

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Academic issues caused him to not only not be able to play, but also to practice with the team this past season. Nevertheless, at the time, Taylor pledged to be back and get things worked out so he could continue his Irish career. He entered the portal a few days prior to the deadline for players to be able to transfer and play immediately in the fall.

Correction: Elijah Taylor hasn’t left Notre Dame basketball after all

We made a mistake in our reporting, and we apologize.

Earlier, we reported that Notre Dame forward Elijah Taylor was leaving the team after he sent out a tweet about his future. Taylor’s Twitter account has since gone private, but it turns out he’s not exactly gone permanently. Mike Brey clarified what was going on with him in his postgame news conference after the Irish’s win over Clemson:

So talk of Taylor’s demise as a Notre Dame basketball player has been exaggerated, and it’s another example of a news outlet jumping the gun before all the facts have come out. We always try to be right before we’re first and we typically are, but in this case, we failed to do that. Taylor never explicitly said he was done with Notre Dame for good, and nothing excuses our actions. We apologize for misleading anyone with this story, and we will work to be more vigilant when reporting news in the future.

Elijah Taylor no longer on Notre Dame roster

A little-used Irish forward is moving on.

Hours before Notre Dame tipped off its game against Clemson, sophomore forward Elijah Taylor made an announcement. Though perhaps the timing unexpected considering it’s the middle of the season, the announcement wasn’t very surprising. We learned that Taylor decided it was time to move on from being a Notre Dame basketball player:

Taylor, who hails from Philadelphia, had ankle surgery right before his freshman season and didn’t play at all. Although he was healthy to start this season, he never got much of an opportunity in Mike Brey’s short-rotation system. He scored eight points while playing a combined 12 minutes over three games: Nov. 23 against Chaminade during the Maui Invitational, Nov. 29 at Illinois and Dec. 3 at Boston College. He leaves the Irish without ever seeing game action at Purcell Pavilion.

While this surely is a disappointment for both Taylor and the Irish, let’s hope he finally gets a real opportunity somewhere. Best of luck to him in his future endeavors.

Notre Dame roster for 2021-22 season

Who will be hooping it up for the Irish this season?

It feels like college basketball remains far away, but Midnight Madness just happened, so it’s closer than you think. To that end, we should look at who makes up Notre Dame’s roster for the upcoming season. Many believe this is the team that can get the program out of the doldrums and back on track towards respectability. A major step in getting people to believe that would be the Irish’s first NCAA Tournament selection since 2017, which also was the last year they finished above .500 against ACC opponents.

This will be the 22nd iteration of the Irish with Mike Brey as coach. Despite having more wins than anyone in program history, he has two losing seasons in the past three and three losing conference records over the past four years. If he isn’t able to get this group to reach its full potential, questions about his future in South Bend certainly will arise. Here are the players who could determine where both Brey and the program headed going forward: