Taylor Griffin – Oklahoma

Taylor Griffin - #32

College: University of Oklahoma Year: Senior Height/Weight: 6-7/238 Position: Forward Hometown: Oklahoma City Trivia: Griffin is averaging 9.6 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 54 percent from the field for the No. 6 Sooners.

(To read the full feature on Taylor Griffin and his brother, Blake, click here.)

On his involvement with FCA...
"I started with FCA I guess in high school. We were pretty active in it in high school and helped run it at OCS (Oklahoma Christian School). I went to the FCA Leadership Camp before my sophomore year and was a Huddle leader my junior and senior year in high school."

On his testimony...
"Blake and I come from a really strong Christian home. Both my parents are strong believers and followers. We’ve just grown up in that environment our whole lives. I remember accepting the Lord when I was about 5 or 6, when I was old enough to comprehend everything.

"I’m so thankful for our background and how my parents raised us. It’s made such a difference when talking to kids that went to public school per se, that don’t have that family life that we have and have to try to figure out and go to church and grow kind of on their own, and find people outside of their family. We were exposed to that right there every day throughout our lives."

On the challenges he overcame at the beginning of college...
"I think the biggest was just not being in that environment that I talked about – not really a whole lot of people around you that are going to be there to strengthen your walk with Christ. It’s a completely different environment. I guess it forces you to make an effort to stand out and be different, or you kind of get sucked up and swallowed into daily, worldly living.

"There comes a point where you have to choose. You can’t really live in both worlds. You can’t kind of pick and choose what you want to do; it comes down to a choice. That’s something I struggled with my first two years of college, but going into my junior year I really started to mature in that sense. I realized that this is the person I’m going to be, and yeah, it’s going to be different."

On if his brother's (Blake Griffin) arrival at OU helped that take place...
"A little bit. There were a lot of things I experienced that I saw in him. I never thought of it that way, but I could definitely see that, kind of coming back and being the big brother again, trying to protect him and teach him how to go through things, not to make the certain mistakes that I made or whatever the case may be. Yeah, that’s a good point. That might be a large part of the reason that I was able to mature more at that time."

On his interests outside of basketball...
"Right now, a big part of playing college sports is just resting, just chilling, not doing anything. We’ll hang out at the apartment. Blake and I live together with two other teammates. We’ll go to movies, go out to eat, just kind of hang out. When I’m not with them, I’ll be with my girlfriend, just hanging out, going to movies, that kind of thing. Keeping it low key.

"As far as after school and everything, I’m really interested in sports medicine and the body and muscles and muscle development and all that stuff. I have a health and exercise major, so I’d like to kind of pursue something along those lines, whether it’s personal training, whether I’ll have to come back and do some more schooling or whatever, but something in that field."

Photos courtesy of Ty Russell/OU Media Relations.