Syracuse Transfer Taylor Returning Home With Dukes | James Madison University

Midway through his college basketball career, Justin Taylor was ready for a homecoming.

Now he’s got it, as the Charlottesville native and Syracuse transfer is heading to James Madison.

Taylor, a 6-foot-6 swingman who averaged five points and four rebounds for the Orange as a sophomore, spent the past three years away from family and friends after playing his senior year of high school at IMG Academy in Florida.

Prior to that, he was a standout at St. Anne’s-Belfield in Charlottesville, bursting onto the scene as a four-star recruit who chose Syracuse over North Carolina, Butler and others.

Once he finishes the semester at Syracuse, it’s back to Virginia for Taylor, including six weeks this summer working out with the Dukes.

“If I’m not in Harrisonburg, I’ll probably be in Charlottesville,” Taylor said. “It’s a lot easier than being in Syracuse. I can just go home when I want to and stuff like that. It will just make it easier for my family and friends that live in Charlottesville to come to games. In Syracuse, it’s been great while I’m here, but it was tough to get home. And just going back closer to home and having that familiarity, that will be nice.”

The familiarity is definitely there.

Taylor’s mother, Kerri, is a JMU graduate who also played basketball for the Dukes while his sister, Ashley, played against JMU several times while at William & Mary.

And while head coach Preston Spradlin and much of his coaching staff are new, the returning faces at JMU are all ones Taylor knows well.

Dukes rising junior post player Jerell Roberson was a teammate of Taylor’s with the Team Takeover AAU program and he’s known point guard Xavier Brown going back to their high school days.

Retaining assistant Calvin Baker from previous coach Mark Byinington’s staff also helped land Taylor after Baker tried to recruit him to JMU out of high school.

But Spradlin and the other coaches also made a quick impression.

“Having Calvin stay was helpful for sure,” Kerri Taylor said. “The whole staff is impressive and really easy to talk to and easy to get to know. They’ve been around each other. Obviously Calvin is new to those guys, but the rest of the staff has been together for a number of years, which I think speaks volumes.”

Meanwhile, Syracuse experienced significant turnover.

Former Orange head coach Jim Boeheim signed Taylor out of high school, but retired following his freshman season.

Assistant coach Gerry McNamara was Taylor’s primary recruiter, but recently left to become the head coach at Siena while fellow Central Virginian Maliq Brown also entered the transfer portal and is heading to Duke.

“With [McNamara] leaving, he was the main guy who recruited me, so when I found out he was leaving that played a part,” Taylor said. “Also just getting back to finding the right fit for me, getting back to my true position, being around a winning culture like JMU and being around the right guys. I already know a lot of guys that are at JMU, I’ve known them before I got to college. Being around the right culture and the right guys really played a part in the choice.”

Though Taylor started all 32 games as a sophomore, his second season at Syracuse came with challenges.

Injuries forced Brown to move from the power forward spot to center and, though undersized, Taylor slid to the four.

Despite playing significantly more minutes, Taylor’s scoring average went up by less than a point and his 3-point shooting suffered.

After hitting nearly 40 percent of his 3-pointers as a freshman he shot 30.1 percent from behind the arc in 2023-24.

The opportunity to play on the perimeter again was big for Taylor, but that could have as many places.

In the end JMU, had a unique attraction.

“I’d been to the campus a lot when I was younger,” Taylor said. “For football games and some basketball games. It’s kind of special just coming home and going to the same school my mom went to and continuing that whole legacy. Being close to home and around the right people is special to me. I’m 40 minutes from my house and my family and friends can come whenever they want. That’s special to me.”