DOUBLE TAKE
THIERRY BARBOT WAS SITTING ON THE couch in his modest Long Island, N.Y., home watching a University of Kentucky basketball game on television with his 7-year-old daughter, Taylor, cuddled by his side.
The game had been a back-and-forth affair, and the second grader could see the intense interest in her father’s eyes as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
When the game was over, Taylor looked up at her dad and quietly asked, “Can I play that?”
Thierry paused for a moment; then a grin began to spread across his lips as the mental images of teaching his daughter the finer points of a game he had loved growing up began to flash through his subconscious.
Up to that point, Taylor and her twin sister, Taryn, had gone through the usual laundry list of youth participation sports – soccer, softball, tennis – and both had even been part of a local New York dance team.
Nothing seemed to click.
“There are not a lot of boys in my family, so I was trying to figure out what my girls liked to do, which wasn’t easy,” says Thierry with a laugh. “I tried to expose them to everything to see what they liked.”
A few days later, Taylor and Thierry headed to the neighborhood park to see just what his daughter could do on a basketball court.
A lot, it turned out. Taylor was a natural.
“She took a few shots, dribbled the ball around the court, and I think everything kind of fell into place for her,” recalls Thierry. “It didn’t happen overnight, but I could tell she was hooked. I couldn’t keep her away from the courts. She would dribble the basketball around the house all day, every day.”
After watching her sister and father bond over the game, Taryn had her interest piqued and decided to join the family on the concrete slabs.
“They both just love the game,” says Thierry, whose brother was a point guard for Division II Mercy University. “Taylor was a little bit ahead of her sister in the beginning. She really worked on her craft. Then Taryn got serious about it and took off from there. I think it’s something we’ve been able to share as a family.”
The Barbot sisters’ obsession with basketball eventually led them to the South Carolina Lowcountry and to CofC women’s basketball head coach Robin Harmony.
The rising juniors have been cornerstones in revitalizing the women’s basketball program over the past two seasons, which included back-to-back 20-win campaigns.
The Floral Park, N.Y., natives helped lead the Cougars to a historic season this past winter. The Cougars went 25-8, finishing second in the Coastal Athletic Association and earning a spot in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, where they took down Howard University by 20 points in the opening round.
“Taylor and Taryn are such great kids and great teammates,” says Harmony. “They are the heartbeat of our program. They’re from New York, so they are tough kids; they work on their games and are in the gym every single day. They really are blue collar players.”
The 5-foot-9-inch Taylor is the quintessential floor general – a pass-first point guard who wants to get her teammates involved – and is a tenacious, on-the-ball defender.
Although Taylor took the court in 22 games as a freshman during the 2023–24 season, she spent the majority of her first year in the Cougars’ program playing behind All-CAA point guard Jenna Annecchiarico.
Taylor thrived in her expanded role. She wasn’t known as a 3-point threat coming out of high school but worked tirelessly in the gym to improve her shooting and has become more of an offensive threat.
“Taylor couldn’t throw it in the ocean as a freshman,” says Harmony. “She’s really put in the work to improve that part of her game. She can hit the 3 now, so teams have to come out and guard her. She’s starting to play like the player we thought she could be. She runs the team, sees the floor really well and has a high basketball IQ.”
The 5-foot-10-inch Taryn, who was named the school’s Female Athlete of the Year in April, has a prototypical scorer’s mentality. She is a downhill, aggressive driver who loves to take defenders off the dribble or shoot the open 3-point shot.
As a freshman, Taryn was second on the team in scoring, averaging 14.3 points a game as she earned CAA Rookie of the Year honors.
There was no sophomore slump this past season as Taryn led the team in scoring (16.6 points per game) and was named the CAA Player of the Year.
“Taryn has always been able to put the ball in the basket,” says Harmony. “She can score at all three levels.”
Off the court, the rising juniors couldn’t be more different. Taylor is a bundle of energy the instant her eyes open each day. Most mornings, she rises before the sun comes up and heads over to TD Arena or the practice gym to get up a few shots before classes begin.
“We’re two totally different people,” says Taryn. “I’m more outgoing. I like to relax, and Taylor likes to go off and do her thing.”
While the Barbot sisters might be complete opposites off the court, when they’re on it, they are in perfect sync with each other and the rest of their teammates.
“We are going to do whatever we need to do to help the team win,” says Taylor.
So, who’s the best player? Depends on who’s asking.
“I win most of our one-on-one games,” says Taryn. “There’s a little bit of rivalry between us.”
Thierry remembers having to play referee on more than a few occasions in the driveway of their home when the sisters would play one-on-one.
“Things could get very heated between them,” he says. “There’s a little bit of a sibling rivalry, but that’s only because they are both so competitive. Iron sharpens iron, but when they came inside, they were back to being sisters and having each other’s back.”
The goal for the sisters moving forward is to lead the Cougars to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
“That’s the goal,” says Taylor. “That’s where we belong.”