PTI: Health, veteran leadership will shape 2025-26 for Taylor's Aggies
Click here to view Texas A&M’s Wednesday press conference.
It’s a prove-it year for Joni Taylor.
As the Texas A&M head coach took the stage at SEC Media Days Tip Off in Birmingham on Wednesday, it’s clear she understands that 2025-26 must be a step forward.
With her contract set to expire after 2026-27, this campaign carries major importance for her future in Aggieland. With just one NCAA Tournament appearance in her first three years in College Station, Taylor and the Aggies must find a way back to March Madness.
An obvious key to reaching that goal is health.
The best ability is availability, and due to unforeseen circumstances, the Aggies haven’t had their best players for the majority of the last two seasons and have played most of their SEC games with fewer than 10 players.
“It’s something that allows us to get a lot more done at a lot faster pace,” Taylor said on starting the season with 15 healthy players. “Now we’re able to have the flow we need, so the continuity has been much better.”
In Taylor’s second season, star guard Endyia Rogers missed over a month with a knee injury only to return and play through pain just in time for the SEC and NCAA tournaments.
Last season, star guard and future WNBA second-round draft pick Aicha Coulibaly suffered a season-ending knee injury in January. Things were trending in the right direction for A&M before Coulibaly’s injury, as the Aggies were 3-3 in SEC play with two top-25 wins. They then lost 11 consecutive games to close the season.
Injuries have defined under-performing seasons, and veteran leadership defined Taylor’s lone NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024.
This year, A&M has the depth to be better insulated from injuries tanking the season, and the Aggies have the veteran leadership to guide them in the right direction.
Now with 15, Taylor previously held rosters of 12-13 players, so a few nagging injuries on top of a half dozen season-ending injuries crippled them.
On top of starting the season with a completely healthy team (knock on wood), the Aggies return their veteran leader, graduate forward Lauren Ware.
“I will cry buckets of tears when she has her senior night this year because she didn’t have to come back for a sixth year,” Taylor said of Ware. “She understands just how important it is to continue to leave things better than she found it.
“She wasn’t satisfied with the way we ended our season last year after we got hurt, and she didn’t want to walk out that way. She leads by example every single day.”
Ware was a key transfer that injected front-court talent into Taylor’s 2024 tournament team, and now, she’s the longest-tenured player in the program, set to lead 12 new faces.
“She’s like the mother of the team,” transfer forward Fatmata Janneh said of Ware. “Anything we need, we go to her straight away. She’s a brilliant role model. We all look up to her.”
Janneh — known as “Fats” — is assuming the role that Ware once held, as the talented new front-court addition primed for a breakout season when injected into Taylor’s system.
Last year, Janneh led the nation in defensive rebounding (9.7 per game) at Saint Peter’s, and she has quickly become the heartbeat of this A&M team and the element responsible for cultivating this team’s chemistry.
While Janneh spends her time off the court cracking jokes, what she does on it is no joke. She was seventh in the country in double-doubles last season with 19, averaged 18.2 points and 11.6 rebounds and made the First-Team All-MAAC. Her loud voice carries on the court as their vocal leader and tone setter.
“We call Fats ‘All gas.’” Taylor said. “She’s all gas in everything she does in how she shows up every day with great energy.
“She wants to be known for bringing the juice every day. She’s got a toughness to her. She sets the tone on both sides of the basketball.”
Janneh isn’t the only newcomer Taylor is depending on to bring the juice.
They’ll need Ny’Ceara Pryor, Salese Blow and Pien Steenbergen to contribute.
Pryor led the country in steals (4.1 per game) at Sacred Heart en route to MAAC Defensive Player of the Year honors. Blow averaged 12.2 points per game at Wichita State. Steenbergen shot 37.2 from 3-point range at Liberty.
It’s clear A&M is not lacking chemistry, as the seven transfers, five freshmen and three returners in Ware, Janae Kent and Vanessa Saidu have come together off the court.
However, games aren’t won in the locker room, but the direction of the program all starts with a locker room that understands its mission.
"Our team motto is P.T.I. It's Program, Team and Individual in that order,” Taylor explained. “In every decision you make, the program comes first. It's important with 12 new players that whoever steps into this program, everything we do, the program is the most important and always will be.
“And then it's the team, this is the only time this team will be together. Is everything you're doing helping to serve this team right now? Then lastly, is individuals. If you think of the program and the team first, then the individual will be taken care of naturally.”
Picked to finish 14th in the SEC, it’s paramount for Taylor to coach this group of individuals to come together as a team and change the direction of this program.
