Each week during the academic year, the Austin American-Stateman profiles a local Central Texas high school student-athlete. This week, Pflugerville senior forward Itiana Taylor was featured in the weekly Q&A. See the questions and her responses here:
Read Taylor's "Faces off the Field" profile online, written by Rick Cantu.
What's your greatest basketball memory?
It would be the game we played against DeSoto last year. We won in
double-overtime by two and went on to play Georgetown in the regional finals.
Do you have any pregame rituals?
I have to listen to my music — Drake, Lil Boosie and Lil Wayne — on the bus to
go to sleep.
What are your future plans?
My college plans are to play basketball for North Texas, get my education and
hopefully play professional basketball.
Which courses have you taken that will benefit you the most after high
school?
The courses that will benefit my life the most are math and English. That's
the main thing you will need in the real world.
If you could have dinner with any four people in the history of the world,
who would they be?
They would be God, LeBron James, Maya Moore and Martin Luther King. I look up
to them because they went through so much.
What has been the greatest day of your life?
That would be Nov. 9, 2011, the day I signed with North Texas.
If you could choose to be valedictorian or all-state, which would you pick?
I would choose valedictorian because I would want people to know me as the
smartest person in my class. But if I could never play basketball again, I
would still have my education to get me far in life.
Do you have any sports superstitions?
Yes. When we have away games, I have to sit in the same spot on the bus and
eat a ham sandwich.
What is your favorite food?
My favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs or spaghetti with sausage that my
mom makes.
What's the best advice anyone has given to you?
Leave it all on the court because tomorrow is not promised.
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