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T.J. Taylor, who won third-team junior college All-America honors last season for Paris Junior College, will take his talents this fall to the University of North Texas at Denton. He announced Tuesday on his Twitter account that he will be play basketball for the Eagles. “I Terrance Taylor will be taking my talents to the University Of North Texas for my last 3 years of college basketball,” Taylor wrote. About 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, he added on Facebook: “North Texas Mean Green … Triple Blessed. Thank you Lord.” The 6-4 Taylor, who played high school basketball in Denison and was the MVP of the 2010 Texas High School Coaches All-Star Game, played with PJC last season after transferring from Oklahoma University. Even before his first game for Paris, he signed a letter-of-intent to play at Marquette, which is in Milwaukee, Wis. Taylor enrolled at the school this summer, but was granted a release and left the school in July. Tony Benford, who recruited Taylor for Marquette, is the new head basketball coach at North Texas, and he convinced Taylor to follow him to Denton. Taylor will have three years of eligibility remaining. Taylor averaged 14.1 points and 2.9 assists a game last season while leading them to the regular-season title of Region 14, a conference of 14 junior colleges in the eastern half of the state. “There is no question that if T.J. plays up to his potential, he can help them,” said Mike Kunstadt, the publisher of TexasHoops.com, a website that covers high school basketball and recruiting in the state. Read more: http://www.eparisextra.com/sports/2012/08/01/former-pjc-basketball-star-t-j-taylor-signs-with-university-of-north-texas/

I checked in with a few different people to see where T.J. Taylor, the former Oklahoma/Marquette guard, stands in terms of deciding where to continue his college career. Shelli Taylor, T.J.’s mother, said that he was not in town and didn’t give me much more than that. There is a sense from talking to other people close to the situation that Taylor will land somewhere in the next few days, and that UNT makes more sense than anywhere else. Taylor needs and wants to stay close to his home in Denison. UNT fits that need perfectly. It also doesn’t hurt that new UNT head coach Tony Benford recruited Taylor when he was at Marquette. I have mentioned this before, but Taylor would be a perfect fit at UNT, which could use another perimeter shooter to go along with Brandan Walton. UNT would like to see Jordan Williams take more of his shots inside the 3-point arc, Chris Jones and P.J. Hardwick are going to be handling the ball a lot and Clarke Overlander might not be quite ready to be on the floor for 20 minutes a game. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2012/07/tuesday-morning-t-j-taylor-update.html/

A prior relationship with Buzz Williams, as well as Williams’ track record with junior college players attracted Taylor to Marquette, where he said he was looking forward to proving people wrong playing the underdog role. But it didn’t last long. Just two weeks into his stay in Milwaukee, Taylor left the program. He couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday, but rumors have floated about the Texas native feeling home sick. A source also said Tony Benford, Taylor’s lead recruiter, leaving for North Texas’ head coaching position did not help matters. Taylor has enough talent to latch on elsewhere, perhaps closer to home (perhaps at North Texas with Benford). Regardless, Marquette now finds itself in a bind in the back court, a statement which would have been laughable two seasons ago. read more: http://painttouches.com/2012/07/19/what-t-j-taylors-departure-means-for-marquette/