BUILT FOR THIS: Ta’Niya Latson’s Ascension into Stardom at Florida State and as the NCAA’s Leading Scorer

Ta’Niya Latson has been building for this moment. Piece by piece, she set the foundation for her illustrious career at Florida State as a freshman from the very start. In her debut, she nearly had a double-double with 28 points and 9 boards against Bethune-Cookman. In her second game, she dropped 34 points in a win against Kent State, which marked the first of seven 30-point performances she’d have that year (a program record). The Seminoles, and the entire ACC, had never seen a scoring machine like her before. She went on to win ACC Rookie of the Year and tally 659 total points, setting the ACC’s single-season freshman scoring record. By the time the conference tournament came around, all eyes were on the No. 7 seed Seminoles when…

Just like that, all the pieces came crashing down. 

Latson was ruled out with an injury and missed both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. FSU eventually lost to Georgia in the first round. 

“That really just changed my perspective on a lot of things, like, the game can be gone in an instant,” Latson, who is currently leading the country in scoring as a junior, says on the phone in March. In just a few days, the Seminoles will play George Mason in the first round of the NCAA tournament. “Basketball isn’t the end all be all for me, I have to have a backup plan. I have to be somebody outside of basketball.”

During the time she was out, she missed the competitiveness of being on the court the most. The rush of a big game and the chance to experience it on the biggest stage like the NCAA tournament. “That’s something that I’ll never take for granted again,” she says. 

Latson’s first game back to the court happened to be at USA tryouts over the summer, which proved to be even more of a mental challenge. Thoughts of, Will I be the same? and How’s my body going to react to this? raced through her mind. 

What she needed was an escape. It was last year that Latson, who bounced back for her sophomore season and matched her scoring average, found herself picking up LEGOs as a hobby again. Growing up in Miami, she always loved to play with them, but her parents weren’t able to afford the sets, so eventually she stopped. 

Now that she’s able to cop her own, it’s a different story. Lately, Latson has been creating entire LEGO masterpieces; she’s currently building a Marvel box, which features the iconic logo and characters popping out from the sides, as well as a radio that’s 906 pieces. She tries to find time when she can and works on them either before or after practice, with a majority of her building getting done on her off days. 

“I have to be dialed in when I’m building these LEGOs,” she says. “And it just takes me to another place. The creativity part of it is just beautiful to see that you can do something from scratch.”

She’s channeling her artistic side—which also includes journaling and wanting to learn to play the piano—in her game, too. On the court this season, Latson moves with grace and precision. Her shot is a work of art in itself. Perfect release. Perfect arc. A perfect swish through the basket every time she launches from three. 

This offseason, Latson worked with her trainer in Atlanta on refining every little detail of her approach when it came to shooting. She watched film on the greats, too, from Stephen Curry to Kyrie Irving, and studied how they placed their feet and shot the rock consistently the same way every single time. 

All that work is evident across the stat sheet this season; Latson is currently averaging a career-high 24.9 ppg, as well as 4.7 apg. Her name is being mentioned in the National Player of the Year conversation, too, which has always been a goal of hers. 

“Coach Brooke [Wyckoff], we had a conversation before the season started about my goals for myself and things like that. Obviously, I wanted to be nominated for National Player of the Year this year, [and I] knew that I needed to improve on my passing. That was something that was really important to me.” 

As the team’s captain, leader and the orchestrator of the offense, what helps her stay grounded throughout the ups and downs of the season is the advice Wyckoff has given. “She always tells me to just stack days and take things day by day,” Latson says. 

That’s another thing she’s building toward, too. As Latson continues to become a household name at Florida State ahead of her senior year, she has her sights set on turning her game into a real-life masterpiece, too. When asked what exactly that looks like, she breaks it down for us like it’s a new LEGO set she’s just discovered. We can only imagine what the final outcome will be. 

“[I want] to just continue to build off what I did this season [and] to be consistent. I always pride myself on that,” Latson says. “And [also] improving in areas like turnovers, that’s something that I want to limit as much as possible. I want to average more assists. I want to get more rebounds, and just to continue to grow my leadership.” 

Action photos via Getty Images and LEGO photos courtesy of KLUTCH SPORTS.

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