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IU basketball among six finalists for class of 2026 five-star center Ethan Taylor

  • 1h ago
 

IU basketball among six finalists for class of 2026 five-star center Ethan Taylor

Class of 2026 center Ethan Taylor is down to six schools and Indiana is among his finalists.

The six finalists for Taylor include Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon and Oklahoma. Taylor is a five-star prospect and the No. 22 player nationally according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

He plays at Link Academy in Branson, Missouri and played for MOKAN Elite on the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) circuit.

Taylor has set up the following official dates for this fall:

Oregon: Sept 5th-7th
Oklahoma: Sept 12th-14th
Indiana: Sept 19th-21st
Kansas: Sept 26th-28th
Michigan State: Oct 3rd-5th
Kentucky: Oct 10th-12th

Taylor landed a scholarship offer from the IU basketball staff in early May.

Here’s a scouting report on Taylor from Adam Finkelstein of 247Sports:

“Taylor is a rapidly improving big man with elite physical tools. Measuring at 7-feet with a 7-foot-3 wingspan and a solid frame that is only just beginning to fill-out, he has massive size. But he’s also a good athlete for his size who runs fluidly, gets off his feet powerfully, and even has some agility. He can spin-off contact in the post, rise-up for emphatic power dunks, and be a consistent lob threat. Still, there is room for more physical dominance as he continues to harness his conditioning in order to consistently keep up with the pace of an up-tempo game and learns to be more proactively physical in order to dominate the paint to the extent he’s capable of.

“Taylor also has pretty good hands and feet, but the most underrated part of his game is his passing. He can hit cutters from the post and is even starting to show some early flashes of being able to play out of short-rolls. He has a decent enough touch to make 68% of his free-throws, despite a release that tends to come out on the left side of his head with a flatter trajectory.

“Defensively, he’s going to be mostly a drop-coverage or “ice” style ball-screen defender, but moves well enough for his size that he should be able to hedge or maybe even occasionally switch at times. He has some big blocks, but could polish his timing and rotations in order to be a more dominant rim protector. Similarly, he’s a good area rebounder (7.4 per game), with the potential to be dominant if he fully asserts himself.

“Ultimately, Taylor may be the most physically gifted big man in the class. He’s already made rapid strides and as he continues to get more assertive and aggressive, his impact should only continue to grow.”

See More: Recruiting, Ethan Taylor