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Los Angeles • The lines were drawn early on the basketball court. There was the A team, a group of young prodigies who had talent and promise. And then there was the B team for kids like Brandon Taylor.
Taylor remembers, even then, when he first joined the rec ball All-Star team, how it chafed him to see his friends make the A team. The trend continued as a freshman in high school, when other freshmen at Pacific Hills School moved up to varsity as he stayed in JV.
It wasn't a huge letdown when he didn't have any Division I scholarship offers before his senior year began — it was just more of the same.
"There were doubts. There were definitely doubts," Taylor said. "I've been overlooked damn near my whole life."
The 5-foot-10 Utah junior can't be overlooked any longer. He's playing far too well.
Taylor is having his best season in a Utah uniform, and has only improved with conference play. He's scored one point fewer than Delon Wright in Pac-12 games, averaging 12.8 ppg, and he's shooting 53.2 percent from the field and 58.1 percent from 3-point range against league foes.
Try him on defense. He's a menace, a quick-footed, relentless competitor who will use every inch he's got to contest a shot or pluck out a steal.
"He's not going to be perfect, but pound-for-pound, I think he'd kick the snot out of everyone on this basketball court," Larry Krystkowiak said of Taylor after a recent game. "He brings it on a regular basis and he plays the right way defensively."
The point guard's rise is the result of years of perseverance. Years of hearing he wasn't tall enough or good enough to make the cut at the next level forged Taylor and made him tougher.
It wasn't as if no one believed. Ivan Barahona, Taylor's coach at Pacific Hills, saw him as an 8th grader. The kid wasn't polished, but he had instincts and clearly loved basketball.
"I thought if he would allow himself to be taught, maybe get out of a few bad habits, this kid could be a Division I player, maybe — just maybe — even an NBA player," Barahona said. "I thought if he could grow to 6-foot-1, 6-foot-2, maybe he could be special."
Taylor's game grew, painstakingly at first, as he worked his way into a supporting role, then became a starter as a junior. But his body didn't, not much anyway.
Others saw it as an obstacle. Taylor never did.
"He's probably one of the toughest kids mentally I've seen come through in 20 years," said Herman Nash, a Pacific Hills assistant coach. "He'll do whatever it takes to win. If he has to guard some guy who's a foot taller than him, he doesn't care. He's like, 'Coach, let me stick to him.' Most people wouldn't do that."
Taylor can't talk about perseverance without bringing up his grandmother, Catherine Taylor, who played a large role in raising him. She bought him his first basketball hoop, and he spent hours in her backyard shooting. She helped his parents make ends meet when he went to Pacific Hills, a tiny private school tucked in West Hollywood.
She taught him lessons, none more important than when he was coming off a big game. Stay humble, she said.
"She didn't let me ride the highs in life," Taylor said. "If I had a streak of successful games or whatever, she didn't let me get big-headed or whatever. She just kept me grounded, and made sure I got brought down to reality."
Taylor was a well-liked, well-rounded student in his high school, which enrolls only 150 students grades 6 through 12. Being in the small community enabled Taylor to know everyone by name. He earned straight As, former athletic director Steve Wysocki said, and he acted in plays. When he played El Gallo in a school production of "The Fantasticks," he made himself laugh as much as the audience.
But it took longer to get noticed by college basketball recruiters, who dismissed the smallest guy on the court. As a senior, he held offers from Wayne State and Vanguard University.
Utah assistant DeMarlo Slocum saw Taylor at a tournament, and was intrigued.
"I sat next to several guys who said he could never play in the Pac-12," Slocum said. "Then I saw him in a game, and he was probably still the smallest kid on the floor, but just a relentless attitude about everything he did. More than anything was probably his approach, just his will to drive his teammates and lead. That's hard to find nowadays."
Taylor went on that year to drive Pacific Hills to a state title, earning himself Division Player of the Year honors. Ask anyone from that run: It was Taylor's team.
The school has already retired Taylor's jersey, which hangs in Barahona's classroom as a reminder of what ironclad will can accomplish. No one wears No. 11 anymore.
Barahona remembers pushing Taylor's buttons, firing him up by telling him he wasn't playing pick-up at the park anymore. It would make the kid play harder. It would drive him.
Now, Taylor draws motivation from within more than ever. And the people who watched him take that journey aren't about to put a cap on how far he could still go.
"I think Brandon will surprise a lot of people through his career and as he tries to make it into the league," he said. "He has the heart of a lion — Bill Walton said that the other day on TV, and he does. In Brandon's mind, he's 7 feet tall. He doesn't let his size determine what he's going to do."
Twitter: @kylegoon —
Brandon Taylor at a glance
• Averaging 12.8 ppg, 4.1 apg in Pac-12 play
• Shooting 53.2 percent from floor, 58.1 percent from 3-point range in Pac-12 play
• Won a state title at Pacific Hills School (Los Angeles)
• Averaged 19.8 ppg, 7.5 apg while earning CIF Division 4 Player of the Year as a senior —
No. 11 Utah at USC
Galen Center, Los Angeles
Tipoff • 12:30 p.m. MT
TV • ESPNU
Radio • ESPN 700
Records • Utah 16-4, 6-2 Pac-12); USC (9-11, 1-7)
Series history • Utah leads 18-17
Last meeting • Jan. 2, 2015 at Utah; Utah 79, USC 55
About the Utes • Utah is coming off its first loss to an unranked team this season after falling at UCLA on Thursday. … The Utes have beaten five Pac-12 opponents, including the Trojans, by more than 20 points, but have yet to win by that margin on the road. … Senior guard Delon Wright has only failed to score in double digits twice three times this season, and has only had fewer than four assists in four games.
About the Trojans • USC struggles shooting more than any team in the Pac-12, ranking last in the conference in both field goal percentage (41.9 percent) and 3-point percentage (31.2 percent). … Sophomore Nikola Jovanovic has eclipsed his point total from last year (256), averaging a team-best 13.8 points per game. … The Trojans are coming off a 3OT loss to Colorado, 98-94, in which transfer Katin Reinhardt had a career-high 35 points including nine 3-pointers.