University Southern California Trojans
Men's Basketball Adds Taylor To 2012 Recruiting Class
April 11, 2012 | Men's Basketball
April 11, 2012
The USC men's basketball program has added guard Brendyn Taylor of Fairfax High in Los Angeles to its 2012 recruiting class, it was announced today (April 11) by head coach Kevin O'Neill.
"Brendyn has a great upside," said O'Neill. "He is an athletic wing who's best days are ahead of him. He is going to be a major plus both on and off the court for USC."
Taylor, a 6-2, 170-pound combo guard, averaged 18.0 points, 3.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game at Fairfax. He missed most of his junior and part of his senior seasons after transfering to Fairfax from View Park Prep due to CIF transfer rules, yet still was ranked the No. 17 player in California by Cali High Sports. Taylor helped lead Fairfax to a 20-10 record and a fifth-place ranking in the Southern Section.
Taylor's father, Brian, played basketball at Princeton before moving on to play 10 years in the NBA and ABA and his brother, Bryce, played at Oregon.
Last November USC announced that it had signed NLIs from guard J.T. Terrell of Peninsula JC in Port Angeles, Washington and forward Strahinja Gavrilovic from Kragujevac, Serbia.
Terrell helped lead Peninsula College to the 2012 NWAACC semifinals and a 25-6 record, as he led the team with an average of 24.4 points per game. Terrell shot 47 percent from the field, 39 percent from three-point range and 79 percent from the free throw line and scored 30 or more points 12 times. Terrell began his career at Wake Forest, averaging 11.1 points per game during the 2010-11 season for the Deamon Deacons, second on the team and fifth among ACC freshmen.
Gavrilovic a 6-8, 220 forward from Serbia, came to the United States this fall to attend Rock Academy in San Diego, Calif., but did not compete. He is known to have a solid inside and outside game out to three-point range and honed those skills as a member of the Serbian U18 team at the European Championships. This year he was invited to participate on the U20 team. His father Zoran played professionally in Europe for more than a decade and is now the Secretary General of the Basketball Association in Serbia.
Next season, USC will also have the services of transfer forwards Ari Stewart and Eric Wise who practiced with USC during the 2011-12 season. Stewart was a teammate of Terrell's at Wake Forest and averaged 8.4 points as a sophomore for the Demon Deacons. Wise transferred to USC after his junior year at UC Irvine where he averaged 16.3 points. He left UC Irvine as the 11th-leading scorer and 15th-leading rebounder in school history.
