The Numbers Don’t Lie: Why Tessa Johnson Might Be the Best Shooter in Women’s College Basketball
Tessa Johnson is arguably the best shooter — and one of the best scorers, period — in women’s college basketball right now. And unlike a lot of preseason hype, this case is backed by data that’s remarkably hard to argue with.
The stat that separates her from everyone else
According to career shooting splits, Johnson has connected on 171 of 389 three-point attempts across 110 career games at South Carolina — a 44.0% clip for her career. What makes that number extraordinary isn’t just the raw percentage; it’s the consistency behind it. Johnson is the only returning player in the country to shoot at least 43% from three-point range in each of the last three seasons. Sustaining that level of accuracy across multiple years, rather than posting one hot season, is what separates a genuinely elite shooter from a player who simply caught fire for a stretch.
Efficiency that held up even as her role expanded
What makes her case even more compelling is how she performed once given a bigger workload. Playing at South Carolina means competing for touches on a roster stacked with elite talent, so Johnson hasn’t always received the shot volume or minutes that many of the nation’s top scorers get elsewhere. But last season, in her first year as a full-time starter, she didn’t just handle an expanded role — she thrived in it, shooting nearly 45% from deep while burying 90 three-pointers on the year. That’s the real test for any efficient role player stepping into a bigger spotlight: does the percentage hold when the volume goes up? For Johnson, it clearly did.
More than a shooter
While her marksmanship draws the headlines, her overall game reaches further than the three-point line. She moves effectively without the ball, generates quality scoring chances for herself and others, competes hard on the defensive end, and consistently makes winning plays — the harder-to-quantify traits that tend to translate most directly to the next level of competition. Shooters who only shoot are replaceable; shooters who also move well, create advantages, and defend become foundational pieces.
A draft prospect worth watching closely
Looking ahead, Johnson profiles as one of the safest prospects in the 2027 WNBA Draft class. Her combination of shooting range, ability to create her own space, and scoring versatility from multiple areas of the floor gives her one of the higher ceilings among next year’s draft-eligible players. In a league where spacing and perimeter shooting are increasingly premium skills, a player with her level of sustained three-point accuracy and complementary two-way ability represents about as low-risk, high-reward a projection as exists in this class.
The bottom line
Strip away awards, strip away minutes played, and set aside whatever narratives surround more heavily-hyped names around the country — when evaluated purely pound-for-pound, Tessa Johnson stands out as one of the best players in women’s college basketball today. The numbers, more than any subjective ranking, make that case on their own.
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