McPherson’s Taylor Robertson building case as college basketball’s best sharpshooter
Taylor Robertson spent her entire life growing up in McPherson shooting a basketball, so maybe her immediate success at Oklahoma shouldn’t come as a surprise.
But to be this good this fast in the Big 12 Conference has surprised even Robertson herself.
It’s not a stretch to call Robertson, a 5-foot-7 sophomore, the best shooter in college basketball. Robertson is averaging 5.6 three-pointers made per game, which is more than any men’s or women’s player in the country. She has 39 threes through seven games and is shooting 53% from beyond the arc.
“I don’t know if I expected it to translate as fast as it did,” Robertson told The Eagle. “It’s really cool and I couldn’t do it without my teammates. They set so many good screens for me and make good passes, so without them this wouldn’t be possible.”
Robertson and the Sooners played at Wichita State last weekend and while the Shockers came away with an 88-83 upset, Robertson played the best game of her career. She scored a career-high 30 points and made a career-high nine three-pointers in a 9-for-16 shooting performance beyond the arc.
It came to no surprise to WSU coach Keitha Adams, who accepted the job with the Shockers near the end of Robertson’s recruitment and pushed hard to sign the local product.
“I like to compare her to Larry Bird,” Adams said. “She’s a really good shooter, a really good passer and she knows the game very well. She’s got a great, great shot and a great basketball IQ. She’s a really good kid and a really good player.”
In high school, Robertson led McPherson to the 2018 Kansas 4A state championship and ended her career as the program’s leading scorer with 1,912 points.
But there were questions that persisted about her playing high-major college basketball. Was she quick enough to hang with the high-caliber athletes? Could she still get her shot off against bigger and longer players?
Robertson has silenced any doubts with a resounding yes to both questions.
“The biggest difference for me is that I’ve had to learn to shooter a lot quicker,” Robertson said. “I shot it pretty quick in high school, but because everyone is so much faster and bigger I’ve had to get it off in a split-second.”
Robertson’s success this season isn’t a surprise to OU because the McPherson native put together one of the most prolific offensive campaigns by a Sooner freshman. She earned Big 12 All-Freshman team honors after averaging 14.3 points and drilling 105 three-pointers, which shattered the OU freshman record and placed second in program single-season history.
At her current pace, if OU plays 31 games this season, Robertson is on schedule for 173 three-pointers this season, which would shatter the Division I record of 154 threes in a single-season. That would also put her on pace to challenge for the Division I all-time lead, which is currently held by Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell with 497 career three-pointers.
But those records are far off into the future. For the time being, Robertson is more happy that she has found a program where she feels at home.
“I’m so glad that I chose Oklahoma,” Robertson said. “It’s so awesome here and the people are great. It’s like one big family here and I just love the atmosphere.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 1:06 PM with the headline "McPherson’s Taylor Robertson building case as college basketball’s best sharpshooter."
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