Road to Duke
Vincent Caldwell Taylor was born September 11, 1960, in Lexington, Kentucky — the heart of basketball country, where the sport is closer to religion than recreation. He was the son of Vertner and Joan Taylor. His sister, Janet, would go on to become Dr. Janet Taylor, a prominent psychiatrist and television commentator.
Vince grew up watching University of Kentucky legends: Jack Givens, who scored 41 points in the 1978 national championship game, and James Lee, who started alongside Givens on that title team. But the real basketball education happened on the playgrounds — the Dirt Bowl, Castlewood Park, the court on Thomas Street in Aspendale. Those were the proving grounds where Lexington’s talent gathered. The playground regulars included Dirk Minnefield, who would play at Kentucky and in the NBA, and Melvin Turpin, the 6-11 center drafted sixth overall by Cleveland. Vince Taylor held his own against all of them.
At Tates Creek High School, Taylor played for Coach Nolan Barger, who drilled fundamentals and mental discipline into his players with a relentlessness that would serve Taylor for the rest of his life. Junior year: Tates Creek ranked number one in the state. Senior year, 1978: 29.3 PPG, 11.0 RPG, led the state in scoring, First Team All-State, McDonald’s All-American. The best player in a state that produces more basketball players per capita than almost anywhere in the country.
Every school wanted him. Kentucky wanted him — of course. He was a Lexington kid, a playground legend. Choosing the Wildcats would have been the easy path. Vince Taylor chose Duke. Coach Bill Foster had just taken the program to the national championship game. Taylor arrived in 1978, and two years later, Foster left and Mike Krzyzewski arrived. Taylor played for both — the coach who built the stage and the coach who would fill it with champions. He was there for the handoff. He stayed.
At Duke
Vince Taylor played four seasons at Duke and never missed a game. He played in 120 consecutive games — a Duke record at the time. He was the player who showed up. Every practice. Every game. Every film session. Four years without interruption.
Under Bill Foster, Duke won the ACC regular-season championship in 1979 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 1979 and 1980, including an Elite Eight run where they defeated Kentucky — Taylor’s hometown school, the program he had turned down. When Krzyzewski arrived in 1980, the program went through growing pains: 17–13 in 1980–81, an NIT appearance. Taylor could have transferred. He captained the team and led by example.
Senior year: 20.3 PPG — first in the ACC. Also led Duke in rebounds and steals. First-Team All-ACC. Honorable Mention All-American. One of only eight players in Duke history to win the ACC scoring title. 1,455 career points, top ten in Duke history. And he did it while earning a degree in economics and being named to the President’s List — awarded to only five percent of the student body. The best scorer in the ACC was also one of the best students on campus.
The Godfather Class that would transform Duke arrived in 1982, the year Taylor graduated. Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie, Jay Bilas, David Henderson. They inherited a program that Vince Taylor had helped keep alive during the transition. The Foundation era exists because players like Taylor didn’t quit when the new coach was still figuring it out.
After Duke
The New York Knicks selected Taylor 34th overall in 1982. One season at Madison Square Garden: 3.1 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 1.3 APG. Traded to Indiana, injured, and his American pro career was over.
But his basketball career was just beginning. Taylor moved to Europe and played thirteen years — Italy (1984–86), France (1986–92), Belgium (1992–97). Thirteen seasons in three countries, learning three basketball cultures, mastering the art of being a foreigner who earns respect through performance. In Belgium, his final two seasons, he served as player-assistant coach.
Then came the coaching career: assistant at Pittsburgh (1997–98), Wyoming (1998–99), then six seasons at Louisville under two legends — Denny Crum and Rick Pitino. Two seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves under Dwayne Casey (2005–07). Back to college at Minnesota under Tubby Smith (2007–13), then Texas Tech under Smith again (2013–16). When his Duke teammate Johnny Dawkins became head coach at UCF, Dawkins hired Taylor — the Brotherhood connection spanning thirty-five years. Seven seasons at UCF, helping build the program to its first at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
The list of coaches Taylor has worked under reads like a Hall of Fame roster: Krzyzewski, Pitino, Crum, Tubby Smith, Casey, Dawkins. Each taught him something different. He absorbed it all the way he absorbed Nolan Barger’s fundamentals at Tates Creek — quietly, completely, with the understanding that his job was to make everyone around him better.
Where Is He Now
In August 2025, Vince Taylor was hired as an assistant coach at Tennessee State University. Head coach Brian ‘Penny’ Collins called him an amazing human being: ‘Coach has always affected winning every place he has touched.’
Taylor is 64. Two children: Brendan and Maya. His sister Dr. Janet Taylor built a distinguished career in psychiatry and media. Joan and Vertner Taylor’s household in Lexington produced a McDonald’s All-American and a psychiatrist. The family delivered on every front.
Inducted into the Lexington African American Sports Hall of Fame. The boy from the Dirt Bowl and Castlewood Park, who watched Jack Givens from the bleachers, who was recruited by Kentucky and chose Duke, who played 120 consecutive games, who led the ACC in scoring while making the President’s List, who played one season at the Garden and thirteen in Europe, who coached under Krzyzewski and Pitino and Crum and Tubby Smith and Dawkins — is still coaching. Still teaching. Still showing up.
He was born in Lexington. His playground was the Dirt Bowl. His high school coach taught him fundamentals that lasted a lifetime. He chose Duke over Kentucky in 1978. He played for the last coach of old Duke and the first coach of new Duke. He never missed a game. He led the conference in scoring and graduated in the top five percent of his class. He played one year in New York and thirteen in Europe. He has coached under legends for a quarter century. He is sixty-four and still coaching, because that is what the Foundation era taught — you build something, you believe in it, and you never stop showing up. Vince Taylor has never stopped showing up.