By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Not a day goes by that Taurean Prince doesn't at least think back to his homeless days in San Angelo, Texas, when he and his father would pray for a spot at the Salvation Army at night or just "get in wherever you could."

"I'm not embarrassed by it. It's definitely helped me get to where I am today," said the 6-foot-7 Baylor junior forward, who leads the 19th-ranked Bears with 13.2 points per game. "I just take the same approach with basketball. Like through those times of us not having a home, I just trusted my Pops and stayed poised throughout all the situations and just believed."

So, when the Bears faced an eight-point second-half deficit on the road at 12th-ranked Iowa State Wednesday night in Ames, Prince stayed calm and knocked down three late 3-pointers in a 79-70 upset of the Cyclones for Baylor's first-ever win at Hilton Coliseum.

"Same way here," he said. "If we're down by 10, I just trust in Coach (Scott) Drew and just stay poised. Sometimes when I watch film of myself, it looks like I'm too calm. You see emotion, but for the most part I'm not nervous or anything. It just goes back to those life situations, just believing that everything is going to be all right.

"It's definitely helped me as I've become who I am now, working hard, knowing that nothing's going to be given to me. Nobody in this world is going to give you anything, you've got to find your own way."

Prince was 13 years old when his "way" turned out to be the streets of San Angelo. After his parents divorced and his grandmother died, Taurean and his father, Anthony, moved in with his dad's girlfriend.

"They got into some things, and she had kicked us out," Taurean said. "So, we were basically homeless for about a month. We were living at the Salvation Army, but sometimes we were late, so we had to either find a place to stay or get in wherever you could. . . . There were days that I would go to school with the same clothes on, but my friends knew my situation and supported me. They let me borrow clothes. It wasn't quite embarrassing, but no kid wants to ask his friends to wear their clothes."

When his father was imprisoned, Taurean moved in with a friend's family in San Angelo and stayed there for a year before moving back in with his mom, Tamiyko, in San Antonio.

"Credit to them, the Thompson family, for taking me in," he said. "Bodie Thompson is actually coming down this weekend to see me play."

With his mother moving "away from the east side (of San Antonio) and off MLK Drive," Prince said it was a better opportunity for him at Warren High School, "as far as basketball goes."

Not that his path there was exactly paved with roses, either. He wasn't able to play basketball his freshman year because of a Spanish class he failed and then spent most of his sophomore season on the junior varsity.

"I moved up to the varsity because somebody failed, and I kept my spot up there, but I never played," he said.

The next year, Prince said he "got my buzz going" by averaging 16.4 points and 11.6 rebounds and earning all-region honors for a 26-10 Warren team. And then as a senior, he exploded, averaging 21.4 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.5 blocks and 2.3 steals per game and being named the San Antonio Express-News All-Area Player of the Year.

Prince originally signed with Long Island-Brooklyn in New York. But when coach Jim Ferry left there to take the job at Duquesne, he got a scholarship release and wound up signing with Baylor in May 2012, long after a class that included highly touted recruits Isaiah Austin and Rico Gathers.

Not even listed in the top 100 recruits in Texas at the start of his senior season, Prince moved into the top five by the end of the year, when he scored 21 points in an 85-72 state semifinal loss to Fort Bend Travis and twins Aaron and Andrew Harrison, who are now at top-ranked Kentucky.

Warren High School coach Jim Weaver said his "phone was ringing off the hook" when Prince got his scholarship release from LIU-Brooklyn. "Schools like Nebraska and Pepperdine were calling, but I think he ended up in the right place," Weaver said.

Prince's road at Baylor has been similar to the path he took at Warren. In two sometimes very frustrating seasons, he averaged 5.2 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.

"There were times that I went home after games crying," he said, "because I knew what I could do. But after my freshman year, I knew there was a lot that I didn't know."

After averaging just 6.4 minutes per game on a 2013 NIT championship team, Prince became more of a key role player on last year's NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 team. He scored a career-high 23 points in a win over TCU and posted double-figure points nine times.

"Taurean was a good player his freshman year, he's just a better player now - more experienced, more consistent with his outside shot, understands the consistency level that's required on the defensive end," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "Those are all maturation things. The longer you play, the more you practice, the better you are, the more consistent you are. That's why freshmen tend to be more up and down than juniors do."

With so many key pieces gone from last year's team, Prince came into this season knowing that he would likely have to play a "way bigger role than my sophomore year."

This summer, Prince and senior point guard Kenny Chery burned up the nets, putting up thousands of shots in the gym.

"I took it a lot more seriously and put in a lot more time and just took advantage of the time I put in," said Prince, who ranks seventh in the Big 12 in scoring and sixth in 3-point shooting percentage at 39.8. "I would pick up Kenny from his house, and we would just get in the gym, whether it was between class or at night after practice.

"Me and him have a similar story with our backgrounds and where we came from, so I think we really connect, and we're just trying to make the best out of the opportunities that we're given."

After starting five games in the fall, Prince has become arguably one of the best sixth men in the country. He has hit double figures in every Big 12 game this season, including 22 in a 54-49 road win at Texas Tech and 20 in Wednesday's 79-70 win at Iowa State.

"The fact that TP's been able to learn under some great players in front of him, he's become better and more consistent now," Drew said. "When he's had his opportunity, he's taken advantage of it. He did some great things for us last year, too. He just didn't have has much of an opportunity last year."

A younger, more immature Prince might have sulked about not starting. It even bothered him a little earlier this season, but now "I don't think twice about it."

"We're winning, man, and I love what we're doing right now," he said. "I don't mind coming off the bench anymore."

After winning three in a row, the Bears (21-7, 9-6) can take another big step with Saturday's "Black-Out" game against No. 20 West Virginia at 3 p.m. at the Ferrell Center.

"You've just got to know how to handle success, simple as that," Prince said. "That's something that we haven't been real good at this year, but this game is going to show how much we've improved in that area. And I think we'll be good to go. They play hard, we play hard. They rebound, we rebound. So, it will be a gut-check game, but I think we're all ready."