What Drives the ACC Defensive Player of the Year
Meredith Rieder, GoDuke The Magazine
This story originally appeared in the Championship March edition of GoDuke The Magazine
Celeste Taylor personifies a Swiss Army knife. She can do it all and she does it all at a high level. She is the engine, the quarterback and the heartbeat of the Blue Devil program. You could go on and on with metaphors to describe the senior guard’s importance to Duke women’s basketball, but you would never be able to capture all she means to the program.
“Celeste is everything for us,” said Duke coach Kara Lawson. “She’s a great leader. She organizes us on offense and defense. She knows how to play every position on the floor, offensively and defensively. She just communicates out there well. She’s a great all-around guard and I sure am happy she’s here at Duke and I get a chance to coach her.”
ACC Defensive Players of the Year
from Duke
Celeste Taylor: 2023
Lexie Brown: 2018
Elizabeth Williams: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Chante Black: 2008
Lindsey Harding: 2006, 2007
As much as Lawson and the Blue Devils love having Taylor on their side, the opposite is equally as true for opponents. Taylor is the person competitors dread going up against because regardless of how well she is playing, they know she’s going to make their lives very difficult for 40 minutes. There are no plays off when Taylor is on the floor and that’s just how she wants it.
“I’m gonna compete and they’re going to have a hard night,” said Taylor about what she wants her opponents to think. “Every night they come in the gym and they see they’re playing against me it’s going to be tough. They’re not going to get anything easy. They’re going to have to work. Even if they do score, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to take energy out of them to come back on the defensive end and then have to guard me. They’re going to have to work all game and they’re going to get the best from me every single time.”
She's a great leader. She organizes us on offense and defense. She knows how to play every position on the floor.Kara Lawson
Taylor certainly made her presence felt versus every opponent this season — whether it was a shooting guard, a point guard or a 6-3 post player. There is no mistaking when she is on the court the Blue Devils were at their best.
The Valley Stream, N.Y., native is the catalyst for Duke’s defense, which ranks second nationally in points allowed per game at 50.8, and eighth in field goal percentage defense (34.8). And before we forget, Taylor also leads the team in scoring at 11.5 points per game, is second in assists (72) and third in rebounding (4.6) entering the NCAA Tournament. Solid proof she does it all.
Those numbers, however, don’t even scratch the surface of the “Celeste” effect on the 13th-ranked Blue Devils. So, when it came time for ACC head coaches and the Blue Ribbon Panel to cast votes for the postseason awards, they resoundingly picked her as the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and All-ACC First Team.
Born in Queens, N.Y., Taylor’s basketball story doesn’t start with her parents handing her a basketball as soon as she could walk. She first remembers going to the park with her brother, Isaiah — two years her elder — and her dad. At the time she said she preferred to go play on the swings instead of playing basketball, but she was always exposed to basketball and other sports with her family.
She joined a summer league in the fourth grade coached by her mother, who played softball and volleyball in high school. Taylor laughs a little at those memories reflecting about how her mom “knew nothing about basketball.” After a few more years of playing in the recreational summer league, basketball became a larger part of Taylor’s life as she found an AAU team to play with. And the rest, as they say, is history.
A natural athlete, Taylor said the running and jumping came the easiest for her and that certainly helped set her apart from other players as she got older. Taylor’s athleticism still stands out when she’s on the court for the Blue Devils, but perhaps her biggest asset these days is her basketball IQ, her ability to see and read the game as it is happening at full speed.
Taylor credits much of her understanding about the Xs and Os of the game to her high school coach at Long Island Lutheran, where she spent six years playing after earning a spot on the team as a seventh grader.
“I didn’t become a film junkie until I was in high school,” Taylor said. “I give a lot of props to my high school coach because I think a lot of what he taught me is what helped build my IQ. He would use a whole bunch of basketball terms I had no clue about and just being in that system for five or six years and just learning — from flare screens to Iverson cuts, just small things he would teach us that helped a lot.”
Taylor, under the tutelage of Lawson and the rest of the Duke coaching staff, continues to elevate that IQ. The schemes are more sophisticated and there is a lot more that goes into creating a game plan of how to stop or slow down elite opponents and Taylor loves the challenge — especially on the defensive end — of making sure she’s doing her part to lead the Blue Devils to victory.
And she has risen to the challenge night in and night out throughout this season. When Duke traveled to take on then-No. 9 Notre Dame, Irish junior Maddy Westbeld was giving the Blue Devils fits. She had 15 points, eight of which came in the third quarter, and six rebounds as the Irish held a slight lead late in the third quarter. Taylor got put on the job and Westbeld cooled off and the Blue Devils came away with their first win in South Bend in program history.
“We couldn’t do anything with (Westbeld). We couldn’t guard her. We’re sitting in a timeout and we’re trying to figure out how to shut this kid’s water off. What do we do? We decide to put Celeste on her,” said Lawson. “I don’t know how many people would take their 5-9 guard and put her on a 6-3 player who is on fire and be able to have her impact felt. I’m not saying she shut her down, but you watch the film, she impacted her. So that’s kind of the story of Celeste for us.”
Taylor takes pride in her defense. One, she loves the one-on-one competitive aspect, but also she knows playing good defense means she will always have a spot on the floor.
“A lot of people think defense is a team thing,” Taylor said. “It is team (oriented) but at the end of the day if you can prevent your player from getting the ball or scoring, you’re helping your team out tremendously. For me, I always took that as a challenge. Oh, you want me to guard the best player on the other team, well I’m not gonna let them get the ball.
“(Defense) is what is going to get you on the floor no matter what. Knowing that I was good at that and I was going to take pride in that every time I stepped on the floor is honestly what has gotten me to play on USA Basketball three times, got me to play as a freshman in college. That’s what’s gotten me on the floor, so for me to just forget about it would be crazy because that’s what’s helped me throughout my whole career.”
Fiercely competitive — it’s written all over her face on every play — Taylor is driven by her love for her family. She is constantly working on her game before practice, after practice and watches film immediately after a game to see how to correct her mistakes.
Taylor is motivated by her family and the sacrifices her parents and her siblings made to get her to where she is today. She will be the first in her family to graduate from a four-year college and she knows her accomplishments are a direct reflection of their unwavering support.
“Nothing comes close to my family,” Taylor said. “Obviously my parents did whatever they could for me and my siblings growing up. Not only am I getting an education and a great education at that, but I’m playing a sport at a college. To think of that is something I couldn’t dream, and the fact that I have the opportunity to do that, how could I not go out there and give my best and work the hardest I can for them. I notice all the sacrifices they put in for me, so for me to not give that back — and I don’t think I can ever repay them for that — by doing the little things I know make them proud would just be crazy. It would be crazy for me to not give it all I have.”
A lot of people think defense is a team thing. It is team oriented but at the end of the day if you can prevent your player from getting the ball or scoring, you're helping your team out tremendously.Celeste Taylor
The combination of her work ethic with her explosive athleticism and “brain” has allowed Taylor to take her game to the next level this season. She plays both ends of the court at a high level and doesn’t always need the ball in her hands to impact a game. Simply having her on the court often is impact enough.
“Celeste is a consistent worker,” Lawson said. “She’s in the gym before practice, she’s in the gym after practice and she’s just worked on. The game is starting to slow down for her mentally and I think all of her game translates to the (WNBA). She still plays fast. She’s not slowing down. She’s seeing the game and making reads quicker. She just understands how to win.”
Taylor and the Blue Devils are excited to return to Cameron for one final set of games as they host the NCAA Tournament first and second rounds. While we can’t predict the future, you don’t need a crystal ball to know Taylor will be on the floor for Lawson doing everything she can to keep the season and her college career going for as long as possible.
“In a game when we need something done that’s going to change the game from us losing to winning, we put Celeste Taylor on the job,” Lawson said when asked about Taylor’s impact on a game. “I don’t know of a higher compliment you can give a player than that. If you’re in the heat of a game playing against an elite team and you need somebody to take control and get a hold of the game so they can turn that game from a loss to a win for you, if you want somebody to do that, if there’s an award for that, that’s Celeste Taylor. She’s a winner.”
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