Taylor King leaves the Villanova team

Taylor King was once a McDonald's all-american at Mater Dei High School in Los Angeles, a 6'9" forward with unlimited range and a scholarship to play basketball at Duke.

Today, King is a regular college student at Villanova.

It began as a message board rumor this morning, and was later confirmed by both ESPN's Dana O'Neil and the Villanova athletic department. Taylor King, who transferred to Villanova in the spring of 2008 after playing as a freshman at Duke, has decided to leave the Villanova basketball team. He will remain at the university to finish up his graduation requirements, but will not play basketball. King has two years of eligibility left.

Taylor King has left the Villanova basketball team.
(photo credit: Zimbio)

You can search the Villanova message boards if you want to see the specific rumors, but what has officially been reported is that King violated team rules and, according to O'Neil's source, he has some "personal issues" to deal with.

It is debatable how much this loss will actually affect Villanova next season. King did average 7.5 ppg and 5.3 rpg last season, but his minutes decreased dramatically by season's end. Villanova head coach Jay Wright benched King for the final regular season game against West Virginia as a "teaching point", and King played sparingly in the Wildcat's three postseason games.

Villanova returns their anchor up front, senior Antonio Pena, but the Wildcats also have a lot of young talent along their front line. Mouphtaou Yarou and Isaiah Armword both showed flashes of potential as freshman and will benefit from more playing time as sophomores. Jay Wright also brings in freshman JayVaughn Pinkston, a 6'7" bruiser from Brooklyn, who should be able to contribute right away. While King's loss will hurt Villanova from a depth and experience perspective, King's preference to fire threes from 25 feet never really fit in with Wright's system.

Hopefully, King will graduate and find success in life without basketball.

While he may seem like a failure to some based on his lofty expectations coming out of high school, if all he has to show for his collegiate basketball career is a degree from Villanova, I think he made out pretty well.