Sean Taylor joined the Valpo men's basketball staff prior to the 2023-24 season as the program’s assistant player development coach.
Year 3 of Taylor’s Valpo tenure in 2025-2026 saw the program record its best conference winning percentage and highest league win total since joining the Missouri Valley Conference in 2017. The team went 11-9 in MVC play, nearly doubling its conference win total for a second straight season, and notching the team’s first-ever winning season in Valley play. Overall, Valpo won 18 games including 17 regular-season contests in 2025-26, the program’s highest regular-season win total since its final season in the Horizon League in 2016-2017. Year 3 of Taylor’s time on staff was Valpo’s first winning season overall since 2019-2020 and featured a 13-4 record at the Athletics-Recreation Center, the team’s highest home win total since 2016-2017.
Taylor’s third season on staff was an underdog story in the sense that Valpo finished tied for sixth in the MVC and just one game out of a tie for third in a tightly-packed league after being picked last in the 11-team league in the preseason poll. Valpo ranked 325th nationally in Division-I experience as only three scholarship members of the team had played a D-I game prior to the season. Valpo finished the regular season at 150 in the KenPom after starting the season at 283, moving up 133 spots in the rankings, tied for the fourth largest improvement nationally.
The 2025-26 season saw Valpo sweep the regular-season series from UIC for the first time since the Flames joined The Valley, sweep the regular-season series from Indiana State for just the second time since joining The Valley, win a first-round MVC Tournament game over Indiana State to advance to the league quarterfinals, end a 10-game head-to-head losing streak to Bradley and squash an eight-game head-to-head skid to Drake while notching a road victory over the Bulldogs for the first time since 2018 en route to sweeping Drake for the first time since 2017-18.
In Taylor’s first two seasons in Northwest Indiana, the Valpo coaching staff recruited and developed back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference Freshmen of the Year, marking just the third time that the same team won that award in consecutive seasons since the honor began in 1986. In his second season on staff, Taylor helped Valpo over double its win total from the previous year as the Beacons recorded 15 victories in 2024-25, the team’s highest output since 2019-20. Valpo picked up numerous breakthrough triumphs in Taylor’s second season on staff en route to an MVC Tournament semifinal appearance. The team won a season series against Missouri State for the first time in 16 seasons of shared conference affiliation, defeated UNI in back-to-back matchups for the first time in 40 all-time meetings and beat Belmont for the first time since the Bruins joined the Missouri Valley Conference thanks to a 101-point output, Valpo’s highest in league play since 1998.
Taylor joins Valpo’s staff after serving as SIUE’s graduate assistant/video coordinator from August 2021 to May 2023. He handled all video responsibilities and assisted with team travel and operations duties.
Prior to his tenure at SIUE, Taylor served as a student manager at Marquette from September 2018 to April 2021. Before his time at Marquette, Taylor spent the 2017-18 season as a men’s basketball student-athlete at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn.
Taylor is a native of Homewood, Ill. and a product of Marian Catholic High School. His father Mike Taylor spent 20 years as the head boys basketball coach at Marian Catholic, where he compiled 357 career wins, nine regional titles, three sectional championships and five conference crowns.
Taylor graduated from Marquette in May 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies before going on to earn his master’s in applied communication studies from SIUE in May 2023.
What They’re Saying About Sean Taylor
Brian Barone, SIUE Head Coach: “Sean is somebody who will give everything he has to the program he is part of. In this business, it is a luxury to have somebody who thinks of the team first and himself last. We had the most wins in school history with Sean as part of my staff. He was heavily influential in our process, and I expect him to be the same for Roger at Valpo.”
Dwayne Killings, Albany Head Coach: “I am super excited to see Sean join the staff at Valpo. He is a tireless, dedicated and loyal worker. The staff, players and community will love the heart and effort that Coach Taylor puts into the program.”
Terrance McGee, Wabash Valley College Head Coach: “Sean is a pure joy to work with; as someone so young, he has a good eye for talent, is a hard worker and is dedicated to his craft. Whenever Sean is needed, he will go above and beyond the call of duty. Coming from a family of good coaches, Sean is next in line to carry the torch. Most important, Sean is an awesome person.”
Rob Judson, Illinois State Assistant Coach: “Congratulations to Sean Taylor on his new position and congrats to Coach Powell and Beacon Basketball for hiring a terrific young coach. Sean is a high-energy person with a fantastic feel for the game. He will no doubt add great value to Valpo basketball.”
