CHICAGO — There isn’t a moment Glenn Taylor Jr. can point to.
There’s no turning point; nothing specifically happened that has led to his recent 180-degree turn from an afterthought to an integral two-way piece for St. John’s.
It’s more about a mindset. Nothing helpful, he told himself during down points in the season, would come out of being negative.
“I stayed in the gym when things weren’t going well, and I think that helped me out a lot,” Taylor recalled on Monday, as surging St. John’s prepared to face DePaul on Tuesday. “I feel like I found myself a lot this year, knowing I could go through adversity and stay positive. The last two years, I wouldn’t have taken it this way. I feel like I have grown as a person here.”
The 6-foot-6 Taylor, an Oregon State transfer from Las Vegas, began the year as a starter.
Once Big East play began and fellow wing RJ Luis got healthy, his role slowly decreased.
He didn’t get off the bench in a Jan. 2 win over Butler and averaged 10.3 minutes across a 12-game span from Jan. 12 to Feb. 21.
He was hesitant to shoot, not playing aggressively enough.
Taylor kept on working, kept on putting in late nights in the gym.
He had multiple talks with Rick Pitino about his role, conversations in which the Hall of Fame coach implored him to do more at both ends of the floor.
The team, Pitino said, needed his athleticism and defensive versatility. The potential was there.
In past years, Taylor would get down on himself when he struggled. He would mope.
That wasn’t an option this year.
Teammates encouraged him. So did the coaching staff led by Pitino, who Taylor specifically credited with keeping his spirits high even when he wasn’t getting many minutes.
“He just brings this positive [energy] to the court,” the junior said. “Just playing for a guy like that, you can’t get down.”
With everything going in the wrong direction for St. John’s, Taylor finally emerged.
In a 14-point upset of No. 10 Creighton on Feb. 25, Taylor was pivotal, grabbing 10 rebounds, adding four assists and playing lockdown defense on Big East Player of the Year candidate Baylor Scheierman.
Against Butler three days later, he sank five 3-pointers and scored a season-high 17 points. In those two wins, the Red Storm (18-12, 9-9) outscored the opposition by 46 points with Taylor on the floor.
Those two Quad 1 wins may have saved the Red Storm’s season.
In the least, they halted a skid that had seen the Johnnies lose eight of 10 games.
Entering Tuesday’s game against league doormat DePaul, St. John’s is in position to go dancing for the first time since 2019, firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
And Taylor has been a crucial part of this late-season awakening.
“I saw in the Creighton game that they weren’t really boxing out, so I was just trying to attack the boards a lot,” he said. “Against Butler, I just had open shots, and I took them. My teammates were finding me, and I knew that’s what we needed: just coming into games, letting the game come to me and seeing what is needed of me at that time to win.”
He added: “I’m just trying to not let anybody down on my team. I come in there, I try to bring it every day, bring it the most I can, do whatever we need in that time.”
Taylor believes the key for him of late is that he began focusing all of his energy on the present, not worrying about the past or the future.
That he stopped thinking too much about being perfect and concentrated on making the simple, winning play.
It could be an extra pass or sprinting back to play help defense. It has translated into his role expanding significantly.
“[This season] has been a roller coaster, but that’s how life is,” Taylor said. “It’s not going to be high all the time. The main thing is I was trying to keep confidence in myself.”
