College Basketball: Wisconsin Badgers' Jordan Taylor to Undergo Minor Surgery

Jordan Taylor, the rising senior point guard for Wisconsin Badgers, withdrew from the USA team tryouts for the World University games to have minor surgery on his ankle, according to uwbadgers.com.

“It’s the appropriate decision. While it’s hard to pass up an opportunity to play for your country, I had to do what’s best for my team, the Wisconsin Badgers. That’s the reality of it,’’ said Taylor, who should be healthy for the start of the season.

Taylor averaged 18.1 points and 4.7 assists per game as Wisconsin finished third in the Big Ten, behind Purdue and Ohio State.

Wisconsin needs to replace leading scorer and rebounder Jon Leuer, drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in this year's NBA draft.

The Badgers were defeated by the Butler Bulldogs in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament and will rely heavily on Taylor next season.

The 6’1” guard has had a busy summer in preparation, attending the Deron Williams skills academy and also Chris Paul’s elite point guard camp. Not only two of the best point guards in the NBA but they were both elite point guards in college, at Wake Forest (Paul) and Illinois (Williams).

Taylor could learn a lot from these two, especially Chris Paul who has a similar build.

"Chris is really hands-on," Taylor said. "He watched every workout and stepped in and gave pointers. He competed with us, too, and he didn't take it lightly on us. Real nice guy. Very helpful.”

"I wouldn't say he's one of the better athletes in the NBA; obviously he's quick" continued Taylor. "But he's not going to dunk on anybody, at least not anymore. But he's very skilled, and fun to learn from.”

Another guard who was at Chris Paul’s camp and declined his World University games tryout invite is Xavier’s Tu Holloway, who wants to concentrate on preparing for his senior season.

“Tu told me that his desire to be around his teammates this summer and lead takes precedence over an opportunity to represent our country. I cannot fault him for wanting to be at Xavier over the next month and a half as he prepares for his senior year,” said Xavier coach, Chris Mack.

Mack was was probably as happy as football players now the NFL lockout has ended, when Holloway withdrew his name from the 2011 NBA draft.

Just like Taylor, Holloway will be taking summer classes presumably so he can concentrate more on basketball once the season starts. Taylor is on track to graduate next spring.

“I really wanted to play for USA Basketball; there’s no greater honor than that,’’ Taylor said. “And I was looking forward to going head-to-head with Tu Holloway and (Syracuse’s) Scoop Jardine.”
    
“I got to know Tu and Scoop this summer in a couple of basketball camps. And I wanted to play against them (in the tryouts) and hopefully with them eventually (in the World University games)."

The World University games team will be coached by Purdue’s Matt Painter and is being held in Shenzen, China from August 13 to Aug 23. Training camp takes place from July 29 to August 7 by which time the remainder of the 22 players invited will be whittled down to 12.