Dedrique Taylor was in an expansive, almost exuberant, mood, his usual reserved, cool, clinical demeanor buried under an excitement usually seen at the end of the season – if then.
For that, you can thank two factors: his Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team has played in the last game of the Big West Tournament four of the past five years, and that, yet again, his fellow Big West coaches ignored this fact and did him another huge favor.
They picked the Titans to finish sixth in the preseason coaches’ poll.
“I love it. They’re so smart, they’re stupid,” he said, his voice rising in excitement with each letter. “You picked the program that has reached the finals of the Big West Conference Tournament four of the last five years sixth. … It’s par for the course, and I appreciate it. We’ll take it and keep on going. We’ll do what we do, and the rest of you can read about it when we’re still playing and you’re at home. It’s awesome.”
Speaking of “awesome,” Taylor has redefined what that word means in the big picture of Cal State Fullerton basketball. He enters his 11th season as the first coach in program history to put up back-to-back 20-win seasons and the only coach to take two CSF men’s teams to the NCAA Tournament, bringing the Titans to the 2018 and 2022 Big Dances. Along the way, the Titans lost in the finals of the 2019 and 2023 conference tournaments.
This, naturally, affects recruiting. Taylor attracted several players who enjoyed success at smaller programs. On the surface, there’s not a marquee ex-pat from the transfer portal coming in with the same impact E.J. Anosike brought to Fullerton two years ago. Then again, nobody at the outset of the 2021-22 season saw Anosike as the on-court game-changer he became.
“When you have success and experience success, you’re able to point back on why you’re able to have success,” Taylor said. “We’ve been able to have success the last five years and we can always revert back to that in recruiting. … We’re looking for not just talent, but guys who have high character. Guys who fit a certain type of character. The more we do it that way, the more our staff is able to identify those guys and go get them.
“When we get them, we reference quite a bit about our past, telling them, ‘This is why we won. This is why we lost. Now, how are you going to define your time here?’ ”
Definition is the key word here because there is what Taylor described as the theme of the 2023-24 Titans’ season. Can a team that saw its leading scorer – Latrell Wrightsell Jr. — take his 16.3 points, 2.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game to Alabama, define the moment? Or will the moment define the Titans?
Wrightsell’s transfer hit Taylor like a 2-by-4 between the eyes, especially since the first-team All-Big West guard told Taylor two weeks earlier he was staying put. But Taylor refuses to let it define the Titans’ season going forward. He sees it as a defining moment in his program.
“Does it hurt? Yes, it hurts …,” Taylor said. “But my thought is that this is a trend moving forward, and let’s make the best of it.”
That’s Taylor, taking a page from his book and defining this moment in time. And when he’s not asking his players to define the moment, he’s asking them to do a simple thing. A simple thing relevant to their abilities and their skill sets, the success of which will define the Titans’ season.
“I’ve been on a rant for the last four weeks about doing your … job,” Taylor said, his voice again taking on an animated quality.
Taylor has created motivational signs with a big F and the CSUF logo that he says freshmen kind of get but seniors really understand.
“I love that. I appreciate that because our seniors have been here and understand what it means to do your … job.”
That starts with senior Tory San Antonio, who became only the second player in program history to be named Big West Defensive Player of the Year. In the conference tournament, San Antonio did his job so well that he nearly doubled his season scoring average, contributing a 14.3-point average in three games. Taylor said that sent San Antonio into this season with a confidence heretofore unseen in his CSF career.
It continues with senior guard Max Jones, who averaged 12.5 points per game last year, doing his job so well that he averaged 16.3 points over the last 11 games, providing a key offensive alternative to Wrightsell down the stretch. Those two will help define where the Titans are going this season.
“We’re not asking them to do anything other than what they’re capable of: but do their job and do it confidently,” Taylor said. “I think the growth with these two guys confidence-wise is they understand the tasks and they understand what their jobs are.”
Supplementing those two are returners John Mikey Square, Vincent Lee and Grayson Carper. Those three, whom Taylor called “the glue guys,” will play deeper, more involved roles than they did last year. Taylor said his expectations for those three are reasonable, given their skill sets and talent level. But their leash for making mistakes is shorter. Taylor and his staff have bought stock in that trio, and they now expect growth.
The rest of the Titans’ growth rests on how fast transfers Jalen Cooper, DJ Brewton, Zack Visentin and Beril Kabamba define their moments and adjust to doing their jobs in a new environment and with new demands.
The 6-foot-3 Brewton, who Taylor said “will dictate a lot of what happens to us as a team,” was an all-conference guard at Alcorn State, where he averaged 12 points per game. Cooper, a 6-6 forward, averaged 17.4 points and 8.7 rebounds at Palm Beach Atlantic. The 6-5 Kabamba averaged 28.6 points and 8.7 rebounds at Spring Hill College in Alabama. And the 6-9, 280-pound Visentin, who spent two seasons at Idaho State before transferring to Snow College last year, averaged 11.5 points and 6.6 rebounds for Snow.
How they adapt to the speed and rigors of Division I is important. But more important is how they adapt to, well, doing their new jobs.
“When they were at Division II, they were bigger, stronger and faster than everyone at that level,” Taylor said, largely referring to Cooper and Kabamba. “Now, what becomes their separator? I tell them to look to their right and look to their left and now everyone’s the same. Those physical things they possess are no longer attributes. Once they understand how to use their talent to become separators, they can be beneficial and productive to us going forward.”
Three freshmen: guard Antwan Robinson, 7-footer Kendrick De Luna and Keith Richard, who Taylor said is so athletic that he played in a state championship game on a Tuesday night, then went out and ran a 10.6-second 100-meter sprint on a partially fractured shin, will see time as well.
“We have the chance to be a really good ball club. Whether we do or don’t depends on how you are going to define the moment. Because those moments will happen,” Taylor said, sticking to his animated tone. “There are plenty of opportunities to define what those moments will look like. It’s up to you to define them.”