Notre Dame forward Elijah Taylor enters transfer portal
Five weeks after its season ended, Notre Dame men’s basketball has its first scholarship player in the transfer portal.
Sophomore forward Elijah Taylor entered his name in the portal Friday morning, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz. Taylor averaged 2.7 points in three games this season and missed the spring semester due to an academic issue. He has three years of eligibility remaining.
Taylor began the season as the primary backup center to Paul Atkinson Jr., but still outside Notre Dame’s seven-man rotation. His first appearance came in the Irish’s fourth game of the year when he scored two points in two minutes in a win over Chaminade. He played a season-high six minutes and scored four points in a Nov. 29 loss at Illinois and three minutes in a Dec. 3 loss to Boston College.
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He did not appear in any of Notre Dame’s next eight games, though, and did not travel with the team for a Jan. 8 game at Georgia Tech. Head coach Mike Brey said following a Jan. 12 win over Clemson that Taylor would not play the rest of the year as he sorted out his academics.
“He has some work to do academically,” Brey said. “We love him, we support him. He will be back.”
Taylor has instead chosen to explore other options. His departure leaves Notre Dame’s already thin frontcourt with junior-to-be Matt Zona and incoming four-star recruits Dom Campbell and Ven-Allen Lubin. Senior forward Nate Laszewski is going through the NBA Draft process and could return for a fifth season using the COVID-19 exemption. He has until June 1 to decide his next move.
The Irish are pursuing Wright State grad transfer forward Grant Basile, who visited April 23-24. A starting center remains the largest void on the roster without Atkinson, a Yale grad transfer who averaged 12.5 points per game this year. The Irish have already pulled one player from the portal this month in former Niagara guard Marcus Hammond, who committed Monday.
Taylor’s departure puts Notre Dame at 12 scholarship players, including Laszewski. Prior to Friday, Notre Dame was one of just 18 Division I programs without a scholarship player in the portal. Walk-on guard Elijah Morgan entered as a grad transfer April 15.
A Philadelphia native, Taylor (6-8, 242 pounds) was a three-star recruit in Notre Dame’s 2020 signing class. He committed to the Irish in September 2019 over finalists Florida, VCU and Seton Hall. He played at Imhotep Institute Charter School and led his team to a 2019 Pennsylvania Class 4A state championship. He was the school’s student body president as a senior. Ankle surgery sidelined him for all of 2020-21.
