Taylor King Leaves Villanova Basketball Team For Personal Reasons

Villanova has announced that forward Taylor King, who had been with the program after transferring from Duke, has voluntarily left the basketball team, though he will remain in school.

Villanova forward Taylor King (Huntington Beach, Cal./Santa Ana Mater Dei H.S.) has voluntarily withdrawn from the men’s basketball team. He plans to remain at Villanova to focus his efforts on completing his degree requirements.

King still has two years of eligibility remaining, but there are no plans as of yet.

This news differs from what ESPN reported earlier today, which is that Taylor left the team due to a violation of team rules. King was one of the two players benched during the first game of the NCAA Tournament for what coach Jay Wright referred to as a “teaching point.”

The Nova Blog is keeping a close eye on the situation and for them it’s nothing new. King has a history of off-the-court incidents and they think his latest transgression was the final straw. And maybe, this is what the program needs.

As I’ve been saying all along, the off the court issues need to stop. Too many players were getting into trouble at the end of last season, and it’s no secret that the team chemistry faded when it mattered most. In the end, the loss of King could be a good thing. While it does weaken the team’s rebounding ability, this will allow more minutes to be distributed amongst the sophomores and incoming freshmen. Also, hopefully the rest of the team realizes that basketball can be taken away from them just like that. If this can serve as a wake-up call, we may see a rejuvenated team next year.