Friday, March 29, 2024

Taylor slowly battles back from injury

January 8, 2001
MSU sophomore forward Jason Richardson drives to the hoop past Indiana forward Jeff Newton, center, Sunday at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. —

Bloomington, Ind. - It’s tough for any freshmen to come into the Big Ten and contribute right away, and injuries only make it more difficult.

For Freshman guard Marcus Taylor those expectations have been higher than most freshmen since the day he committed to MSU.

As a Lansing native, the hometown hero is averaging over 20 minutes a game as the Spartan’s backup point guard, but a broken ring-finger on his shooting hand (right) has slowed his progress.

“I’ve only been practicing for a week now, and I haven’t been playing the full time either,” he said after MSU’s 59-58 lost at Indiana. “It’s a little swollen, but this was the last game playing with tape on it.”

Taylor struggled in 24 minutes of play - scoring just two points, with two assists and four turnovers.

The finger was broken during the Kentucky game on Dec. 16 when his right hand was stepped on. He missed the next three games and was unable to practice with the team.

His first game back was against Penn State last Wednesday, where he tallied 11 points, three assists and three turnovers in 24 minutes.

“Marcus does what he does, and we all know what he can do,” said senior guard Charlie Bell. “It’s just going to take us a while to get use to him.”

Bell said Taylor’s absence from practice due to injury had nothing to do with the Spartans loss to the Hoosiers. He said Indiana did a great job of getting back on defense and filling the lanes to prevent any fast break opportunities.

Having Taylor play the point allows Bell to play at shooting guard, a position Bell said he feels more comfortable with.

Head coach Tom Izzo said he believes Taylor will be starting at the point further down the road this season. He said the injury took away valuable game time experience, adding it’s just a matter of time.

“He’s not ready to do what he can do yet,” he said. “He’s coming off an injury that he still has a heavily bandaged finger on.

“I think he’ll be starting soon to be honest with you.”

Taylor said he felt rusty the first few practices, but once he got into the Penn State game, things came naturally.

“I’m kind of getting back in the swing of things,” he said. “I think it’ll be another week before it’s 100 percent, but there comes a time when I’ve got to play through it.

“I got to a point where I got tired of sitting out practices and games. I felt like I was losing my edge.”

Taylor said he doesn’t feel much pain during the game unless someone bumps into his finger. He added that if he can help the team win, then a little pain is tolerable.

“If he keeps getting in there and working hard, learning the plays and running the team the way he can run it, I think we can be a very good team,” Bell said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen with the starting job, only time can tell.”

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