Jack Taylor's 138-Points: Unkown Scoring King

[00:00:00] On November 20, 2012, the Grigale Pioneers were facing off against Faith Baptist Bible College in a Division III matchup.

[00:00:09] And little did either team know this would be a historic moment, in a moment where Division III basketball got put on the map

[00:00:17] when Jack Taylor of Grinnell College set the record for the most points in an NCAA game by a single player with 138.

[00:00:28] Putting himself and his school on the map as many have never heard of either making national news.

[00:00:35] We're going to talk about them today on Daily Sports History.

[00:00:44] Welcome to Daily Sports History, I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn about more sports history, increasing your sports knowledge.

[00:00:52] As today we learn about high scoring affairs in college basketball.

[00:00:58] And today's trivia question to listen out for is,

[00:01:01] What was the previous record for the most points in an NCAA basketball game?

[00:01:08] Now we've talked about previous high scores,

[00:01:10] as we talked about Bevo Francis, who scored 113 points in a single game.

[00:01:16] We also talked about Austin Carr, who scored over 60 points in an NCAA March Madness game.

[00:01:21] And we even covered Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in the NBA.

[00:01:25] And today we're going to talk about the most points scored in an NCAA game.

[00:01:29] Now, normally when we say NCAA, everyone thinks about Division 1.

[00:01:33] Now the most points scored in a Division 1 game was Kevin Bradshaw,

[00:01:37] who did so with U.S. International against Loyola Marymount in 1991,

[00:01:43] where he scored 72.

[00:01:44] And there have been four players to score over 100 points in college basketball.

[00:01:50] We've already talked about, we already talked about Bevo Francis.

[00:01:53] There's also Frank Salvi, who led Forum to a victory, who scored 100 points for Forum in 1954.

[00:02:02] And J.J. Colver of Wayland Baptist University scored 100 points in 2019.

[00:02:08] But today we're here to talk about another man who made this list twice in Jack Taylor of Grinnell College.

[00:02:15] Now, if you think that NCAA Division 3 basketball is kind of a joke, you might be mistaken.

[00:02:22] Now there are some great players at this level.

[00:02:24] And we've seen some great NBA players come from small schools, such as Dennis Rodman, Ben Wallace, and Scottie Pippen,

[00:02:33] all played for schools that were not Division 1.

[00:02:36] And even Duncan Robinson, who plays for the Miami Heat today, came from a Division 3 school.

[00:02:41] And having worked with Division 3 basketball coaches, there are some great teams and great play being done.

[00:02:48] I've watched plenty of it, and I'm amazed.

[00:02:51] Most Division 3 basketball players can play any regular person out of the gym.

[00:02:55] So don't think that these players are just coming to play because they have no other options.

[00:02:59] These are great levels.

[00:03:01] So let's start with, who is Jack Taylor?

[00:03:05] Well, he grew up loving basketball, and he grew up in the Kobe Bryant era.

[00:03:09] So he tried to model his game after Kobe Bryant.

[00:03:12] And though he attended basketball camps at places like Duke and Stanford,

[00:03:17] and would go on to play high school basketball in Wisconsin and led her four straight years,

[00:03:21] he only grew to be about 5'10", which makes it incredibly hard in basketball-wise to get a whole lot of looks.

[00:03:27] His senior year in high school, he averaged over 20 points and almost five assists,

[00:03:31] hitting over 40% from three-point range.

[00:03:34] He was named his Conference Player of the Year and was named All-State.

[00:03:38] Although he got some interest from Division 1 schools like Columbia and some Division 2 schools,

[00:03:43] he didn't get any athletic scholarship.

[00:03:45] So he decided to attend the Mercer Berg Academy, which is a postgraduate school

[00:03:51] where they help players get in a more positive light athletically.

[00:03:55] Although he struggled, as within nine games there, he tore his ACL and his meniscus,

[00:04:02] which means he missed the rest of the season.

[00:04:05] And he decided later to go to Wisconsin lacrosse.

[00:04:08] Now, he was still kind of recovering.

[00:04:10] So he came in as a reserve role, and he only averaged seven points his first season at Wisconsin lacrosse.

[00:04:17] And he actually says this is when he really started to get frustrated with basketball,

[00:04:22] as he was struggling to recover from his knee surgery and struggling just with playing time.

[00:04:27] So he went to, he decided to transfer to a new school, which was Grinnell University,

[00:04:33] who had been recruiting him since he was out of high school.

[00:04:36] And even when he was at the Mercer Berg Academy, but he always went somewhere else.

[00:04:41] And he finally gave in and went to the Grinnell University.

[00:04:44] Now, Grinnell College was started in 1846 and was formerly known as Iowa College.

[00:04:50] And is what, and they follow an open curriculum, which means there's not a prescribed class list.

[00:04:56] And students are able to guide their education for themselves.

[00:04:59] And they started playing basketball in 1900, but they didn't win their first conference title till 1941.

[00:05:05] But what really made Jack want to go to Grinnell is they were running something called the Grinnell

[00:05:11] system, which was a new kind of offense that sometimes referred as just the system.

[00:05:16] It's a fast paced offense that the coach at Grinnell College had instituted David Arsenault.

[00:05:21] And it's a variation of the run and gun offense, which was made popular by Leola Marymount in the 1980s.

[00:05:28] And it focused on three point shooting and full court press and allowed frequent substitutions.

[00:05:35] So Jack loved that opportunity to score a lot and shoot as many three pointers as he could.

[00:05:40] And Grinnell showed that this system really worked as they had led the NCAA in all levels of scoring for 17 of the past 19 seasons.

[00:05:49] And in 2003, 2004 season, they ranked second in NCAA history, averaging 126.2 points a game.

[00:05:58] He actually led the team in scoring with averaging 23.5 points, averaging just 13.5 minutes a game in just the first two games he played there.

[00:06:08] But Grinnell's coach wanted to get him some more playing time.

[00:06:13] And he decided to do that on November 20th, 2012.

[00:06:17] Now this was a home game for Grinnell.

[00:06:19] And they came in with a 3-0 record and Faith Baptist had not won a game that season.

[00:06:24] And Grinnell's coach decided to make Jack Taylor the focus of this game.

[00:06:28] As he was the only player on the team to play more than 15 minutes as he played 36 minutes.

[00:06:35] And they started out fast and they did not look back.

[00:06:38] As Jack scored 58 points in the first half and giving them the lead 85-46.

[00:06:46] But he wasn't done.

[00:06:47] He came back the second half and did even better, scoring 80 points.

[00:06:52] Making 18 three-pointers in the second half, including seven consecutively during a two-minute stretch.

[00:07:00] During one stretch of the game, he scored 28 consecutive points all by himself.

[00:07:05] A Division III record.

[00:07:06] He also set the record for the most three-pointers.

[00:07:09] And this all led to him scoring a total of 138 points.

[00:07:13] Hitting a total of 27 three-pointers the entire game.

[00:07:17] And he set NCAA records for the most three-pointer field goals in a game.

[00:07:21] The most three-point attempts in a game.

[00:07:22] The most field goals.

[00:07:24] The most field goal attempts.

[00:07:25] And his 80 points and a half was also a record.

[00:07:28] And before this, his highest score in high school was 48 points.

[00:07:31] He went above and beyond.

[00:07:34] And broke Bebo France's record set in 1954 of 113 points.

[00:07:40] Leading them to a victory 179-104.

[00:07:45] Now, Faith Baptist College tried to keep up.

[00:07:48] And had David Larson who scored 70 points in this game.

[00:07:53] All without a three-point shot.

[00:07:55] As they were trying to keep up the best they could.

[00:07:59] Now, this game got national news.

[00:08:02] As his hero Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, all posted on social media about this topic.

[00:08:07] He got to talk to ESPN.

[00:08:08] And got to appear on Good Morning America.

[00:08:11] Jimmy Kimball Live.

[00:08:12] He received over 300 email requests for interviews.

[00:08:16] From all over the world.

[00:08:17] And Pizza Hut actually did a promotion where you could buy a pizza for $1.38.

[00:08:23] And the following game, they faced off against William Penn and ESPN and multiple other media outlets came to watch this game.

[00:08:31] Where he only scored 21 points in a losing effort.

[00:08:35] And unfortunately, another injury took the rest of the season from him.

[00:08:39] As he broke his radius bone in your forearm.

[00:08:43] And he would have to wait until next season.

[00:08:44] Where he's coming back to try to lead the nation in scoring.

[00:08:47] In the season opening game, he scored 71 points.

[00:08:50] And then, the following game against Crossroad College, he passed the 100 point mark again scoring 109 points.

[00:08:57] And he would go on to finish the season as the nation's leading scorer averaging 28.8 points.

[00:09:03] Making 5 three-point shots a game.

[00:09:05] And be named to the All Midwest Conference second team.

[00:09:09] And his following senior year, he would also lead the nation scoring 28.4 points.

[00:09:14] And be named first team All Conference.

[00:09:16] And upon graduating, he did enter the NBA draft.

[00:09:20] Although he did go undrafted.

[00:09:21] But he did put on a showcase at Las Vegas that featured many international and European leagues.

[00:09:27] But by 2006, he was no longer interested in basketball.

[00:09:31] He would go on to get married and have kids.

[00:09:33] And he owns a video production company.

[00:09:34] And is a local TV personality in Wisconsin.

[00:09:38] And has gone on to live a life outside the limelight.

[00:09:41] And I'm willing to bet if you walked past Jack Taylor on the street,

[00:09:45] you wouldn't realize he was one of the greatest scorers in Division III NCAA history.

[00:09:52] And if you want to learn more about small college basketball,

[00:09:56] check out the Small College Basketball Podcast,

[00:09:59] where host Chris takes you through Division II, Division III, NAIA, USCAA, and NCCAA levels.

[00:10:07] Highlighting the major moments and milestones that often go forgotten at these smaller schools,

[00:10:13] where there's great basketball being played, all beyond just Division I basketball.

[00:10:18] We'll put a link in the description below for you to check that out.

[00:10:22] And if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a like and review wherever you're listening.

[00:10:26] That really helps us when someone finds our podcast to know that it is a great show for them to check out.

[00:10:32] And come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History.

[00:10:37] Dan, did you catch the answer to today's trivia question?

[00:10:39] What was the previous record for the most points in an NCAA basketball game?

[00:10:43] And the answer was Bebo Francis with Rio College scoring 113 points in 1954.

[00:10:51] 54.