Missy Taylor is a 6-foot-2 forward with guard skills, ranked as one of the
best players in the Indiana class of 2002. Already receiving a ton of mail,
email, and phone calls through her high school coach, Taylor is a hotly
recruited player nationally. Some of the schools in constant contact are
Purdue, Stanford, Iowa State, Indiana and Georgia. Taylor has made unofficial
visits to Purdue, Indiana and Notre Dame, and plans to take some official
visits next August before making a final college choice. Position may be a
factor in her recruitment. Both Stanford and Indiana are recruiting her as
a guard, while Purdue has indicated she would play at forward, most likely
on the wing. Through 15 games her junior season, Taylor is 18th in the state
in scoring with a 22.3 average, and also averages close to 11 rebounds,
three assists and three steals a game.
Missy will miss her senior season due to an ACL injury suffered in the first
scrimmage of the season.
During the summer of 2000, Taylor helped the Dayton Lady Stars 15-under
AAU squad win a national championship. The team went 9-0 during the
national tournament, and only lost three games the entire summer. Taylor
was second in scoring for the team with 12 points per game, and led the team
in rebounding with 10.2 per game.
Her junior year, Taylor increased her scoring and rebound averages to 14.7
points and eight rebounds, improving her free throw shooting to 68-percent,
and started to show development of her perimeter game. She was 18-of-52
(.346) in her first season with a role featuring the perimeter shot. The
Lady Spartans finished the season 17-6.
As a freshman, Taylor averaged 10.3 points and was second on the team in rebounds.
Her then career-high of 27 came against Muncie South. She shot 53-percent from the
field and 62-percent of her free thorws for the 25-2 Lady Spartans.
Missy Taylor announced her verbal commitment to the Boilers on October 12, 2001,
and signed with Purdue during the early signing period of November 2001.
11/20/01...With the official announcement today, Purdue has received all five expected
signings for the freshman class of 2002-2003. This confirms both Webb and Taylor have
signed, adding to confirmed signings late last week from Mays, Keys and Duncan.
A brief scouting report is posted below by Kristy Curry.
11/15/01...Blue Star has their newest rankings out. Missy Taylor is the highest
rated verballed Purdue recruit on the "seniors only" list, at #61. Others of interest
among the 100 listed...Sabrina Keys #66, Ashley Mays #73, and Sharika Webb #84.
11/03/01...Missy Taylor tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during
a scrimmage last week and later found out she will be out the entire season.
10/28/01...The latest Street & Smith all-american teams have been released. Players
of interest receiving honorable mention by the magazine include Camille Lenoir,
Carol Duncan, Sharika Webb, Missy Taylor, Ashley Mays, Reicina Russell, Katie Gearlds
and Amber Harris.
10/12/01...Missy Taylor canceled her visit to Indiana earlier in the week, but it
wasn't until Friday that the 6'3 all-american notified Kristy Curry of her decision.
9/24/01...School Sports has a list of the top 50 girls in the class of 2002 up. Taylor
is rated at No. 32.
9/22/01...Missy Taylor has been named to the Tremendous Twenty-Six by the Indiana High
School Basketball Guide.
9/18/01...Things are looking good with Connersville wing Missy Taylor after a weekend
official visit. Plenty of glowing comments in this article, which indicates she is now
down to just Purdue and Indiana. A decision is expected after she takes a scheduled
official visit to Indiana on October 13th.
8/13/01...After visiting Indiana and Xavier last week, Missy Taylor is no more closer to
making a decision than she was prior to last week. Taylor is taking another look at
everyone on her list -- a list that no longer just includes Purdue, Indiana and
Xavier -- and is talking about delaying a decision until September. Our featured story
on Missy Taylor is an authorized reprint of an August 10th story in the Connersville
News-Examiner. [MrHoops]
7/28/01...Missy Taylor and Katie Gearlds have both been named AAU All-Americans, following the
AAU 16-under national championships held in Orlando. Gearlds' team, Indiana's Finest, finished
in a four-way tie for 13th at nationals, while Taylor's Dayton Lady Hoopstars team finished
tied for 7th. Taylor is seeing major attention from Purdue, Stanford, Iowa State, Iowa,
Xavier, Vanderbilt, Indiana and Western Kentucky.
4/09/01...The Louisville Courier-Journal has released their 2001 Indiana all-state
teams. Sophomore Katie Gearlds and junior Missy Taylor were named second team all-state,
junior Sharika Webb made the third team, and Purdue-bound Carol Duncan and Ashley Mays
both made the honorable mention list.
2/25/01...Missy Taylor (Connersville, IN) - Season over. In the first game of the Southport
semistate, Connersville cruised past Castle 69-47. Taylor had a game-high 21 points in the
win. The win put Connersville in the finals against Class 4A No. 3 Ben Davis. Despite 22
points and five boards from Taylor, Ben Davis expanded a five point lead at halftime into
a 58-45 final victory. Connersville finished the season 19-5.
2/23/01...The lineup for the Southport semistate is set, and Connersville (19-4) will play
Castle (22-3) in the 11:45am game. The winner gets the Terre Haute South (22-1) vs. Ben
Davis (24-2) winner in the semistate championship game at 8:15pm. Missy Taylor scored 14
points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds in the regional championship game against North
Central.
2/21/01...Connersville plays tonight for a chance to advance to the Southport semistate this
Saturday. Their opponent, North Central (11-11), gets the advantage of playing the regional
final game on their home court. Connersville has already beaten North Central once this
season, an 11 point loss back in late December. Taylor comes into the game averaging 22.1
points, fresh off a 34 point outburst in the sectional final last Saturday.
2/06/01...Four top high school players unofficially visited for the Michigan game in Mackey
on Sunday. As expected, Missy Taylor (2002, 6'2, Connersville, IN) visited, joined by Katie
Gearlds (2003, 6'0, Beech Grove, IN) making her third unofficial visit to Purdue. Two new
prospects from Illinois, Lindsay Richards (2002, 5'8, Barrington, IL) and Blair Hardiek
(2003, 5'6, Effingham, IL), also visited.
1/28/01...No. 9 Connersville's 13-game winning streak ended in a 62-38 loss to Martinsville.
Missy Taylor had a game-high 10 rebounds in the loss.
1/23/01...Purdue will be receiving an unofficial visit on 2/4 from one of the top players in
the Indiana junior class. Missy Taylor, a 6'2 forward with guard skills, was originally going
to be on campus for this Sunday's Wisconsin game, but due to a schedule conflict had to
reschedule. Already receiving a ton of mail, email, and phone calls through her high school
coach, Taylor is a hotly recruited player. Some of the schools in constant contact are Purdue,
Stanford, Iowa State, Indiana and Georgia. This will be her second unofficial visit to Purdue.
Her first was taken with her father in December. She has also visited unofficially two other
schools -- Indiana and Notre Dame. Taylor has been invited to this summer's Nike All-American
Camp in Indianapolis (which we will again be scouting). Position may be a factor in her
recruitment. Both Stanford and Indiana are recruiting her as a guard, while Purdue has
indicated she would play at forward, most likely on the wing. Taylor is currently 18th in the
state in scoring with a 22.3 average, and also averages close to 11 rebounds, three assists
and three steals a game.
Scouting report by Kristy Curry..."Missy will give us size on the perimeter. She is very
versatile - she is a pure shooter and a great penetrator. Additionally, she is a great
competitor and a true winner." (11/19/01, Purdue SID)
Scouting report by Capri Small from the Nike Camp..."Despite her height, Missy played the
wing position and didn’t spend much time in the post. She handled the ball extremely well
with good dribbling skills, and her jump shot from 15 feet in was pretty much automatic.
Missy had a nose for the ball and always seemed to be in the middle of every play." (7/24/01)
Date Day Time Opponent
---- --- ---- --------------------
11/09/01 FRI 7:30P Mount Vernon
11/10/01 SAT 7:30P @ Indianapolis Arlington
11/16/01 FRI 7:30P North Central
11/20/01 TUE 8:00P @ Muncie South
11/24/01 SAT 7:30P Noblesville
11/28/01 WED 7:30P @ Brebeuf
12/04/01 TUE 7:30P @ New Castle
12/06/01 THR 8:00P Rushville
12/12/01 WED 7:30P @ Hamilton Southeastern
12/15/01 SAT 12:30P @ South Dearborn
Columbia City Tournament
12/29/01 SAT 10:00A TBA
Columbia City Tournament
01/05/02 SAT 12:30P @ Anderson Highland
01/08/02 TUE 8:00P @ Richmond
01/12/02 SAT 12:30P Jay County
01/18/02 FRI 8:00P Heritage Christian
01/19/02 SAT 8:00P Huntington North
01/24/02 THR 8:00P East Central
01/26/02 SAT 2:30P @ Shelbyville
01/29/02 TUE 7:30P @ Jennings County
02/05/02 TUE 6:00P Sectional @ Arlington
* Schedule subject to change.
As news organizations move their stories to an archive, some of the links listed above may become inactive
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![[Missy Taylor]](../icons/pics/mtaylor1.jpg){kind=icon}
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