Taniya Latson, welcome to the Courtside Club.
When the game is on the line, Taniya Latson goes to work.
You said at the beginning of the season that you wanted to improve on your leadership.
Do you feel like you've done that this season?
I'm way more confident.
I feel like I'm in a position where I can be a great leader and I am a great leader.
You know, I feel like I've grown in that area for sure.
Latson gets it up and hits it at the...
Walk me through that play.
How are you feeling in that moment?
I get it on the sideline in that area and I saw two fly out at me and I knew they were
So I just, you know, drove by them and just scored the layup.
That's what I do best.
Taniya Latson in the right place at the right time.
Count the bucket.
Have you thought about your WNBA dreams?
You know, I have the opportunity of being a first round pick next year and that's something
that, you know, that's always been a dream of mine.
So I'm just very blessed.
What's up, you guys?
I'm Rachel Demita and welcome to the Courtside Club.
Today is another episode of Courtside.
Courtside Madness, where we have another player interview for you.
And today I'm so excited to welcome Taniya Latson on the show.
She has flown so far under the radar and she doesn't get as much media attention that she
So I'm so excited to share her story with you guys today.
You guys can get familiar with her game and this is definitely a player to look out for
in this year's NCAA tournament.
So I hope that you guys enjoy the interview and let's jump into it.
Taniya Latson, welcome to the Courtside Club.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for coming on.
I firstly just want to say you are such an incredible player and I'm so happy to have
you on today because I feel like you have flown under the radar for nearly your entire
I don't know how you continue to do it, even with all the accolades, but I'm so excited
today to talk about your game, introduce your game to our Courtside audience, and I think
it's going to be fun.
We're sitting here at the end of your junior season, getting ready for the tournament.
How are you feeling?
I'm feeling good.
I'm really hopeful going into this tournament that we'll make a good run and I'm just excited
to see what we do as a team.
Do you guys have any set goals?
What are your sights on?
Of course, we want to make it to Sweet 16.
We want to get past that first round.
That's something that we weren't able to do since I've been here.
So get past the first round.
Possibly go to a Sweet 16 Elite Eight and just see what happens.
So you said at the beginning of the season that you wanted to improve on your leadership
Do you feel like you've done that this season?
Oh, yeah, definitely.
That's something that I took on a role last year.
I was a captain, but I didn't really know much.
I was a sophomore.
I wasn't really confident in my voice, and I feel like this year I'm way more confident.
You know, as the season progressed, I feel like I'm in a position where I can be a great
And I am a great leader.
It's a work in progress still, but, you know, I feel like I've grown in that area for sure.
In what ways have you seen that trickle down into your team?
Do you feel like your guys' chemistry is better overall?
Do you feel like you guys are talking more on the court?
Yeah, definitely.
I feel like people, you know, they respect me, KK, and Oz.
We're the three captains.
They respect our voices.
And my teammates, they, you know, they take the constructive criticism and they try to,
And we all just have each other's back.
The biggest thing is just holding each other accountable and, you know, pushing each other
and getting better and closer as a team.
And I feel like we've done that on and off the court.
That's special when you have teammates that you're able to push them, hold them accountable.
But it's not like it creates tension between the two.
You're able to be tough, but it ends up improving everyone.
Is there anything else in your game that you feel like you've made a leap on this season
and that you've improved?
I would say my shooting, for sure.
My three-point shooting has been, you know, better than previous years.
And that's something that I've been working on in offseason.
And even during the season, just getting up more reps, getting up, you know, more shots
with the coaches and stuff like that.
Staying after practice, you know, coming in the gym and working hard.
I feel like that's been an area that I've always wanted to improve.
And I'm doing that this year.
So I'm just excited to see where that can keep going.
So you lead the game.
You lead the country in scoring.
That's not a small feat.
24.9 points per game.
And you're also doing it efficiently.
So what is that one thing that gets you going offensively?
Because I feel like it's different for every player.
Sometimes it's a hustle play on defense.
Sometimes it's getting their teammates involved first.
What is it for you?
Attacking the basket, getting to the rim.
That's what gets me going.
When I see that first layup going, I'm like, okay, I'm going to have a good game.
And also getting my teammates involved definitely helps, too.
Because I know when...
We're playing as a team and we're gelling.
It's just good for everybody.
You're definitely a downhill player.
And it's very hard to stop you.
When you have your mindset, like, I'm going to take it to the rim.
I've seen you break four people's ankles at one time and get to the bucket.
So you had 40 points in the game against Virginia Tech.
So that's tying Florida State's record for most points in a game,
which was set by Natasha Howard in 2014.
As we all know, she's having an incredible career.
So how does that feel to, one, be up there on the leaderboard at Florida State,
but also be up there with somebody like Natasha?
It feels amazing.
I mean, this is what I worked for.
And I went to Coach Brooke in the beginning of the season with some goals.
I was just so happy to see it play out the way it did.
And 40 points was always a goal for me, especially because I could score a lot.
I wanted to break that record, but I missed a couple free throws.
But I'm just blessed.
And Natasha, she's such a great leader.
She is genuine when she is supporting us on social media and stuff like that.
So I look up to her in a lot of ways.
Have you spoken to her at all?
Yeah, definitely.
She DMs us all the time.
She reposts us on her story.
So, yeah, she's just a great person.
Has she given you any advice that's really stuck with you?
She just shows a lot of love and support.
And that's, you know, that's big for a person.
You know, in her career and what she's doing now.
And, you know, she's always giving back.
And, you know, she talks a lot to KK because they play most of the same position.
I don't really, I'm not a big man, but, you know, she shows a lot of love.
And it's very, it's very appreciated.
That's awesome to have that support.
So I want to talk about the big win that you guys had against Notre Dame
toward the end of the season.
How big was that for you guys?
Because I think Notre Dame at the time was the number one seed.
Yeah, it was a big.
It was a big win for us.
They had lost the previous game.
And we just, you know, we tried to capitalize off of their mistakes.
They're a really, really good team, possibly a Final Four team.
So we knew we had our work cut out for us, but we did it as a team.
And I feel like that was the beauty of that win.
Everybody pinched in.
And, you know, I turned up a little bit in the fourth quarter.
But, yeah, it was a great win for the program, for sure.
When you go up against a team like that, that has so many threats,
how do you guys prepare?
For a team like that?
I mean, we got to be aggressive.
That was the main thing going into the game.
Just make it everything hard for them.
You know, nothing easy.
And I felt like we really bought into that.
And, you know, we stuck together as a team.
We huddled every dead ball.
And, you know, even through mistakes, we still pushed through.
And we knew they're a momentum team.
So we had to stop their runs as fast as possible.
And, you know, capitalize off of those mistakes, like I said.
And I feel like that, you know, that won us the game.
I feel like you guys are kind of a momentum team as well.
You like to play fast.
Yeah, definitely.
Who instilled that in this team?
Or is that just the Florida State culture of basketball?
He's the offensive coach.
So he does a lot of our offense.
And when I first got here, it was his first year, too.
So he came in with that spirit.
And he wanted to be one of the fastest teams in the country.
And that's what we usually – that's something that he instills.
And he instills in us in practice and, you know, in games.
And, you know, playing with pace is important for the way that he wants us to play.
And, I mean, it works perfectly with the way I want to play, too.
So I'm just blessed to be in that position with a coach that, you know,
allows me to be me and allows my teammates to be themselves, too.
So I want to talk about another big game.
And I want to talk about specifically your game winner against UNC.
So you had 25 points that game.
Final seconds to go.
You get the ball.
You get two players up in the air.
You get past them.
And then you get another two players up in the air.
I said, wait a second.
She just beat the entire team to score this bucket.
So walk me through that play.
How are you feeling in that moment?
Break it down for me.
Before that play, Renia Kelly had tied the game up.
And I was like, dang, we almost had it.
The game was over after that if she would have missed it.
So, you know, we got Coach Brooke called a timeout.
To advance the ball and Coach Bill.
It was a play that we ran a lot in practice at end of game situations and stuff like that.
So I knew the first thing I needed to do was just get open.
And usually I get it on the sideline in that area.
And I saw two fly out at me.
And I knew they were going to jump.
So I just, you know, drove by them and just, you know, I guess scored the layup.
That's what I do best.
So I just got to the basket.
You didn't just score the layup.
There were two more jumping also that you didn't get by.
You split them somehow.
When you watch it in slow-mo, it's kind of crazy.
Like, that was an insane game winner.
So that's also at UNC, which their crowd is crazy.
Have there been any other games that stood out to you where maybe you guys were on the road?
Maybe you're at home that were really memorable for you?
Tennessee was a really memorable game.
They had a lot of fans.
Even though we lost that game, I felt like that was a turning point for us.
We were down by 20.
We lost that half, and we came all the way back and lost by two.
That was, you know, like, we knew that we were capable of competing with other elite, you know, teams.
And we were able to hold our own, basically.
And I feel like that gave us momentum going into the season after that game.
No matter how much we're down by, we can always fight back.
And we try to limit that, you know, not being down in the first half.
We try to get off to a good start.
But I feel like that really helped us as a team.
We've grown since then.
I know that that's something that you've talked about in previous interviews, even before the season started,
is maybe the reason that your team and yourself has flown under the radar, you said,
is because we haven't necessarily been able to beat great teams consistently.
Do you feel like you guys are getting closer in doing that with big wins like you're talking about here?
Oh, yeah, definitely.
I feel like teams, other great teams, are just as scared to play us.
We have a lot of weapons.
We have a trio that's averaging the most points in the country.
And, you know, a lot of teams can't stop that.
And like I said, just those.
I think we believe in each other and how close we are in the chemistry that we have.
We know what we're capable of.
We just have to go do the work.
And it starts with rebounding, defending, all the little things that's going to make us a great team.
And you know what March Madness stands for.
Anything can happen.
And so I feel like if you guys are ready, take it one game at a time.
Who knows how far you can get?
I feel like that's our mindset.
Going into the into the tournament for sure.
So you have won so many awards throughout your career and broken so many records.
I feel like I'd probably be here for an hour if I just went down the list.
But one that I want to talk about specifically is the Naismith Player of the Year Award,
because you are up for that.
So firstly, congratulations on being nominated for that.
And you're also surrounded by so many other great players.
So I want to go down the list here.
We have Georgia Amor.
We have Lauren Betts.
And Juju Watkins.
So firstly, what names stand out to you on this list?
And if you could be co-winners with any of these players, who would you choose?
She's having a great year this year.
She turned up against UCLA.
I've been knowing Juju since she was in like seventh grade.
We played with each other a lot.
We played against each other a lot.
We were on the same.
Under Armour circuit.
So like, that's my girl.
Like, she shows love.
And she's been hooping.
And I feel like she flew under the radar.
She wasn't having the best start to the beginning of the season.
But she showed up big time.
I think she's second leading after me in the country in scoring.
So, yeah, she's had some really big games, especially against UCLA.
You have the duo right there.
Top two leading scorers.
Do you feel like that's someone you could maybe join up with maybe at the next level?
We don't know what the future holds, but I'm excited to see where her career ends up and
where I end up for sure.
So tonight here on the Courtside Club, we like to take a halftime break.
And I have a little game for you if you're down.
So today I want to build the perfect basketball player.
So I have a list of traits and I want you to choose the player that you would choose
if you were building the perfect player.
This can be on the men's.
This can be on the women's side, pro, college, you name it.
This is your player.
So let's start with our ball handling abilities.
So what about long range shooting?
Also two of the best.
What about the mid range game?
That's that's different.
Courtney Williams.
Yeah, I'll take that.
What about finishing at the rim?
I've also heard you said that you looked up to him and try to kind of mimic his style of
play with his athleticism.
Yeah, definitely.
Um, he's very explosive.
I mean, nobody plays like LeBron, even at this level.
Like nobody, nobody has came in the league and just played like LeBron.
It's hard to mimic that.
He's just a beast, like, and that's how he plays.
He's developed a shot over the years, too.
So like, it's just hard to guard that.
So we have his finishing at the rim.
So what about defense?
Ooh, who's playing really good defense right now?
Um, a start Thompson.
I think he's at, uh, he, he plays for the Detroit Pistons.
He's, he's been locking up a lot of great players lately.
Little wild card there.
What about rebounding?
We're going, we're going all eras here, but I love it.
How about athleticism?
You'll have some explosive donks there.
What about basketball?
What about basketball?
What about basketball?
What about trash-talking abilities?
Ooh, trash this could also be someone you played against who might have been, you know,
talking a little too much.
They don't talk to me.
They know what it is on the other side.
If they start talking, don't talk to me cause I'm gonna get started out and I'm gonna do
Um, you got another 40 come in.
don't need trash talkers i mean draymond green but like he's so like but yeah draymond green
because he'll take it beyond the trash talking yeah yeah yeah you go too far sometimes yeah so
you'll just take his talking we don't we don't need anything extra yeah okay and last but not
least their heart their heart oh i don't know
i guess mj michael jordan i mean he was one of the best to ever do it and he had a lot of heart
um you know so i guess him i feel like that's the perfect choice for that i love it i feel
like that's a that's a pretty outstanding all-around basketball player no seriously
cool all right it's time for the second half okay so let's take it back to the recruitment process
when you were looking at different schools what was about what was it about florida state that
really stood out to you when you're like this is my home um florida state was the first school i've
ever visited um you know the girls here they treated me like i was a little sister and you
know coach brooke and coach sue um they played a really big part in my recruitment they were
always consistent um they always gave me good advice and they always gave me good advice and
you know i felt like i could be myself and it wasn't far from home either i'm from miami so
um it's not far from home um and i just love the atmosphere and the culture at florida state um i
feel like um it's one of the best in college basketball and college sports in general um
just the culture here is amazing so um those were the deciding factors for me do you go to some of
the basketball and football games too oh yeah i try to make it to a lot of other sports just to
you know um get out some of the basketball and football games and i feel like it's one of the
outside of my own sport i go to the softball games the soccer games the baseball games
i go to almost every sport yeah it's got to be fun when you're at a big athletic school
just being able to take in all the other sports too yeah definitely and our women's sports is
really good like disclaimer a lot of people don't know that but our women's sports are really good
like softball and soccer they're always really good so i love i enjoy those games so when you
got to florida state as a freshman they threw you right in
like what was that transition like you were starting as a freshman and he's like you know
what figure it out we need you on the court yeah the crazy part is i don't even think i was going
to start going into the season um the beginning of summer i was kind of like i i was that was
the first time i played point guard i'm usually a shooting guard i play off the ball a lot so
i'm not used to playing point guard and they wanted me to do that here and it was a bit of
an adjustment because i didn't know whether to just pass the entire time or score and i think
they were like just be yourself um and so that was something that i had to eventually you know
learn um and they were allowing me to do that and i feel like that's what built my momentum going
into the season is that the freedom that they gave me to be myself and facilitate still and
you know be the player that i am i don't think people really understand what it's like going
from being a two guard for most of your career and then having to go to the point because they
also tried to do that to me in college it it was i hated every bit of it
like good on you because you've obviously figured it out and figured out a way to
make your team better but oh my god was that probably when you first got there if it was
anything like me you're staying after doing ball handling drills doing all this other stuff
definitely trying to learn plays going home stressed out i mean i was so
i went to coach book and i'm like i don't know like what to do and she was just like you know
what just take it day by day you know what i mean like stack days get one percent better each day
and eventually it'll come but i knew they recruited me as a scorer and as a defender
and i knew like that's what i needed to do um and you know i needed to be great in that
while also facilitating it was so hard it was so hard but um i'm so glad that they gave me
the freedom like i said to just be myself um and everything played the way it did so yeah
and being young too as the floor general being one of the youngest on your team when you first
come in that's a whole nother so kudos to you you've clearly figured it out it's
worked out great for you but yeah i feel you that's it's a tough transition what was your
welcome to college moment did you have one yeah definitely um against louisville um we haven't
beaten them since i've been here um but uh they had that team with haley vanlith um marissa mariah
marissa russell or something like that she was a really good defender um and they had a pretty
good team i think they almost went to like elite eight or something like that i don't know i don't
remember but they were really really good my freshman year and um yeah i only had like 11
points that game they were super physical with me and i was like oh yeah this is like this is
college basketball like when i hit them i was like okay yeah i need to beat them the next year
we didn't beat them but um i played better and that was that was that was something that i really
wanted to do love that okay so growing up i know that you moved around quite a bit with your family
being in the military and you did spend a lot of time in hawaii correct me if i'm wrong
so can you tell me maybe i'm just naive to this but can you tell me a little bit about the basketball
culture in hawaii because when i think of hawaii i i don't think of basketball as being like the
sport you think of surfing or skateboarding or hiking or you know hawaii things what was the
basketball culture like there and playing basketball there uh it was super physical i
feel like that's the reason why you know i'm able to you know get to the basket the way i am um
i've always been a downhill player i never really had a shot so that was
something that you know i had to take on um they were super physical like i said um and it was just
like people took it people took it serious like it was really big around like where i live so it was
you know um people took it really serious i played with a lot of good players um i used to play
against a lot of guys too like i played with both like mixed with girls and boys um so i played a
lot um of basketball in hawaii and i feel like that's where i grew to love the game even more
because i developed my game a little bit there and i became stronger and
you know people were telling me how good i was and that's where i received my first offer
so um yeah it's it's a it's a really good uh culture down there in hawaii with basketball
was there anything else that you did in hawaii did you ever surf or anything in your free time
oh no no i never i'm too scared i was too scared to do that but we used to go to the beach all the
time all the time okay so you were on the beach you just weren't out there no right okay i i fully
um i'm probably eighth grade while i was in hawaii when i first received my first offer um that was
like a defining moment like okay well i'm really good at this and coaches are starting to realize
that and you know this is something that i should give my full attention to um and you know to just
get better and keep getting better um and that was something that my dad wanted for me my mom
wanted for me they were very supportive so you know that's when i decided to really start taking
have you thought about your wnba dreams yeah um of course i want to go to the league um you know i
have the opportunity of being a first round pick next year and that's something that you know that's
always been a dream of mine so i'm just very blessed are there any players that in the league
now that you've been following yeah um natasha howard uh is one of them uh courtney williams i
watch her game a lot um you know age of williams and she's a beast she's we have the same
age of williams and she's a beast she's we have the same age of williams and she's a beast she's
agent so i see a lot of her stuff um chelsea gray um a lot of them i follow a lot of the
uh greats in the league i used to follow diana tarassi but now she's you know she's retired so
i used to watch her game a lot too that's crazy it's an end of an end of an era for
tarassi which i used to also watch her when i was a kid she's been around forever but this new wave
that we're seeing in women's basketball with the class that's coming out this year the
one that will be your class next year and continuing on is so exciting so i'm truly
excited to see you at the next level and obviously follow the rest of your college career starting
with the tournament coming up but i know it is a hectic time for you guys i don't want to keep you
too long but before i let you go i have some buzzer beaters for you okay okay so who is one
person that you would love to see sitting courtside at your game lebron james
it's a good one who is one person dead or alive that you would love to sit courtside with
i'll probably say
stiff curry i like stiff curry okay we got the one and the two we have your we have your finishing
at the rim sitting courtside for your game and then we have your long range shooter sitting with
in what is one event in history it could be a sporting event or other that you would love to
sit courtside for i'll probably say the orike notre dame game winner that was crazy i was
sitting in the i was actually like watching the tv and i watched that live and it was insane so
i wish i was at that game for sure that was huge yeah well tonight thank you so much once again for
coming on courtside club let everyone know where you're at and i'll see you next time
you can find me at cbg to naya on instagram and twitter is naya latson and my tiktok is
naya latson yeah perfect we will tag you there and obviously good luck in the tournament and
the rest of the way we will be following along for sure thank you so much i appreciate you