Billy Taylor

Who is Billy Taylor?

Billy Taylor is an American college basketball coach and the former head men's basketball coach at Ball State University. He previously held the same position at Lehigh University.

He was the valedictorian at West Aurora High School in Aurora, Illinois, and was recruited by Digger Phelps to play at Notre Dame, though he played under John MacLeod. After spending three years working for Arthur Andersen and earning his CPA, he took an assistant coaching position under MacLeod at Notre Dame in 1998. One year later he followed former Lehigh head coach Fran McCaffery to UNC-Greensboro.

In 2002 he was offered the head coaching position at Lehigh, where he spearheaded an 11-game turnaround and would eventually lead Lehigh into its first NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament appearance since the Fran McCaffery era.

In his inaugural campaign, Taylor become the all-time winningest first-year coach in Lehigh history. Coach Taylor and the Mountain Hawks surprised many by winning 16 games, including eight in the Patriot League. Their eleven-game improvement over the year before was the second best in all of Division I.