Eric Taylor begins his 10th season as an assistant coach for head coach and former teammate Rob Krimmel in 2022-23.
Taylor, a dominant post player in his four seasons for the Red Flash was inducted into the 2022 Saint Francis University Athletics Hall of Fame.
Taylor helped Josh Nebo win NEC Defensive Player of the Year and Second Team All-Conference honors after he set the career and single-season blocks records in 2016-17.
Taylor also molded Ronnie Drinnon into an All-NEC first-team status as a senior in 2015-16. Drinnon also earned ECAC Second Team All-Star and NABC All-District selections. He was the first player since Taylor to average a double-double in a season.
Taylor guided Earl Brown and Ronnie Drinnon to impressive seasons in 2014-15. Brown was named All-NEC First Team, the first such selection for a Red Flash player in five years. Brown surpassed the 1,000-point barrier – and Taylor’s 1,287 career points – during the season. Taylor currently sits in 22nd place on the school’s all-time scoring list.
Brown and Drinnon each finished in the top-10 in the NEC in all rebounding categories, placing third and sixth, respectively, in total rebounds. Drinnon recorded a season-high 16 rebounds in Saint Francis’ upset victory at Rutgers in December. That was the same game that Brown scored his 1,000th point.
Taylor has helped guide the Flash to its resurgence over the past three seasons. The Red Flash has appeared in the CIT in three of the last four seasons and has qualified for the NEC Tournament in each of the last five seasons, reaching the semifinals in three.
A 1998 graduate of the University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Taylor wrapped up a 13-year professional playing career that included stops in 11 countries in 2011. In early 2002, he split time between the Sioux Falls Skyforce and the Kansas City Knights of the American Basketball Association. That April he helped Kansas City to an ABA title, his second championship as a pro.
In 2000, he contributed to a Dominican Republic Basketball League championship run with the Puerto Plata Marineros. Taylor spent four of his last five professional seasons in Germany, including a two-year stay with the Brose Baskets Sports Organization, with which he served as team captain.
Following his playing career, Taylor had worked with Activate Sports International, a sports agency and consulting firm based in Bonn, Germany, that helps international players play in the United States and American players play in Germany and worldwide.
“You don't need to look any further than the Saint Francis record book to know what Coach Taylor brings to the table and why I thought we needed him back in Loretto,” Krimmel said at time of Taylor’s hire. “Coach Taylor knows what it takes to have success in the game of basketball and in the game of life. He will be a great person for our players to learn from both on and off the court.”
Taylor stands as one of the greats in Saint Francis basketball history and still sits 20th all-time in the SFU record book in scoring and fourth all-time at SFU in rebounds behind Jim McClellan, Larry Lewis and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Maurice Stokes.
A three-time All-Northeast Conference selection with the Red Flash, Taylor remains the only player in school history to lead the Red Flash in rebounding in all four of his seasons (rebounding statistics were not kept until 1952-53 – Stokes’ sophomore season). Taylor, Earl Brown and Devin Sweetney are the only two Red Flash players in the last 16 seasons to lead SFU in scoring and rebounding in back-to-back seasons.
A product of Withrow High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, Taylor speaks five languages: English, Spanish, German, Polish and French.
