Taylor Shows He Can Play at High Level : College basketball: Moorpark’s 6-4 1/2 center has been up for the state tournament.

The truth should be told: Moorpark College center Greg Taylor is only 6-foot-4 1/2.

Hardly earthshaking news but nonetheless contrary to his listed height of 6-6 on the Moorpark basketball roster.

It also is not necessarily surprising. Taylor does not appear to be 6-6, but when questioned about the discrepancy, one Moorpark coach said Taylor just looked shorter than 6-6 because he’s so muscular.

Yet it can hardly be considered good news for Moorpark’s opponents. They already have had their bodies bruised by Taylor, and now they will have equally bruised egos from knowing they have been outhustled, outmuscled and outrebounded, usually substantially, by a man 6-4 1/2.

How must the Santa Barbara players feel? Taylor grabbed a Moorpark school-record 27 rebounds against them last season. What about the rest of the Western State Conference? Taylor, who is shorter than dozens of opposing players, was the leading rebounder in the conference with an 11.4 average--no small feat.

Rather than being a discredit to Moorpark opponents, though, the fact that Taylor almost invariably has pummeled them is more a credit to his intensity, desire and work ethic.

“When I see that ball hit the rim, I want it,” said Taylor, who has never fouled out of a Moorpark game. “I think I want it worse than anybody on the opposing team.

“Once I’m feeling good and my momentum is going well and I feel like I’m hyped, rebounds just come. I just go after everything. . . . Some nights I feel like I could get every rebound that hits the rim.”

Greg Taylor is better on the rebound than Liz Taylor (no relation). He ranked fourth in the state and has worked his way up to third on the Moorpark career rebounding list. He will take over second on the school single-season list with 10 or more rebounds in today’s 3 p.m. game against Chabot in the state tournament quarterfinals at UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

An imposing presence on the court, Taylor plays at a rock-solid 220 pounds. His scowl is a permanent feature of his game face, and his mien is capped by a flattop rising above his shaved skull.

Wait a minute, though, what’s that ponytail doing there?

Square in the back of his head is a curly little, disarmingly fragile ponytail.

Obviously, there is more to Taylor than first meets the eye. Like the ponytail cavorting behind the intimidating haircut, a kinder, gentler man hides behind the fearsome on-court demeanor.

He was so homesick for his native Louisiana that he almost left Moorpark after his freshman season. His mother, Beulah Taylor, moved to Kansas City several years ago, and, although they have stayed in close touch, Greg has not seen her for two years.

“I miss her a whole lot, and I really want her to see me play,” Taylor said. “I’ve never had a chance to play in front of her.”

Beulah Taylor’s job as a nurse made it difficult to see her son play, and Greg moved in with an uncle in Texas as a high school sophomore to pursue his basketball career at Houston power Yates High.

“I was a football player, but I fell in love with basketball, and I didn’t want to play football anymore,” said Taylor, a quarterback at Bolton High in Alexandria, La. “The coaches there told me if I didn’t play football that they wouldn’t let me play basketball. . . . So I left and I went to Texas.”

The Moorpark football coaches would love to put Taylor at tight end, but, after briefly considering going out for the team, Taylor decided the risk of injury was too great.

Taylor, Moorpark’s captain, leads by example. He is the team’s third-leading scorer (12 ppg. on 60.2% shooting), and he has lifted his play a notch for the playoffs. Taylor grabbed 16 rebounds in a tournament-opening victory over Orange Coast, and his 20 points and 13 rebounds Saturday night against Golden West helped put Moorpark into the final eight.

Taylor recently was named All-WSC Northern Division and was honorable-mention all-conference last season.

Taylor, now 21, injured his right knee during his senior season in high school and missed a few years of competitive basketball before joining the Job Corps and returning to the game.

Taylor seldom shoots beyond an arm’s length of the basket. Guards Sam Crawford and Roger Thomas are Moorpark’s primary scorers, and Taylor’s shot selection is an implicit recognition of his weaknesses and strengths as well as an indication of his unselfishness.

“I’d rather be in the paint. If I take a 15-footer and I miss it, there’s nobody there,” Taylor said. “I feel that if I’m playing hard and rebounding well, the rest of the team plays well also.”

Taylor’s rebounding prowess has drawn interest from such Division I schools as Lamar and New Mexico State as well as Cal State Northridge, but Taylor first plans to complete his Associate of Arts degree at Moorpark.