City of Basketball Love

Sami Layadi (@SamiLayadi_)
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Upon deciding to transfer from Saint Joseph’s University last year, Taylor Funk was met with several questions when figuring out what team he’d be suiting up for in his final season. 

Where to go? Who to trust? What to do? When Funk decided to sign with Utah State, the sixth-year senior knew it was a decision that would not just impact his future, but give him one final chance at some success at the Division I level.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to pick the right school because I knew it's just one year and if I don't go to the right place, the place that I enjoy most and the place I think it's going to most benefit me, it's over,” he said.

“I couldn’t be more happy with my decision.”

Funk was raised in Lancaster County, in central Pennsylvania, in the small township of Manheim, where he played under longtime head coach Chris Sherwood at Manheim Central. During his high school years, Funk was a Class AAA third team-all state selection in his junior year with a first team all-state selection his senior year. 

He was a three-star recruit who ESPN ranked as the seventh-best player in Pennsylvania in the Class of 2017, with offers from Saint Joseph’s, George Mason, La Salle, Rider, Boston University, and Monmouth. Ultimately, Funk decided to take his talents to Saint Joseph’s, a distinguished program that, at the time of his commitment, was coming off of its second Atlantic 10 conference championship in three seasons under longtime head coach Phil Martelli.

Funk had to quickly make the adjustment from his hometown of Manheim, which boasts a  population of 5,000, to living on City Ave, just inside Philadelphia, where more than 1.5 million people reside. In making this move, the comfort and warmth of a small hometown that he knew for so long was lost. 

Despite the big change of scenery, there was a lot to look forward to. A veteran head coach with an impressive track record, a promising young core including point guard Lamarr Kimble and wing Charlie Brown, and being one of only two incoming recruits were all attractive green lights that St. Joe’s had for Funk.

Following his sophomore season, Martelli, the school’s all time leader in wins who was entering into his 25th year as the coach, was abruptly fired after posting a 30-35 record in Funk’s first two years with the school. In Martelli’s final season as coach, Funk averaged 8.4 ppg, a dip from his 11.8 ppg as a freshman, shooting just 30.5% from 3-point range after making 39% of his triples his rookie year.

Restoring the winning tradition that Martelli had once established was of the utmost importance to the school. Saint Joseph’s settled on Philadelphia 76ers assistant Billy Lange to man the squad and attempt to get the team back on track. Lange, the former head coach at Navy had posting a 93-114 record in seven seasons with the Midshipmen, and had also been Jay Wright's associate head coach at Villanova (2011-13) before going to the Sixers from 2013-19.

Lange’s first year at the helm did not go as planned, in more ways than one. The team finished with a 6-26 record, the worst in the school’s 111-year history; Funk played in just seven games due to suffering a season-ending hand injury, averaging 9.4 ppg and making 25% of his triples. 

The following year was a positive one for Funk as he averaged a career-high 17.3 PPG while shooting 48.2 percent from the floor, earning him All-Big 5 honors as well as the Big 5’s Most Improved Player award. He was also the only player on the roster to start all 20 games of the COVID-shortened season. 

On the stat sheet, the season was a success, but for the Hawks, wins were still proving themselves hard to come by. The team finished 5-15, hardly an improvement from the year before.

“I remember we had such a hard non-conference schedule,” Funk said. “We're playing Auburn, Kansas, Tennessee, Nova. It was just back-to-back-to-back hard losses.” 

Following another losing season in 2021-22, a year in which the star forward etched his name in Saint Joseph’s history by becoming third in all-time career 3-pointers made, Funk sensed the tension that inevitably comes when hard work doesn’t amount to wins on the floor.

“The frustration when we weren't winning was there and it brought disturbance from players to players, from players to coaches, from coaches to players,” he said. “It's hard to keep a strong culture when you're not winning.”

In Funk’s five seasons at Saint Joseph’s, the team went a combined 52-95 (26-58 A-10), with no NCAA tournament appearances within that stretch. The program that Funk was so drawn to as a junior in high school, the one that he felt like he was going to develop into an NBA ready player at, had become a shadow of what it once was.

“There has never been a year where I went into a season where I wasn't saying we're going to win this conference. It's hooper culture, it's hooper mentality,” Funk said. “That taught me a lot. And I think good players and great players, they can learn from those hard times and yeah, I definitely learned from those hard times.

Learning from those hard times led Funk to Utah State, where the 6-foot-8 senior felt an instant connection as soon as he took an official visit to the school and met with head coach Ryan Odom, the former UMBC coach who led the Retrievers to pull off the biggest upset in Division I men’s basketball history by defeating Virginia the opening round of the 2017-18 NCAA Tournament, the first-ever upset by a No. 16 seed over a No. 1. 

“I came out here and we just connected pretty quickly,” Funk said. “They had us driving four wheelers and stuff up through the mountains, and we were just doing all this fun stuff, and when (Odom) dropped me off at the airport, he reached his hand out, looked at me and said, ‘what's next?’ 

“Instincts took over, and I shook his hand. Literally the perfect place for me.”

Logan, Utah, a small city about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City, ultimately won the Manheim local over despite offers from schools such as Alabama, Florida, Miami, and Arkansas because he found similarities to his hometown that were lost in the big city life of Philadelphia.

“I would say Lancaster [County] is a lot more like Utah than Philly is like Utah,” Funk said. “I made it my home pretty quickly.” 

There were a lot of eyes on the Aggies, especially Odom, going into the season because the expectations of Aggie basketball that had been set by former head coach Craig Smith, who left USU to coach the Utah Utes in 2021, were not met in 2022. 

In three years as head coach, Smith led the team to two conference championships and two NCAA tournament appearances, including what would have been an appearance in 2020’s canceled tourney. The 2022 season brought disappointing results, as USU finished 18-16 (8-10 MWC), the first time in four seasons Utah State hadn’t won 20 games or more.

For Odom, there was no better time to pounce on the opportunity to claim a veteran forward like Funk. 

Of the six players that departed the Aggies following the 2021-22 season, five of them played in the frontcourt. Two of those players included Justin Bean and Brandon Horvath, senior leaders who were the only players to start in each of USU’s 34 games in 2021-22. Bean and Horvath lead the team in scoring, averaging 17.4 and 13.9 PPG respectively. 

Odom also made it a point to recruit Dan Akin, a former UMBC forward who has cemented his role as one of the best sixth man players in the MWC, averaging 12.5 PPG and a team-high 7.4 boards per game.

“Being a sixth-year, like, you know you're going somewhere because they want you to make an impact right away,” Funk said. “It just goes back to trusting your training. I've worked my butt off for so many years of my life to get to where I am now.”

Between the tenacity that the team brought into the weight room and the bonding exercises that they practiced, in addition to snow, there was confidence in the air in Logan. For Funk, there was finally a sense of something positive brewing in the locker room.

“The conditioning, the lifting and the practice, the things we were doing almost felt like it shouldn't be capable for a human body,” Funk said. “I remember three specific times where somebody didn't throw up — meaning all the other times we were going so hard that people were actually throwing up because we were pushing each other so hard.

“The drive and the competitiveness that we brought into the weight room, I think we kind of just looked at each other and were like, there's something special here.”

Beyond stacking weights onto the bar and making each other puke, the team was committed to each other more than anything.

“We all read a book together this summer. It’s called Legacy. It’s about the [New Zealand] All Blacks rugby team and it has so many good life values and team values that we just really cherish and are locked in on in this book,” Funk said. “We'd meet once a week and two guys would have a PowerPoint and have to explain the whole chapter to the team. It taught us leadership. It just built a connectedness that I’ve just never seen before.”

In true feel-good-sports-movie fashion, the offseason work has translated to the court so far. Utah State is currently sitting at 19-5 (8-3 Mountain West) and in contention for the conference title in Odom’s second year.

The Aggies came out firing early in the season. 

With Funk shooting a career-best from 3-point range, the Aggies are 19-5 (8-3 MWC) and in the hunt for a March Madness berth. (Photo courtesy USU Athletics)

In the first three games, Funk got off to a hot start, with two double-doubles. The team started off the season 9-0, with Funk averaging 16.3 PPG to go along with a team-high 8.8 RPG down that stretch. The team then hit a roadblock when they lost their first game of the season, on Dec. 19 at home to a Weber State squad that came in with just a 4-7 record.

Funk and his teammates knew that despite the early success, there was still a lot of basketball to be played and a lot of lessons to be learned. 

“That first Weber loss, we knew it was a game that we were supposed to win, so we were just in disbelief,” he said. “Honestly, after that game and the next day of practice, I was kind of curious to see how this team would react to a loss because we had never experienced it.

“Literally the next day, we brought in a little huddle and the captains said, ‘We need the same energy as if we just won yesterday; it's unfortunate that we lost, but we’ve got to learn from this loss.’ For a team to have that mentality is huge in college basketball.”

The confidence translated to the court for Funk and the Aggies, who’ve gone 10-4 since that game, including a win against Colorado State on Saturday.

That winning mentality has put Funk in a position that had been otherwise unforeseeable in his college career. Because he has been able to trust in himself and his teammates on the floor, he has been able to feel free and put others on notice of what he can really bring to the table at the next level.

“I'm doing stuff that I'd never shown in college before and scouts are recognizing it and a lot of agents. I was always just known as a catch and shoot guy, and I'm not limited to that here,” said Funk, who is averaging 14.3 PPG, shooting a career-high 40.9% from the 3-point arc. “I think the first game I got a defensive rebound, dribbled down the court, no one closed out on me, so I literally pulled it from the logo. Like, I’ve never done that before. We’re a free team, and it’s a fun way to play.”

Odom had nothing but high praise to give when asked about Funk’s impact on the team. 

“Taylor has done a great job of immersing himself in our culture here, becoming extremely tight with his teammates, earning their trust in a very short amount of time,” he said. “Obviously, he's played extremely well. We've always talked about his ability to shoot the basketball, but he's not just a shooter. He's a winner.” 

Funk has had a sweet time out in Logan, Utah so far, and that’s not just because of the basketball being played. 

“So, actually, where I live, there's a gas station right next to my apartment, and it has a soda shop, so I started experimenting with them.” said Funk. “And the cookies — the cookies here are just…Crumbl and Sodalicious…they love their sweets out here, that’s for sure.”

The team is currently second in the Mountain West Conference standings, just under the 25th ranked San Diego State Aztecs, who the Aggies will face off with tomorrow. Funk is coming off of a 21-point performance against Colorado State in which he shot 55% from 3-point range.

The Aggies have their eyes on different ‘Sweets’ beyond cookies and soda. The team is attempting to find themselves back in the NCAA tournament after missing out on a bid last season. Utah State’s currently second in the Mountain West Conference standings, just under the No. 25-ranked San Diego State Aztecs, who the Aggies will face off at home Wednesday night.

After that they’ve got six games left in the regular season before the Mountain West tournament, which will be held from March 8-11 on UNLV’s campus. It’s the first time in Funk’s career he’s in the postseason hunt as the season winds down, the first time he’s been looking forward to the stretch run instead of waiting for the season to end. With a NET ranking of 33, an at-large bid is not out of the question for the Aggies, but they have to finish strong to get there. 

No matter what, Funk’s just happy to be in the race, to show that he’s capable of playing at a high level on a winning team, to shake off the specter of the last five years.

“You play sports to win,” Funk said. “Winning is not everything. But I feel like when you're at this level, it kind of is.

“All the hours and all the training, it's finally being shown. All the effort I put into this game is paying off.”