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Justin Taylor spent the spring of his sophomore year surrounded by UVA and NBA players in a small, private school gym with no air conditioning. Years earlier, in the same gym, Taylor watched his sister, Ashley, work out in the same gym with the same trainer, Damin Altizer. When he was 12, Taylor decided to start training with Altizer himself.

Taylor couldn’t handle the “intense” training at first, he said. He finished his opening workout in tears. But eventually, Taylor “pushed through it,” knowing the work Ashley put in with Altizer launched her collegiate career.

“If he failed or things didn’t go well, he would come back to the gym the next day,” Altizer said. “(Both of them) had that same industriousness.”

Taylor’s work with Altizer led him to playing junior varsity basketball in seventh grade and varsity in ninth grade. He’s the next college athlete in the family — Ashley played at William & Mary while his mother, Kerri, and grandfather played at James Madison and Duke, respectively — having already showcased his confident shooting ability at SU this season. Kerri said long-range shooting, Taylor’s speciality, runs in the family, even though there was no 3-point line when she was at her peak.

Taylor always did what his older sibling did, Kerri said. Kerri coached Ashley on an AAU team, the Charlottesville Lightning, and Taylor tagged along for every practice, game and tournament.

“When he was 6, 7 or 8 watching how hard (Ashley) was working, that went a long way,” Kerri said.

Taylor played lacrosse more than basketball back then, but he said he became the team’s “mascot.” During timeouts and halftime, he worked on his game. When she was on the court, Taylor watched his sister from the bleachers or bench, “picking up basketball knowledge” from Ashley and her teammates.

“I learned from what they did, learned from their practices and their games,” Taylor said.

Ashley went on to play for St. Anne’s-Belfield School, a private school in Charlottesville, where Altizer coached and where both siblings trained throughout their childhood. Taylor had played for AAU teams in middle school while Ashley, who is five years older than him, starred for the Saints. Taylor would get dropped off at Ashley’s games after AAU practice, sticking around for the boy’s game as well.

“Watching her and then seeing the (boy’s team play) after, I could picture myself being out there when I was older,” Taylor said.

Taylor first played junior varsity at The Covenant School. Then, he joined St. Anne’s-Belfield as a freshman, getting pulled up to Altizer’s squad.

Taylor “could always really shoot it,” Altizer said, and displayed that as a freshman with 24 points in his first game. Taylor had five or more 3-pointers in seven out of 28 games that season. But Taylor was still mostly a spot-up shooter and didn’t have a lot of playing time. His confidence was still a year away from blooming.

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Altizer always attunes his training sessions to be very specific to each player. For Taylor, that meant making him more than a corner three specialist after his freshman year. Taylor transformed into a three-level scorer. He also learned more about decision-making with Altizer putting him in spots where his dribbling space was limited. The emphasis on what Altizer referred to as “micro skills,” improved his play.

He also grew from around 6-foot to 6-foot-3, Kerri said, readily equipped with a set of physical and strategic tools before his sophomore year.

“After (my freshman season), I just went to work harder than I ever worked before,” Taylor said. “The hours I put in with my trainer, just reps and reps made me more confident with myself and go out there and have full trust in myself no matter what.”

Between his freshman and sophomore year, Taylor made the decision to take an unconventional AAU path, sticking with a local team rather than opting for one on the Nike circuit, where most top players compete. He added to his confidence by being the go-to player on a smaller team, Team Loaded 434.

“He was willing to sacrifice ego and what everyone was doing because that was a part of his process and elevated his confidence to another level,” Altizer said.

Justin Taylor broke out his sophomore season and had top AAU teams looking to recruit him. Courtesy of Kerri Taylor

Taylor stopped “overthinking things,” Ashley said. He didn’t worry too much about his future as a college basketball player, an experience which Ashley went through as well.

“It gets harder when you get into the recruiting process because it’s more real and there’s more pressure there,” Ashley said.

Charlottesville, like Syracuse, is primarily known as a college basketball destination. But through his “breakout” sophomore year at St. Anne’s-Belfield, Taylor showed the UVA hub had high school talent as well. During a tournament in Washington D.C., against a team that ranked top-25 nationally, Taylor had over 20 points at halftime, routinely hitting NBA-range 3s.

“Doing that his sophomore year at that time against a team that was that talented, he kind of burst onto the scene,” Altizer said.

From there, Taylor’s basketball career took off. His play with Team Loaded 434 and sophomore year at St. Anne’s-Belfield had some of the top AAU teams “begging him to come play,” and eventually college programs noticed him in events like Peach Jam.

The recruiting journey was another familiarity for Taylor, having seen Ashley’s process. Ashley said basketball came a lot more naturally to Taylor, but seeing the amount of work she had to put in rubbed off on him, eventually becoming a four-star recruit.

Once Ashley arrived at William & Mary, she learned a valuable lesson, realizing every single collegiate player was the best player at their respective high schools. She didn’t receive much playing time over her four seasons, which Taylor dealt with briefly at the beginning of the year.

Taylor confided with her about his lack of minutes. Ashley told him to stay ready for when his chance would come, and also reminded him basketball is not all that should define him as a freshman. Ashley works with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes organization at SU, which Taylor is also a part of.

Kerri said Taylor told her that he was the most confident he’s ever been in his basketball career heading into this season. After Judah Mintz, Taylor’s AAU teammate with Team Takeover, was ejected from Syracuse’s matchup against Bryant, SU needed Taylor to step up.

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Altizer said Taylor’s play at times has been no different than high school — he gets to his spots and helps on the boards. The pair worked on curling off screens for spot-up shots and other designs, before he came to SU over the summer.

And that work finally came to fruition on the possession following Mintz’s ejection. Taylor waited at the right wing, let the ball go into the paint and caught it before immediately going into his shooting motion. Taylor nailed the 3, foreshadowing a 25-point night in 26 minutes.

“I always just trust in myself with making that next shot,” Taylor said.

Published on January 15, 2023 at 10:41 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu