STARKVILLE — For so many college basketball players, Senior Day is the end of how fans remember them.
That isn’t the case for Taylor Luczak. His story is just beginning.
The walk-on and co-captain will suit up for his final game at Humphrey Coliseum at 4 p.m. today (Fox Sports Net) when the Mississippi State University men’s basketball team takes on the University of Arkansas. Luczak hopes he and his teammates will get a chance to play because that will mean MSU has a comfortable lead late in the game.
“The coolest feeling in a game at Humphrey Coliseum is when all of us (walk-ons) walk to the scorer’s table to a standing ovation,” Luczak said.
Luczak was a high school teammate of former Brigham Young University standout and Sacramento Kings first-round draft pick Jimmer Fredette in Glen Falls, N.Y. He earned low-major Division I scholarship offers after averaging 11.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 3.1 blocked shots as a senior starter who helped his high school team earn league, sectional, and regional championships and a runner-up finish at the 2007 New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A state boys tournament.
Luczak decided to follow his dad’s new job opportunity to a part of the country he’d never experienced. A National Honor Society student in high school, Taylor accepted academic aid to MSU to be a walk-on on the men’s basketball team. Luczak’s father, Tony, who has run the university golf course since 2008, and moved the family 1,064 miles south.
Taylor said he doesn’t regret his decision.
“In my first couple of months in Starkville, I thought I needed a passport to just drive around anywhere,” Luczak said. “Looking back now, I would do it all over again because I got to experience so many cool things that so many others wish they could do.”
In his first season, Luczak was a part of the team that won four games in four days in Tampa, Fla., to earn MSU’s 10th NCAA tournament appearance.
“There’s no reason why that can’t be repeated again in my final year this season,” Luczak said. “We have the talent to certainly accomplish something like that.”
If getting to the NCAA tournament in his first season was the highlight of his time with the MSU men’s basketball team, the squad’s trip to Hawaii last season was one of the worst. On Christmas Eve, Luczak was caught in pictures as the player standing between MSU teammates
Renardo Sidney and Elgin Bailey while they were fighting. Luczak returned to his hotel room to find several text messages from friends and relatives who had seen him on national television.
“I got back and looked at my phone thinking, ‘What could’ve happened now? ‘ ” Luczak said. “I really didn’t think about how big a deal it was until the next day. You don’t realize it when you’re involved in trying to break it up.”
That year, Luczak walked into the office of the pre-law advisor at MSU wanting another challenge, and he got one when professor Whit Waide named Luczak president of the organization.
“Professor Waide is my mentor,” Luczak said. “He has believed in my ability since the first day I’ve known him. There’s not a lot of people like that today.”
Prior to the start of the 2011-12 season, MSU coach Rick Stansbury made Luczak a co-captain with senior guard Dee Bost.
“Who makes a walk-on, who never plays, a captain?” Luczak said. “That says everything you need to know about coach as a person. He thought I could provide some value even without playing much.”
Luczak will consider two options after he graduates from MSU. He has applied to law school at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., and he will attempt to be selected for the Rhodes Scholarship Program in Oxford, England.
“The thing about Taylor is he’s such a good kid, good teammate, has worked so hard, and is such a smart kid,” Stansbury said. “I’m talking about away from basketball. He’s going to do some great things.”
Luczak said his desire to be an attorney has decreased, but he said he would like to be a contractual litigator for constitutional documents as countries try to develop a democratic system of government.
“I found out very quickly that being lawyer isn’t at all what it’s like on television,” Luczak said. “That was a disappointment, but I still think I can use that background toward something positive to our world.”
Luczak has played for 49 minutes in 38 games in the past three seasons. Luczak and the other MSU walk-ons, who refer to themselves as the Gold Team on Twitter as they are required to wear gold jerseys during 5-on-5 scrimmages in practice, are part of another unofficial organization: Club Trillion.
Former Ohio State University walk-on Mark Titus, who averaged one minute, 0.5 rebounds, and 0.5 steals in 2006-07 when the University of Florida beat Ohio State 84-75 to win the national title, founded the group for walk-ons across the country.
Club Trillion was named after the box score a player earns for one minute of garbage time without recording another statistic. The resulting box score has a one followed by 12 zeros, which is a trillion.
“The idea for the gold team members at Mississippi State, because we all believe in Club Trillion, is if you’re going to take a shot or a free throw you better make it,” Luczak said. “If you’re not going to record a trillion number than you better make it worth it.”
When asked if he’ll be emotional when he is honored at center court today, Luczak joked that the day is more for the family that came to Mississippi from New York.
“That day is for mom and dad and my brothers,” Luczak said. “They get to feel the pride of having their son’s hard work mean something for them. I had a blast as a member of the gold team, and I don’t want this to end for a while.”
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