“You have more to you,” – was a theme over the summer for the UC Riverside men’s basketball team.
 
“You have more to you,” coach Dennis Cutts would say.
 
“No matter how much you think you want to quit, you have more.”
 
Picked to finish ninth in the Big West Preseason Coaches Poll, Riverside has played its 2015 campaign knowing it has something to prove.
 
After a 2014 season that saw a 10-21 overall record and a 5-11 mark in league, junior forward Taylor Johns was ready for the next part of a process he began in 2012: to put UC Riverside on the map.
 
“[Over the summer] we kept running and kept telling ourselves that if we want to be good, we have to give more.  If we want to be good, we can’t stop.  You have to keep going until it’s done,” said Johns.
 
While it might have been a new concept for some of his teammates, it wasn’t a new idea for the six-foot-seven San Francisco native.
 
Growing up in a place he describes as “hectic”, Johns explains he’s always been underestimated, even in high school at Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep, and is no stranger to being the underdog.
 
Originally a football player after his sister signed him up for a youth league at just five or six years old, Johns realized with time that his talents were better suited on the court and with a basketball in his hand. 
 
“If I was playing the game I loved, it would be football,” he said.
 
Partial to the aggression on the field, the forward transferred his skills from the turf to the hardwood when he began to understand that he had more of a future in basketball than in football.
 
“Basketball opened more doors for me,” shared the junior.  “So I thought, ‘Ok, I’ll take it.’
 
“It was kind of like, if you don’t get a scholarship straight out of high school… my parents couldn’t afford it.”
 
UC Riverside then presented Johns with an opportunity to hoop in southern California and to be a part of a program that was looking for players to push its game forward.
 
Always up for a challenge, Johns became a Highlander.
 
“I knew I was coming into a program that wasn’t really on the mainstream.  It needed to get built up,” said Johns.  “And that’s what coach told me, and he thought I could be a part of that.  I just want to keep making those strides.”
 
With 16.5 points per game this year, Johns ranks third in league and comes in at second-best in the Big West with 8.2 rebounds per contest.  The Highlanders are 12-13 overall and are 5-6 in conference.
 
Continuing to make strides with that ninth preseason poll placement in the back of their minds, the Highlanders are a team that fails to forget.
 
“It’s war now,” said Johns.  Now past the midway point of league play, Riverside has yet to lose to the same opponent twice.
 
Hot on the heels of a 73-52 loss at Hawai‘i on Thursday, Feb. 12, the Highlanders would get another shot at UC Irvine that Saturday in hopes of avenging a 69-55 loss suffered earlier in the season on ESPN3.
 
Remembering that matchup with a bitter taste in his mouth, Johns said, “We wanted to be that gritty, hard-nosed ‘they don’t like us’ because we were supposed to come ninth.  It’s our mentality, we’ll come right back at you.”
 
In the second meeting of the regular season with the ’Eaters, the Highlanders recorded a 70-63 W at home and out shot Irvine 41.5 percent to 39.6 percent from the field.
 
“We just have to keep the mindset that no one really respects us so we have to keep that in the back of our head.  We can’t forget that people still lack the respect for Riverside.”
 
While the Highlanders continue to “shock” those who underestimated their talents and personnel, Johns is able to see the big picture.
 
With his senior year still on the horizon, Johns understands that it’s all a part of the process and knows that it’s even bigger than basketball.
 
“When I leave [UCR], I want to be able to say Riverside is a school you want to go to, not that it’s a fall-back school.  I want people to want to come to Riverside because they know this is a program where we aren’t going to take anything from anybody.”
 
An idea instilled in him a long time ago by his older sister Tera whom he lived with from first to fifth grade, Johns knows that nothing happens without hard work.  It was Tera and basketball that taught Johns that things are possible and that’s an idea Johns wants to use his talents to share with those younger than him as well.
 
A volunteer at middle schools in the area, Johns is an athlete who sees a lot more than the game – he sees what the game can do for him, and what he can do with the game.
 
“I already know what I want to do. It’s not like if I don’t have basketball I wouldn’t know what to do.  I want to help people.
 
“Growing up where I grew up, you only see one thing, and you think that’s the norm.  But, it’s not, you don’t have to do that.  I just want to get out there and tell [kids] that.”
 
Coach Cutts was right - there’s more to UC Riverside basketball, and there’s a lot more to Taylor Johns.
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Story by Olivia Phelps (@OliviaGPhelps)