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One of the best defenders in collegiate basketball of the 2020s and a WNBA No. 15 overall draft pick is joining the Grand Canyon staff. Lopes head coach Winston Gandy announced Celeste Taylor (5'11''-PG-2001, college: Ohio St.) as assistant coach for the 2025-26 season. This hiring will reunite Gandy and Taylor in Phoenix after two seasons in Durham, where Gandy served head coach Kara Lawson’s staff at Duke from 2020-21 to 2022-23. Taylor starred for the Blue Devils and earned multiple accolades, including ACC Defensive Player of the Year, All-ACC Defensive Team and All-ACC first team in 2023. “This is his first time as a head coach and it’s at a program like GCU that’s definitely up-and-coming and growing and a beautiful university, but I’m definitely grateful for him giving me the opportunity,” Taylor told ESPN. “He wants to put the best people around him, so for him to look to me and believe in me, to be able to help him is a blessing.”Taylor’s collegiate play translated into a professional career in the WNBA in 2024. The 5-foot-11 guard was drafted in the second round by the Indiana Fever and appeared in five games before moving to the Connecticut Sun and Phoenix Mercury. In Phoenix, she made 15 appearances with averages of 3.5 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steals in 20 minutes per game. Taylor spent the offseason with the Sydney Flames of the WNBL, averaging 10.7 points, 3.4 boards, 3.0 assists and 1.8 steals per contest. Taylor made an immediate impact at Texas, where she spent her first two collegiate seasons. She was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team in 2020, averaging 9.3 points and 4.8 boards in Austin. She notched a career-high 12.3 points per game her next season at Texas en route to All-Big 12 honorable mention accolades. The move to Durham in 2021 elevated her play further, becoming one of the nation’s best defenders with multiple defensive accolades. In two seasons with Gandy as assistant turned associate head coach at Duke, Taylor averaged 11.2 points, 2.0 steals, 2.3 assists and 5.2 rebounds while helping lead Duke to a 26-7 record and a second-round berth in the NCAA Tournament. In her final game as a Blue Devil, she set a single-game program record with 10 steals against Colorado in the NCAA Tournament second round. Taylor transferred to Ohio State for her final year, helping lead a Buckeyes team to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with career-high averages of 3.4 assists, 2.5 steals and 0.9 blocks per game to go along with 10.1 points and 4.1 rebounds. Taylor was a coveted recruit out of New York, where she earned New York Gatorade Player of the Year her senior season and was selected to play in the 2019 McDonald’s All-American game and Jordan Brand Classic. Originally from Queens, Taylor represented the U.S. on three occasions, winning gold medals at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in 2017, the FIBA U17 World Cup in 2018 and the FIBA U19 World Cup in 2019.
Courtesy of: whoopdirt.com

NCAA1: Celeste Taylor named Women’s Basketball Assistant Coach at Grnad Canyon

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