TAYLOR PUTTING UP EXCELLENT NUMBERS FOR CHICAGO SKY
Although she only spent a year playing basketball at UofL, Sydney Taylor's numbers were significant as a Card and she is now having a rags-to-riches success story come to life in the WNBA.
Taylor is averaging 14.7 p.p.g. a game for the Chicago Sky. What's the back story on the 25 yr. old rookie in the league?
She spent her first four years of college at the University of Massachusetts, after helping high school team St. Joseph's (NY) to four straight CHSAA championships and a state title her senor year.
At UMass, she built a solid career. In her senior year, she was Atlantic 10 First Team All-Conference, scored over 1000 career points and put up 30 against Dayton. Her number were impressive but not quite WNBA type of numbers...so she took a fifth year of eligibility and came to Louisville.
She arrived with the Cards in April 2023, after a nice stint playing USA U23 basketball and going to places such as Chile, Mongolia and Canada. She also was named the GLOBL JAM MVP after hitting the game-winning three against Canada to win the gold medal for the USA.
That graduate year was very significant in Taylor's basketball development...in no small part because of the Cardinals coaches. She lead the squad in the 2023-24 season with 57 made threes and was second best i scoring with 10.8 p.p.g. She celebrated Paulie's birthday by scoring 31 points against Georgia Tech on Feb. 22nd., 2024. Walz, Norman, Pineda and Robinson knew they had lightning in a bottle
But, she went undrafted in the WNBA draft that year. She tried the Euro circuit. Spent time in Lithuania and won a championship in 2025, then went to MB Zaglebie Sosnowiec in Poland to start 2026.
She was playing ball in the EuroLeague in 2026 for that same Polish team but had not given up her WNBA dreams just yet. and wrangled an invitation to Chicago on a training camp contract.
"I'd been dreaming about it ever since early in my college career. I really believed it could happen, even when i was overseas and I was, like, I'm gonna get there."
In a preseason game with the Sky, she scored 21 points and made the Sky roster, as a spark off the bench. Her drive, desire and determination was paying off. She put up 27 in a loss to Toronto...then 30 in a loss to the Indiana Fever. It's was looking like she was "Taylor made" for the Sky.
"Sydney knows what she is capable of. She comes in, she wants to make an impact and she does that." Sky coach Tyler Marsh has said about her. "The gravity she holds as a scorer impacts itself even when she is not scoring. People now know what she is capable of doing, nd that in itself holds some weight when she is pout there."
Marsh moved her to the starting lineup on June 17.
She is now a highly touted candidate for rookie of the Year in the WNBA along with Olivia Miles (Minnesota) and Azzi Fudd (Dallas). Although everyone is ready to hand the award to Miles, never count out the girl from Long Island ,who overcame long odds to get to the WNBA.
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If anyone attended the Red & Black volleyball Scrimmage and would like to leave a synopsis or account of what you saw, please leave a comment in our comments section. All we can find out is that Black won, and that the players played on both teams. Thanks.
paulie
I was (I'm sure the surprise of no-one) at the Red&Black Scrimmage for volleyball yesterday. It was a great event as always.
ReplyDeleteThe teams were, at least initially, drawn up with the Black team being the likely starters, and the Red team being the likely reserves. The Black team being basically last season's starting lineup just with Blair Bultema (transfer from UK) in place of the graduated Cara Cresse. As great of a play Cresse was/is, Bultema is not a downgrade, should be fun to watch.
Black team did win all 4 sets, the first was kind of a beatdown (25-5), but I think a lot of that could be attributed to nerves on the largely first-timer Red squad with them settling down more for the later sets. They even managed to pull into a bit of a lead for some of the 4th set before the Black team mounted a comeback to win it.
Other than Bultema, the other player that was noticed some was Jordyn Gray (OH). While the Red team was a bit disjointed, particularly early, as mentioned, when the ball came her way she made good use of it.
They did shift some players back and forth between the teams between sets. With probably the most interesting switch-up was playing Payton Petersen at Libero for the 3rd and 4th sets on the Black team. The idea there being that she's a good defender, up to potential Libero levels, and shifting her to back-row-only would then probably put Chloe Meester in the second outside position. Meester has more height, which gives some benefits to blocking over Petersen, and also hits with a bit more power, though maybe a bit less refined at this point. My guess is we won't see this lineup in play for the most part, but it's an interesting option for Meske to have in his back pocket.
I'm looking forward to season opening (early, because of the First Serve Showcase) next week.
-- JMcA
We appreciate former Cardinal Couple writer and Volleyball guru Jeff McAdams giving us his take on the Red & Black scrimmage. In case you never met Jeff or knew who he was, when you see the guy charge out of the stands to the bottom row and lead the crowed in the C-A-R-D-S cheer, that's be Jeff.
ReplyDeletepaulie