The Taylor men’s basketball program looks to continue to improve as they head into the 2025-2026 basketball season after a 14-15 campaign last year.
Head coach Austin Peters enters his second season at the helm of the Trojan program. Last year, he led Taylor to a 14-15 season and a seventh-place finish in a tough and competitive Crossroads League. He’s looking to bring Taylor to a top-half finish in the Crossroads League for the first time since 2016-17.
Peters’ mindset on how to go about preparing for a tough conference is simple: take it one step at a time.
“We can look at the schedule as much as we want,” Peters said. “We can look at all of our opponents, or we can just say, Hey, we're just going to focus on today. And if we continue to stack days getting better, then we're going to look at the end of season and say, hey, we improved significantly, and we were able to accomplish something special.”
The Trojans return some key players from last year's team
Senior Chaz Harvey is one of those players expected to help lead the Trojans. Harvey was Taylor’s lone representative on the Preseason All Crossroads League team and was third on the team in points per game, averaging 12.1 points per game, and led the team in assists with 4.2 per game.
Harvey is looking to continue to improve and become more of a leader with this younger Taylor team. He credited his teammates for his success.
“My teammates are great, they have helped me with all that,” Harvey said. “I mean, they're the reason why I got first team ball conference, because I'm the one passing them the ball and they're the ones making their shot.”
Pete Combs and Nate Paarlberg are also big key returners for the Trojans.
Combs, a junior, averaged 7.0 PPG in 29 games last year. He led the Trojans in field goal percentage, shooting 60.6 percent from the field. He’s expected to play a big role offensively for the Trojans this year.
Paarlberg is a senior who averaged 8.5 PPG last year and grabbed 2.7 rebounds per game last season. He was in the top five in the Crossroads League in three-point shooting percentage, shooting 43.1 percent last season, and looks to continue that into this year.
Levin Smith is also primed for a big year for the Trojans. The 6-foot-11 sophomore played in 29 games, mainly off the bench, last year and averaged 2.4 PPG and brought down 1.9 RPG. He said that he’s looking to be a big presence inside the paint this year.
“There's a lot of good bigs in our conference, so being able to be a big defensive presence in the post as well, which kind of goes with blocking shots and just bringing a lot of energy to the team,” Smith said.
The Trojans will have to deal with two key losses, with Anton Webb and Kaden Fuhrmann. They were the top two scorers for Taylor last year, while Webb had a big impact on the glass, leading Taylor in rebounds. Their leadership was also a big part of the Trojans' last year.
To make up for those losses, the Trojans added five strong freshmen to their roster and two transfers as well. Even though it was a much younger team last year, Peters believes it will be an exciting group to watch.
The Trojans began their season on Thursday, Oct. 30, at Judson University in Elgin, Ill. Their home opener was on Monday, Nov. 3, against Oakland City. Taylor’s next home game is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 14, against Holy Cross in Odle Arena with a scheduled start of 7:00 p.m.
