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Shawn Taggart was a big time recruit in the class of 2005, and Wayne Morgan was able to snag him up. Taggart allegedly passed on the NBA to comes to Ames and play for Iowa State. Taggart was a 4-star recruit and the 8th ranked power forward in the country.
Taggart had great size, coupled with great athleticism that left many Iowa State fans dreaming of great things to come. Then the dreams came crashing to the floor. Taggart got on the court for the Cyclones and was not good at all.
Taggart averaged 5.6 points per game and 3.6 rebounds a game. Safe to say he was wildly unimpressive. While his offensive game had a lot of promise, and it was something that could have been tweaked, he was a major liability on the defensive end of the court. He never could grasp simple defensive concepts, and he played lazy in Morgan’s zone.
Ultimately, Taggart left Ames, and moved on to Memphis. Greg McDermott was also hired by Iowa State soon after Taggart’s lone season at Iowa State.
Though his time in Ames was short, Taggart’s ability to not rise to the occasion for Iowa State is something that we should forget. It also is a nice reminder that just because a recruit is highly ranked, doesn’t mean they’re going to pan out.