Texas A&M talented player will be unavailable for game at No. 17 Oklahoma, as confirmed by the Southeastern Conference’s mandatory availability report released the day before the game.
In Saturday’s victory over Texas, he briefly left the court in the second half to go to the locker room but returned after five minutes and finished the game with 13 points.
This will mark his first missed conference game in his career. Earlier this season, he missed a game against Houston Christian due to an injury he sustained the previous week against Purdue. That was the first game he had missed in his four years at Texas A&M.
“It wasn’t comfortable at all,” said head coach about his absence earlier this season. “We rely heavily on his talent, but his leadership is one of the best I’ve seen. Even practicing without him felt different.”
Taylor leads the Aggies with an average of 15.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game. He ranks third in the SEC for assists per game, third in free-throw percentage (90%), 15th in points per game, and eighth in 3-point percentage (33.7%).
With Taylor out, transfer guard Zhuric Phelps (13.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.8 apg) and guard Manny Obaseki (7.4 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 1.2 apg) are expected to fill his role at point guard.
The 10th-ranked Aggies (12-2, 1-0) will face the Sooners (13-1, 0-1) at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center. Oklahoma has no players listed on their availability report.
Taylor is the first player to be ruled out in the SEC’s first year of mandatory injury reporting, which was implemented to address sports betting concerns. For men’s and women’s basketball, reports are issued the night before and approximately 90 minutes before tip-off for each conference game.
Over the past two seasons, Williams has largely refrained from providing injury updates on his players due to these same concerns.
“I think we all know why we’re doing it and so my opinion doesn’t matter,” Williams said of the new rules before the start of conference play. “We’re going to do exactly what we’re supposed to do.”
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