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As Coach Joni Taylor takes over this fall as head coach of Texas A&M University women’s basketball team, we, like many Aggie fans, had questions: Who is the person taking over the legacy left behind by beloved Coach Gary Blair after his 19 year run with the team? Where did she come from? And what drives her passion? We sat down with her at Reed Arena, and we let her call the shots. Here’s some of what she shared with us.
IN: Welcome to Aggieland, Coach Taylor! What’s been your favorite part of Aggieland since moving here?
JT: The people — everybody is so genuine, so excited, so gracious, and so helpful. The people have been truly great.
IN: Having served as head coach at the University of Georgia for seven seasons, why did you choose to take the head coach position at Texas A&M?
JT: Georgia was absolutely wonderful, and it was going to be something really, really special to entice me to leave something that was already special. Texas A&M has always had that allure. Having talked to [Texas A&M Athletics Director] Ross [Bjork] and [Deputy Athletics Director] Kristen [Brown] and spending time with them, it was very clear that we were aligned in terms of my beliefs, my values, how I want to run a program, and making sure that women's basketball is at the forefront of what it is we're doing.
IN: You have some pretty big shoes to fill. How do you plan to continue the legacy of Coach Gary Blair?
JT: Well, No. 1, I told him, we have to have a standing date once a month to go eat so I can just pick his brain and get good nuggets from him. I’m trying to enhance what he's done. He was very, very successful here, and so it's stealing what you can from a legend [such as Coach Blair] and then putting your own twist to it. It's important to win championships — that's what we came here for, that's what we want to do.
IN: Approaching a new season, what is your biggest goal?
JT: To get better every day — that is it. A lot of people when you ask them what their goals are, it's to win a championship. But if you went to another team's locker room, they would have that same goal as well. So is it the goal or is it the process?We are about the process. Don't give me I want to win a championship —how are we going to do that? For us, it is getting better every day.
IN: What is your coaching philosophy?
JT: If we're talking straight basketball, it is to play hard, play together, and love each other well, and that shows up in our effort and how we defend. From a life standpoint, our motto is “where ladies become legends” and that's on the court and off the court. We obviously want to graduate, that's the No. 1 thing we want to do, but we also want to compete for championships, and we want to serve our community.
As a coach, my greatest achievement is to see a player come in as a freshman and watch their growth process. To see them walkout four or five years later, in most cases with two degrees, confident, a leader, and having represented themselves in a great way — that is what we're here for.
IN: This is not the first time you’ve taken over a position where a coach has had a lasting impact. What impacts have your mentors, like former University of Georgia's women’s basketball head coach Andy Landers, had on your coaching?
JT: I've been really fortunate in the basketball community to have had a lot of really good people whomI worked for that serve as mentors for me. When I think about just the impact Coach Landers had on me during the time that I was with him at Georgia — and this is somebody who did it for 36 years — when I got there, he was like, “Here, take the keys to the car and drive it.” That experience really prepared me for being a head coach — getting inside his basketball mind and his ability to recruit.
IN: How do you find players who will be the perfect fit for Texas A&M and for the team?
JT: It's really simple to find out if they can play at this level. You go watch a game and in the first three minutes, they need to be the best player on the floor, even if they're having a bad game. You shouldn't have to search for who is the best at this level. It's easy to identify the talent. After we've done that, then we start doing our homework on who they are as a person, because that's going to be the determining factor, whether they walk through those doors or not, not their talent.... They've got to be completely committed to the culture that we're trying to create, and understand what our non-negotiables are. That's how we have been successful, and that's how we're going to continue to build it.
IN: You have a pretty extensive background in basketball, how did your love of the game begin?
JT: My mom and dad both played. So we had a basketball goal in our backyard from when I can remember, and we would go out there and just play. I was the only girl in the neighborhood, so I was your usual tomboy playing with all the guys. I've just always, always been around it.
IN: How did you end up playing college ball at the University of Alabama?
JT: I'd been going to basketball camp there, probably eighth grade or ninth grade, so I was familiar with it. I knew I wanted to play in the SEC, being in Mississippi, Ole Miss and Mississippi State were there, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama was right there. I was just surrounded by the SEC and so I knew I wanted to go to the SEC. I just really believed in Coach [Rick] Moody and what he was doing.
IN: What is the biggest thing you took away from your time at Alabama as a student athlete?
JT: What I took away from it was being a student athlete, not just an athlete. My coaches saw something in me, and they pushed me to be a great basketball player, but they also pushed me to go speak in front of 5,000 people at a show, or to be apart of this leadership council, or to run for homecoming court. It gave me a holistic approach of everything that you can gain from your entire college experience, and it's a lot of who I am now as a coach in terms of making sure that when my players leave here, they're prepared for the next 40 years of their life. That's not just about basketball, that's academically, that's who they are as women, that's how they serve. That's putting themselves in a leadership position.
IN: You recently brought back gold from Argentina serving as head coach for the USA Basketball U18 team. What was that experience like?
JT: It was amazing. It was a lot of fun, challenging, but just a lot of great memories. It was really cool to get the gold and to know that your mission was accomplished. It's always something that you want to be a part of if you're a basketball coach, you want to be able to represent your country and serve in any way. To think that I would ever be asked to be the head coach was just a shocking moment, a humbling moment, and a moment of gratitude.
IN: Did you always know you were going to be a coach?
JT: Absolutely not — I was gonna be a high school counselor and be a Christian counselor on the weekend and that was it. That's what I wanted to do, and I jokingly say I still do that every day. My fifth year at Alabama, I was a student assistant in the men's basketball office. As the student assistant, I came in, answered the phones, or stuffed mail, and then they started using me more. I was going to dinner, talking to the parents, which is what I did as a player when we had hosted prospects, and that's when I caught the bug because I really had an inside look of what coaches do. In that office that year, it opened my eyes to the way you can truly have an impact on young people.
IN: How did you go about choosing a coaching staff for your first season in Aggieland?
JT: I didn't have to do a whole lot of picking because everybody followed us from Athens. We were very blessed that we had no turnover at Georgia, the staff that I hired from year one stayed all seven years, and all but one is here. I'm extremely fortunate and grateful that they believe in what it is that we're doing in our mission of changing lives and impacting lives and they came with us.
IN: Why would you encourage students and the community to come out this season?
JT: We need you. The 12th Man is as important as the team. It takes both of us to get it done.It's important for us to feel our fans' energy, and they won't be disappointed in what they see!
Read Howdy, Coach Joni Taylor! in Spanish here.
