When sophomore Kammron Taylor takes the floor, one thing quickly becomes apparent.

“Kammron’s one of the quickest first steps I’ve ever guarded,” senior Sharif Chambliss said.

That explosiveness has allowed Taylor to sail through the prep ranks and become an impact player in his second season with the cardinal and white. After spending most of last season watching from the sidelines while trailing Big Ten Player of the Year Devin Harris and veteran Boo Wade on the depth chart, Taylor now has the opportunity to make his presence felt on the floor.

Coming into the 2004-05 campaign, Taylor was expected to again take a backseat, with Wade penciled in as the starter at point. However, when Wade left the team for an indefinite leave of absence prior to the start of the season, the point guard spot suddenly became available. Taylor would have to develop more quickly than anticipated, as the sophomore entered the running to become the UW floor general.

“They’re throwing me in the fire,” Taylor said. “I have to grow faster than the usual kid.”

Wade’s leave of absence created a three-man race, as Taylor, Chambliss and true freshman Michael Flowers all challenged for the starting spot. Taylor and Chambliss emerged as the top contenders in a position battle that remains contentious.

“It’s a battle, it’s a challenge,” Taylor said. “We go at each other every day in practice. That’s what we have to do if we want to make each other better and make the team better. We can’t relax on each other. It’s really challenging and it’s going to continue all year.”

Taylor earned the starting spot for the season opener and started the first four games of the season, but he could not retain his hold on the starting job. After a supbar performance against Maryland, the sophomore lost the starting job to Chambliss, who stepped into the spotlight with a 15-point performance off the bench. Chambliss has now started the past two games and has run the offense smoothly, but Taylor is not ready to stop fighting for the starting spot.

“A lot of teams, they just have one point guard and he know if he makes a mistake he’s probably not going to come out of the game,” Taylor said. “But with two or three point guards on this team, we have to go in and fight every day if you want to get that playing time.”

Taylor knows that if he continues to bring his best effort every time he takes the floor, he will remain a major contributor regardless of who holds the title of starter. That mentality has allowed the sophomore to remain motivated despite the unrelenting workload that has faced him this season. Between basketball and schoolwork, Taylor has never had much time for anything else.

“Wake up in the morning at around 8:00, go to class until noon,” Kammron said of his daily routine. “Then we have practice from 1:30 to four and then some days we’ll lift after practice. Then got to go home and do some homework or go to the study tables from about seven to nine. That’s pretty much every day. There really aren’t any breaks in between there. But I signed up for it, though. I can’t complain.”

In the end, Taylor wouldn’t have it any other way. When asked about his interests away from the basketball court, Taylor struggled to come up a response.

“Basketball is like my life man,” Taylor said. “Outside of basketball, I really don’t do much.”

Taylor’s teammates couldn’t agree more.

“I know he talks about basketball all the time,” Chambliss said. “He’s a real gym rat; he’s always in the gym shooting. Great work ethic. He’s a real cool guy to be around.”

In addition to a singular focus Taylor brings tremendous intensity to the floor, something that has caught the eye of his fellow point guard.

“He plays with a chip on his shoulder, I like that,” Chambliss said. “He’s a guy that’s going to go out there and play with passion, play with a lot of emotion.”

That passion may be the result of years of driveway battles between Taylor and his older brother, Kerek, who went on to play college ball at Gardner-Webb University. Kammron and his brother used to play nearly every day, but the younger Taylor could not overcome his brother’s size and experience and start winning the sibling battles until his freshman year of high school.

“He’s five years older, so he was bigger than I was,” Kammron said. “Playing against him everyday, I would go in the house crying because he beat me, but he taught me that I have to fight through obstacles. I look to my brother for a lot of guidance.”

Kerek was the reason Kammron first started playing basketball. The youngest of five children, Kammron idolized his older brother and sought to emulate his basketball success.

“Everybody in my family was pretty much an athlete,” Kammron said. “My older brother was the first one to start playing, and when you’re younger you always look up to your brother, so when I saw him playing basketball that’s the first thing I wanted was to pick up and start playing.”

As Taylor got older, another hero emerged.

“There was a guy by the name of Khalid El-Amin, he was my high school’s old point guard and they won three state championships,” Taylor said. “He was a high school All-American, he led UConn to a national championship in ’99 … Just growing up and going to the games and watching him play because he was a point guard, I really looked up to him.”

In his senior season at Minneapolis North High School, Taylor followed in El-Amin’s footsteps, leading North to a state championship.

“I think after we won the game, I think I started crying because it just felt so good,” Taylor said. “My whole four years playing varsity, people had picked our team to win the state championship like three years in a row and we didn’t do it, and that kind of hurt those three years. But we came back my senior year … and put it up.”

After a successful high school career, the Minnesota native opted to leave his home town and travel to Madison to play under head coach Bo Ryan.

“I didn’t want to stay at the U of M because I didn’t like the way the program was headed,” Taylor said. “I just really clicked with the coaches here and I really clicked with the teammates here and I liked the college atmosphere.”

After just one season at Wisconsin, Taylor knew he had made the right choice.

“I’m real happy I made that decision,” Taylor said. “I came here my freshman year and got a Big Ten Tournament Championship. A lot of kids across the country don’t have a championship and I got one my freshman year.”

With his college career still in its early stages, Taylor believes he has the skills to lead the Badgers on another title run.

“I think I bring a lot of quickness, leadership, scoring ability, defense, everything,” Taylor said. “I know one thing that I probably need to work on is to get stronger; that will come.”