Dedrique Taylor saw this coming months ago, even two years ago. He saw the runaway train bearing down and inevitably derailing what he spent 11 years building.
The only Cal State Fullerton men's basketball coach in program history to crash the NCAA Tournament dance twice now faced an inevitable truth -- one that forced him to take the concepts he built, refined, re-refined and refined some more after that, and, well, forget them.
This realization did not come easy. Nor did it come without heavy contemplation and an ongoing 360-degree evaluation of what men's basketball at Cal State Fullerton would have to become in the Age of the Transfer Portal.
It was the defection of guard Max Jones to Kansas State that was Taylor's sudden realization that he would have to coach a different game than he had the previous 11 years. Jones was the Titans' second-leading scorer last year (15.3 points per game), someone who could score at all three levels and make his teammates better along the way. When healthy, he had thrived in his two seasons at CSUF.
But when Kansas State came calling with a six-figure offer, Jones couldn't take Manhattan (Kansas) fast enough.
"We're going to have to play the game different than we did my first 11 years here, based on who we are and our personnel," Taylor said. "Some things are now different. We're not as ball-screen heavy, nor as spacing-driven. We're now the opposite of those things, but it caters to our personnel in terms of our size and our ability."
What the Titans are now are, well, Titans. They're bigger, but not as skilled in the ball-screen motion offense that Taylor made a fixture. It was an offense that regularly put CSUF players among the Big West's scoring leaders because Taylor was able to find those overlooked gems at community colleges and small towns you've never heard of who could score at all three levels and beat you off the dribble to create opportunities for themselves and teammates.
They'll have to play a more basic system of defending, rebounding and running. Expect to see these Titans in transition in more ways than one -- on the court during games and off the court in the way they play. And expect to see a more half-court-dependent style when the transition game isn't available.
The college athletics landscape is now brought to you -- Sesame Street style -- by the letters "N," "I," and "L" -- name, image and likeness. College athletes are now able to earn money for the use of their names, images and likenesses and collectives to raise NIL funds for athletes have sprung up at universities all over the country.
Jones' migration to Manhattan wasn't the first crucial defection of a CSUF player. The year before, Taylor lost standout guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. to Alabama -- a player who arrived at CSUF in the midst of the pandemic as a typical Taylor find: a multiskilled player with a Swiss Army knife rack of skills that merely needed refining. In his final season as a Titan (2022-23), Wrightsell was an all-Big West First Team selection and All-Big West Tournament pick who averaged 16.3 points, and 2.4 three-pointers a game. He told Taylor he'd return for his senior season -- until Alabama came calling with serious NIL money. All Taylor could do was tell his former player Godspeed and good luck.
And all Wrightsell did was play a key role in getting the Crimson Tide to the Final Four last season. During the NCAA Tournament, he averaged 52.9% from the field and 63.6% from three-point range.
"This is a direct impact of the NIL and us not being able to compete, so to speak, in that category," Taylor said. "The players we've had in the past would cost a lot of money these days. The players we've gotten and grown in our program are able to get money, number one, and number two, we're not able to do the same. ...
"The types of players we're used to getting now cost a lot of money."
Even with the cost of doing business changing the rules of engagement, Taylor still has talent at his disposal; for how long remains to be seen. But the Titans opened the season last week boasting considerable size along with seven returners. Leading the latter contingent is 6-foot-6 senior swingman John Mikey Square, another Swiss Army knife player who can defend everyone from point guards to centers and rebound. He'll have to add scoring to his repertoire this year for the Titans to be competitive.
The size comes from 6-10, 230-pound sophomore center Kendrick De Luna and 6-9, 280-pound senior center Zachary Visentin. Taylor expects both to thrive in his new system, especially when the Titans go heavy half-court.
Other key returners are sophomore guards Antwan Robinson and Keith Richard, who played only six games last year due to shin surgery.
"They are big, strong, athletic guys who allow us to play the game a lot differently than we had in the past," Taylor said. "Those guys give you a different level of freedom."
So do transfers Kobe Young, Kaleb Brown and Zion Richardson. Young, a Boise State ex-pat, is a 6-7, do-everything forward who played in three NCAA Tournaments for the Broncos. The 6-7 Brown, the brother of Los Angeles Clippers guard Kobe Brown, arrived from Missouri with court vision and a basketball IQ that Taylor can't wait to unleash. Richardson arrives from Quincy College as a 6-4 grad transfer who can defend point guards and power forwards alike. Taylor would take two-thirds of his 17.8-point and all of his 7.8-rebound average last year at Quincy.
Every year, Taylor gives his players a theme to follow, a simple directive that, if it's followed, so is success. This year's directive couldn't be more simple if it was carved on tablets or scribbled on a cave.
"We have to defend. We have to rebound, and we have to get out and score some transition baskets. It's very simple," he said. "It's the same in terms of getting to the (free-throw) line and knocking down 75%-78% of our free throws. All that has a lot to do with our ability to buy in to what we now have to do to be successful."
After last year, the Titans also have to rebound in a more figurative sense. CSUF went from losing the Big West Tournament final to UC Santa Barbara in 2022-23 to losing out on the conference tournament period. With Jones, leading scorer D.J. Brewton and Tory San Antonio -- the reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Year and a five-year program mainstay -- all missing significant time due to injuries, the Titans slumped to 7-13 in conference and missed the Big West Tournament.
"Last year was really simple and not unsolvable. The best ability is availability, and we weren't available last year," Taylor said, pointing out CSUF was blown out in only one conference game last year. "We started the season with the reigning Defensive Player of the Year unavailable to us. Then Tory comes back and we lose Max. Then Max comes back and we lose D.J. We're not built like that. We can't sustain an injury to those players and recover from it.
"You can say we didn't perform, and we didn't. But I'd like to see what could have happened if we had that talent all together. It would be a totally different outcome."
Right now, Taylor would embrace any outcome that allows the Titans to find the light they once cast as a home for meaningful basketball. Not as a temporary beacon for point guards passing through more than just lanes on a court.