Billy Taylor (basketball)
Billy Taylor is an American college basketball coach and the current head men's basketball coach at Ball State University. He previously held the same position at Lehigh University.
He was the valedictorian at West Aurora High School in Aurora, Illinois, and was recruited by Digger Phelps to play at Notre Dame, though he played under John MacLeod. After spending three years working for Arthur Andersen and earning his CPA, he took an assistant coaching position under MacLeod at Notre Dame in 1998. One year later he followed former Lehigh head coach Fran McCaffery to UNC-Greensboro.
In 2002 he was offered the head coaching position at Lehigh, where he spearheaded an 11-game turnaround and would eventually lead Lehigh into its first NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament appearance since the Fran McCaffery era.
In his inaugural campaign, Taylor become the all-time winningest first-year coach in Lehigh history. Coach Taylor and the Mountain Hawks surprised many by winning 16 games, including eight in the Patriot League. Their eleven-game improvement over the year before was the second best in all of Division I. For his outstanding efforts, Taylor earned the 2002–03 Patriot League Coach of the Year honors in voting by the league coaches.
His 2004–05 team forfeited 14 games, because they played with an ineligible player.
In August 2007 he was offered and took the head coaching position at Ball State.
Read more about Billy Taylor (basketball): Head Coaching Record
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