Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor soaring on offense

IOWA CITY - The last time Jordan Taylor played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the Wisconsin junior had an easy layup slammed away by former Hawkeye Aaron Fuller, prompting Badgers Coach Bo Ryan into a technical when no foul was called. Iowa rallied to beat Wisconsin in overtime that day.

Two years later Taylor has become one of the nation's top point guards with very few faults. Taylor, a 6-foot-1 junior, averages 17.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists a game for the No. 13 Badgers. He notched a career-high 30 points in an 82-56 win against Michigan State on Sunday and earned some high praise from Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo.

“Jordan Taylor was unbelievable (Sunday),” Izzo said. “That's one of the great performances I've seen. He made nine shots and three 3s, and I thought every one of them was a tough shot. I know he's really improved his game, but that was another level. He just dominated the game.”

Taylor started half his team's games last year and led the Big Ten in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.03). He scored 10 points a game as the third option behind Trevon Hughes and Jason Bohannon. With those players gone, Taylor has become the Badgers' go-to player.

He's also becoming Bo Ryan's on-court leader.

“I will give him some things offensively that we want to run against certain teams because of what we see defensively,” Ryan said. “He absorbs it, he takes it in, he makes the calls in the huddles on the dead balls, and he makes the call coming out of the time outs. He's just a leader, and he is getting better.”

Iowa junior Bryce Cartwright, who likely will match up against Taylor in stretches, said Taylor has leadership virtues that don't often come out in a box score.

“When I see him play, I see that he doesn't really force anything except late at the clock,” Cartwright said. “That's pretty good."

“They have a good pace for the skill set that they have. They're pretty patient, like a Northwestern-type. We know that we have to guard for the whole shot clock and keep them off the boards if we want to be successful.”

Wisconsin - and Taylor individually - leads the nation in turnover-to-assist ratio. Taylor dishes 3.88 assists for every turnover - 101 assists; 26 turnovers - while the team clocks in at 1.78 assists per turnover. Taylor also ranks third in the Big Ten in free-throw percentage, seventh in assists and 10th in 3-point percentage.

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said Taylor has established himself as one of the nation's top point guards with his all-around play.

“He is really kind of an amazing player when you watch him,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “He's so strong, and he has an uncanny ability to make shots late in the clock and just knows exactly what they need late in the shot clock, late in the game. ... He just seems to have that incorrigible knack to know what his team needs at any particular point in time.

“He's got tremendous feel and whether he's moving with or without the ball he's always open. If he has the ball, he has great ball skills on the floor. So I think when you look at where their team is, with all due respect to the rest of the players that they have, that are tremendous, this guy is really I think has established himself, not only in our league, but nationally.”