Men’s Basketball: Freshman Taylor plans on doing a lot of running

When watching Pitt’s next game, make sure you look closely.

Pitt grabs a defensive rebound, rebounder turns, outlet pass, dribble drive and dish — and it’s an easy transition point in the ideal world.

Odds are that freshman Dante Taylor will be the first one down the court — unless, of course, he’s the one grabbing the rebound. Then, he’ll be the second one down the court.

Either way, Taylor brings a high-octane game to the court.

Immediately after losing last year’s core of DeJuan Blair, Sam Young and Levance Fields, Pitt receives Taylor.

“He brings a lot of energy. He came in and got some key rebounds and blocked some shots,” Pitt forward Nasir Robinson said after last week’s 75-64 win in an exhibition game against Slippery Rock. “He’s good at running the floor from his position.”

Taylor had a game-high 27 points and nine rebounds against Slippery Rock last Saturday, which caught the eye of Pitt coach Jamie Dixon.

“Dante shot it well,” Dixon said. “He’s been doing a better job posting.”

Taylor aims to improve on posting up and becoming a reliable post player, but Pitt fans want more than that.

As the fifth McDonald’s all-American player in Pitt history — and the first since Bobby Martin and Brian Shorter in 1987 — fans expect Taylor to lead the team.

But Pitt fans should be patient. He is, after all, only a freshman.

“I still have to work and out-play guys to get into the lineup,” Taylor said.

As a native of Greenburgh, N.Y., Taylor said he was raised in a rough neighborhood.

“There was a lot of drugs, a lot of stuff you can get involved with that wasn’t positive,” Taylor said. “I just started hanging around with the wrong people, wasn’t going to class, stuff like that.”

He said the crowd with which he hung out pressured him to make bad decisions.

“At that age, I wasn’t really thinking about why I was doing it,” he said. “I was looking at it as having fun.”

Looking to get him out of that environment, his mother, Lisa Sharpe, pushed him to attend National Christian Academy in Maryland.

It was the same school that produced former Georgetown forward Patrick Ewing Jr. and current Oklahoma City Thunder guard Kevin Durant.

Taylor said that once he left New York, he realized how much trouble he had escaped at home.

“It changed me,” he said. “My friends saw it in me, and they tried to keep me on the right path every time I came home.”

Taylor said watching basketball on television made him believe he could be a basketball player, especially because he was the tallest player in his hometown area. He now stands at 6 feet 9 inches.

A certain role model in professional basketball grew his interest in the sport.

Taylor said he watched the way Kobe Bryant worked hard and never gave up on a possession, and that inspired him.

But it was a struggle getting used to life at NCA. He was away from his mom, and academics had a newfound importance in his life.

“Each year, I had to improve and get my grades better,” Taylor said. “Of course, being away from my mom was a big adjustment, but they took school work serious there. My coach always was checking up on my grades.”

It wasn’t hard for his coach, Trevor Brown, to keep tabs on him. The two lived in the same house. He stayed with Brown throughout the four years he attended NCA with Brown’s family and two other teammates.

It was frustrating, but if Taylor didn’t pass, he didn’t play. If he didn’t play, he couldn’t make something of basketball. If he couldn’t make something of basketball, well — Taylor never wants to answer that question.

Yet, it was a blessing. Not only was he out of his rugged hometown, but he had a mentor. Brown taught him how to take care of his body and how to work hard off the court.

“[Brown] was a big mentor,” Taylor said. “Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am right now, getting the opportunity to play in college.”

Taylor faced stiffer competition while playing at NCA. No longer did everyone’s smaller size allow him to dominate. He learned to out-work his opponent, sprint end-to-end and rebound better than them.

He showed off those same characteristics against Slippery Rock.

“I bring a lot of energy to the floor and in practice,” Taylor said.

Not bad for someone who claims he went from a “raw, chubby kid to a McDonald’s all-American.”

But it wasn’t all smiles when Taylor first arrived at Pitt.

“When I first got here, we did conditioning. I came in a little out of shape,” Taylor said, adding that Dixon worked him hard to get into shape.

But rebounding is Taylor’s strength, and it’s what Pitt will expect him to do.

Taylor can soar to the ball from a standstill, snatching the ball at its highest point with his long arms.

The tatoos on his arms, he said, remind him of what he left behind, who influenced him and where he must go.

His right wrist is a tribute to his mom.

“She means a lot to me. I talk to her a lot,” Taylor said.

His right forearm is a tribute to his grandfather.

“I never got to meet him. He died before I was born,” he said.

Then, two one-word tattoos say “dedication” and “sacrifice.”

One final tattoo — a basketball surrounded by a ribbon on his left forearm — reads something Taylor wants everyone in the Big East to remember: “Respect my hustle.”