Taj Cole

Personal: Cole was one of five finalists for the 2023 Athletes Unlimited Civic Leadership Award presented by EY. She graduated from Virginia Tech in 2021 with a master’s degree in leadership studies and has a basketball academy private school in Virginia. She is interested in modeling and apparel/footwear design and has a dog named Mamba. Her hobbies also include spending time with friends and family, drawing comic books, reading, shopping, and watching sports. She lists her mother, Avery, and Virginia Tech head women’s basketball coach Kenny Brooks as people who have made a difference in her life. She would be a basketball coach if she was not playing basketball and also wore No. 0 during her career at Georgia.

2024 Season: Taj Cole accumulated 2,593 leaderboard points during her third Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball season. She appeared in all 12 games as a reserve and averaged 7.2 points and 1.5 rebounds per outing. Cole was third in the league with a .870 free throw percentage. She scored a season-high 17 points against Team Gray on March 10, including a perfect 7-for-7 effort at the free throw line. She also netted 17 points in the season finale against Team Sims after making 6-of-12 field goal attempts and all four free throws. Cole grabbed a season-high four rebounds against Team Gray on March 2.

2023 Season: In 2023, she finished her second Athletes Unlimited season with 2,733 leaderboard points. She posted a season-high 410 leaderboard points against Team Sims on March 4 in the Week Two finale. Cole served as a captain during Week One and was one of nine players to wear all four jersey colors during the season. She appeared in all 15 games while making five starts and averaged 7.3 points and 1.9 rebounds per contest. She ranked 10th in the league with 39 assists, including a season-high six assists against Team Sims on March 4. Cole erupted for an Athletes Unlimited career-high 29 points against Team Smith on March 10. She shot 8-of-16 from the field and 11-of-12 at the free throw line while adding six rebounds and six drawn fouls. She opened the campaign with a 12-point performance against Team Cloud and also collected 10 points against Team Sims on February 24 and March 24.

2022 Season: Cole closed her inaugural season in 2022 in 10th place on the leaderboard with 4,415 points. She posted four games with 400 or more points, including a season-high 517 points in the season finale against Team Harrison. She was the seventh-leading scorer in Athletes Unlimited with a 16.9 average and authored 12 double-digit scoring efforts, including six 20-point outings. Cole ranked third in the league with 91 assists and posted 11 outings with five or more assists, including a season-high 12 assists against Team Cloud to close Week Two. She tied for fifth in AU with 26 steals and also ranked fourth in field goal attempts (238), seventh in field goals made (97), and eighth in free throws made (35) and free throw attempts (41). She opened the season with back-to-back 20-point performances, making 8-of-22 field goal attempts against Team Sims en route to 21 points before scoring 24 points on January 28 against Team Carrington. Cole netted a season-high 26 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field, including 3-of-5 from three-point range, along with making 5-of-6 free throws against Team Sims on February 18. She finished the season with 24 points on February 26 against Team Harrison, shooting 8-for-16 from the field, including 6-of-9 three-point field goal attempts.

Other Professional Experience:

She played in Malaga, Spain, in 2020 and signed a Training Camp contract by the Connecticut Sun in February 2022.

At Virginia Tech: Cole started her career at Louisville before playing three seasons at Georgia and transferred to Virginia Tech for her final year of eligibility. She was an Atlantic Coast Conference All-Defensive Team selection who started all 30 games for the Hokies in 2019-20 and led the ACC with 194 assists. She averaged 9.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game while shooting 39 percent from the field and registered four double-doubles with the Hokies. Cole started every game in two seasons at Georgia and led the Southeastern Conference and ranked eighth nationally in total assists (202) during the 2018-19 campaign. She earned a spot on the Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List, reached double figures in scoring 12 times as a freshman, and ranked sixth in the SEC with 135 assists. She opened her college career in 2015-16 at Louisville, where she played in all 34 games with six starts and helped the Cardinals post a 26-8 record, including a 15-1 mark in the ACC.