Lone senior to graduate after 5 years

Some call it a victory lap, but Kyle Taber’s fifth year was anything but.

Despite a tumultuous first four years for the Hoosier basketball team’s lone graduating senior, nothing could have prepared Taber for what he was going to be asked to do his fifth and final year.
 
But the first four years certainly did try.

Taber battled just about every obstacle one could imagine: four coaching changes, a slew of knee surgeries and having to watch almost every single teammate get up and leave the program.

At one point during the summer before his senior year, Taber was one of only two players on the team’s entire roster.

The player who had resided in anonymity most of his first four years wasn’t just going to be asked to contribute his senior year – he was going to be asked to
lead.

With 28 returning points scattered across 247 minutes the year before, Taber found himself as the team’s top returning scorer.  

He had never envisioned being the leader of the team, let alone asking for it. But when the roster is made almost entirely of newcomers, including a baseball player and a team manager named Santa, the choice on whether to be a leader no longer exists.
IU coach Tom Crean said two months ago that a lot of Taber’s leadership this year was, in fact, “force fed.”

“I don’t think that was ever a part of his role or makeup,” he said.

Taber embraced the role even though it wasn’t always easy.

On the floor, Taber was still limited. He was forced to guard the opponent’s best big man most nights, and the wear-and-tear on his knees didn’t make it any easier.

But the scrappy forward found ways to contribute. He emerged as the team’s most reliable post defender and finished second on the team in rebounding with 5.2 rebounds per game. He never looked lost on the floor, as many of his new teammates occasionally appeared, and he did all of the little things Crean needed him to do: set screens, dive for loose balls, make the extra pass, even hit a couple three-pointers.

He became a staple of pre- and post-game press conferences, answering countless questions about the team’s historically bad year and the program’s historically huge makeover.  

And he served as a big brother to the team’s seven freshmen and tried to communicate, as best as he could, exactly what being a Hoosier was all about.
For a program so rich in tradition and history, Taber was the only player on the team who could tell a story about something that happened in Bloomington more than a year ago.

“He brought us experience because we were all new to the whole situation,” freshman guard Verdell Jones said after Taber’s senior night. “He wasn’t a real vocal leader but he was quiet leader. We really couldn’t have made it through this year without him. His vocal leadership has gotten much better throughout the year, both on and off the floor. Now he is relaying messages to us from coach and giving us more of that senior leadership that we needed.”  

Looking back, Crean said Taber was the “epitome” of an IU basketball player and will be remembered as someone who helped lay the foundation for the future.
Taber’s father, Steve Taber, said he thinks fans will remember him as a hard-working walk-on who lived out his dream.

Taber wasn’t sure on senior night exactly how Hoosier fans would remember him. His father said his son was a bit relieved to have such a trying season over with, but knew he was also sad to be playing his final game inside Assembly Hall.

The walk-on turned scholarship player who witnessed Mike Davis, Crean and everything in-between will likely remember his senior year much like greeks remember pledging their sorority or fraternity: It was a year he will never forget, and maybe never want to repeat.