On Nov. 20, 2012, Jack Taylor of Grinnell College scored 138 points in a National College Athletic Association Division III basketball game against Faith Baptist Bible College, which Grinnell won by a score of 179-104.
Taylor, a sophomore, took 108 shots, including 71 three-point attempts in 36 minutes. Of these attempts, he drained 52 of them and scored just over half of his shots from long distance. To put this into perspective, Taylor took three shots per minute, which is about one shot every 20 seconds — a truly astounding rate. Plus, Taylor was able to put up this unusual amount of shots despite the fact that he wasn’t on the court for the full game.
Only 32 players in NBA history have scored above 60 points in a single game, which lasts eight minutes longer than a college basketball game. The only two NBA players that have even come into an ear shot of Taylor’s feat were Wilt Chamberlain, who famously scored 100 points in 1962, and Kobe Bryant, who scored 81 points in 2006.
Lebron James had exceptionally high praise for Taylor’s effort.
“I watched some of the greatest games ever played when guys scored big numbers,” James said on ESPN’s website. “There’s two games that I would love to see. One was Wilt, when he had 100, and this kid.”
Kobe Bryant was equally as complimentary in a post-game interview.
“I don’t care what level you’re at,” Bryant said. “You score 138 points, it’s pretty insane.”
Now the question that everyone has been debating: was this effort legitimate?
Well, yes and no.
To assent with the commendation put forth by Bryant and James, to score 138 points and make 52 shots, including 27 3-pointers in 36 minutes, is absolutely mind boggling whether you are playing in middle school, high school, college or the NBA. Even if scoring 138 points is your goal, you still have to make the shots.
Taylor shot just under 48 percent from the field and 38 percent from beyond the arc, which, as anyone well-versed in basketball statistics will tell you, is quite proficient. To prove this point, Bryant has a career field goal percentage of 45.4 percent and a career 3-point percentage of 33.8 percent.
On the other side of the argument, Taylor scored 138 points. While I didn’t see the game and can’t attest to the defensive efforts of the opposing squad, it would be hard for me to believe much defense was played. In addition, the fact that Taylor was putting up a shot every 20 seconds leads one to suspect that this game was more like a shoot-around or 3-point contest rather than a well-planned, strategically oriented
basketball game.
I would say this record is one that is going to last for a while, but of course, Taylor is still playing, so who knows what heights he will reach later in his career.
A version of this article appeared in the Wednesday, Nov. 28 print edition. Nicolas Nemeroff is a contributing writer. Email him at [email protected].