Blaine Taylor (born January 14, 1958) is a former American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

coach most well known for being the head coach of the

Old Dominion Monarchs The Old Dominion Monarchs are composed of 18 college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams representing Old Dominion University, located in Norfolk, Virginia. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, s ...

men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team from 2001 until 2013. Taylor played as a

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

for the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana, United States. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. Fall 2024 saw total enrollment hit 10,811, marki ...

from 1979 to 1981. In 1981, he was recognized as the school's most outstanding male athlete and earned the Naseby Rhinehart Award as the Most Inspirational Player. Taylor later became an

assistant coach An athletic coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction, and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''Coach'' is that of a Coach (carriage), horse-drawn carriage, deriving ul ...

at Montana while a graduate student from 1981 to 1984 and again became an assistant to

Stew Morrill Stewart Morrill (born July 25, 1952) is an American college basketball coach and the former head coach of the Utah State University men's basketball team. Biography Morrill was an All-American at Ricks College and a two-time All-Big Sky sele ...

from 1986 to 1991. He was promoted to head coach of the

Grizzlies Grizzlies may refer to: *Grizzly bears Sports ; Sports teams named after the grizzly bear: United States: * Memphis Grizzlies, a National Basketball Association team in Memphis, Tennessee * Fresno Grizzlies, a Triple-A minor league baseball team b ...

in 1991 and led the team to two NCAA tournament appearances through 1998. Taylor became an assistant coach under former Grizzly coach Mike Montgomery at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

from 1998 to 2001. The

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

were invited to the NCAA tournament during every year of Taylor's tenure, reaching the Elite Eight in the

2001 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2001 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball for the 2000–01 NCAA Division I men's basketball season ...

. During his tenure at Old Dominion, Taylor has led the Monarchs to CAA Tournament championships in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and appearances in the NCAA tournament in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, and

. The Monarchs lost in their first NCAA tournament game on three of Taylor's trips, but broke through with a first round victory over Notre Dame in 2010 before losing to Baylor in the second round. Taylor also led the Monarchs to the

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

NIT semifinals, where the team lost to the

Michigan Wolverines The Michigan Wolverines comprise 29 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except wo ...

. The Monarchs also won the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. On February 5, 2013, Taylor was fired by Old Dominion in the middle of a 2–20 season. In the summer of 2016, it was announced that Taylor was hired by Russell Turner, head coach of

UC Irvine UC may refer to: Education In the United States * University of California system * University of Charleston, West Virginia * University of Chicago, Illinois * University of Cincinnati, Ohio * Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey (''defunct ...

as an assistant. The two had both worked as assistants at Stanford. After stepping down from UC Irvine to have ankle and knee replacement surgery, Taylor returned to Old Dominion to work as fundraiser for the university's athletic foundation.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Old Dominion profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Blaine 1958 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players College basketball announcers in the United States College men's basketball head coaches in the United States High school basketball coaches in the United States Montana Grizzlies basketball coaches Montana Grizzlies basketball players Old Dominion Monarchs men's basketball coaches Place of birth missing (living people) Point guards Stanford Cardinal men's basketball coaches UC Irvine Anteaters men's basketball coaches 20th-century American sportsmen