Celeste Taylor makes Indiana Fever opening night roster
COLUMBUS — Celeste Taylor started her college career at Texas. After two seasons in Austin, she made the move to Durham, North Carolina, and played two seasons at Duke. Then she exhausted her eligibility with one final season but as a graduate transfer at Ohio State in Columbus.
The 5-foot-11, two-way guard is well traveled.
She’s hoping to find a long-term home in the WNBA, though.
She took a big step Monday.
Taylor became one of 13 players to make the Indiana Fever’s opening night roster. What’s more, she’s one of only two rookies on the team. The other? Well, that’s Iowa phenom Caitlin Clark, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and this year’s No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft.
Indiana travels to Connecticut to play the Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Taylor joins fellow Ohio State alum Kelsey Mitchell on the Fever roster. Mitchell is going on her seventh season in the league. The 5-foot-8 guard, who ranks first in Buckeyes history with 3,402 career points, was picked No. 2 overall by the Fever in the 2018 draft. Mitchell has averaged north of 17 points per game each of the last four years.
A strong finish to the preseason helped Taylor earn a spot on the opening night roster. Along with Clark and second-year guard Grace Berger, Taylor jumpstarted a 22-8 Fever run that practically erased a 15-point deficit against the Atlanta Dream. In the process, Taylor pitched in six points, two of which came on a putback at the buzzer.
Indiana wound up completing the comeback win the second half of its preseason finale, and head coach Christie Sides was complimentary of Taylor in the postgame press conference.
“I really was impressed with Celeste,” Sides said. “She’s learning to be a good defender. I know some of her habits that were at Ohio State are different than how we want to play. So we’ve got to break those habits. We had a swing-swing, good-to-great, she nailed that three — that was great. She’s looking to crash [the glass]. And she communicates so well.
“So I was really impressed with her.”
Taylor’s college accomplishments speak for themselves.
She led the Big Ten with 2.5 steals per game last season. She also averaged double-digit points for the fourth time in her career, posting 10.1 points per game, not to mention her career-high 3.4 assists per contest as well as 4.1 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per outing. She shot a career-best 40.9% from the field and tied for the second-most 3-pointers on the team with 40.
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Although Taylor’s graduate campaign ended at the hands of Duke, her former team, in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32, her impact was still felt at Ohio State.
“Great kid. Really happy I had a chance to coach Celeste, and she’s got a bright future ahead for her,” Buckeyes head coach Kevin McGuff said of Taylor after the season-ending defeat. “She was really good in the program from a leadership standpoint, just bringing intensity every day.
“She got significantly better from start to finish. She added a lot to the season, for sure.”
Taylor notched at least five steals in four separate games at Ohio State last season, maxing out with seven thefts in a win at Penn State on Feb. 22.
She was part of the Buckeyes’ first outright Big Ten regular season title since 2009-10.
Finding a role in the WNBA and helping the Indiana Fever make the playoffs for the first time since 2016 would be another milestone in itself.
