Dyaisha Fair Deserves Big Crowd Sunday as She Goes For 3,000 Points
Following her ninth 20+ point game of the season on Thursday against Wake Forest, 5th-year guard Dyashia Fair is on the brink of entering an exclusive club. Fair sits just 14 points away from 3,000 in her historic colligate career.
Since her first game at Buffalo in 2019, Fair has made 1,022 field goals, 362 three-pointers, and 580 free throws. Fair’s racked up awards like MAC Freshman of the Year, All-ACC First Team, All-American honorable mention, and many national watch list appearances. However, none of those recognitions compare to what Fair can accomplish in her next game versus Clemson at the JMA Wireless Dome.
Only 15 players in NCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball history have achieved the 3,000-point milestone. The Rochester, New York native can join legends like Maya Moore, Elena Della Donne, Brittney Griner, and Kelsey Plum in the club. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark is the only active player over 3,000 points and currently sits in fifth place with 3,244 lifetime. The 2023 Naismith Player of the Year needs 283 more points to take down Plum as the sport’s all-time leading scorer. (Would need to average 21.8 ppg in the final 13 games of the regular season to get the record).
But let’s go back to Fair and attempt to put into perspective how big of a deal this accomplishment is. There are currently 351 programs that offer D1 basketball and traditionally hold rosters of 13-15 scholarship players. A rough estimate would give you 5,265 current Women’s College Basketball players in the country. Then you think about how the NCAA has officially offered the sport for 41 years and the amount of players who’ve played during that span. It’s less than a tenth of a percentage point of players who can say they’ve scored 3,000 points at the D1 level.
Even when you look at the men’s game that has been around significantly longer, there are only 11 players with 3,000 career points. Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis fell just three points shy of “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s longtime scoring record of 3,667 points in 2023. Basketball Hall of Famers like Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird couldn’t get over the 3,000-point threshold. No Syracuse or ACC player in Men’s or Women’s College Basketball is a member of the 3,000-point club.
What makes Fair’s near accomplishment even more impressive is averaging 22 points per game standing at 5’6.” Half of the players with 3K are forwards with a clear size advantage, and the other half are taller combo guards. Fair is in her own category being an “undersized” pure scorer and lockup defensive player that can guard multiple positions.
I’ve been fortunate to watch Fair since she was in high school at Edison Tech. There was so much buzz around her in the Section V community, and it wasn’t a surprise when she was named All-Greater Rochester Player of the Year. During my undergrad at Canisius University, UB would play my Golden Griffins every season in the non-conference slate. Our freshman year Fair dropped 24, the next 17, and as a junior 16 (the Bulls beat us 102-42 in that game). It’s been an honor to witness such an amazing talent over the years, and I have full confidence that she will continue her success professionally once her time with the Orange comes to a close.
These are all reasons why Dyaisha Fair deserves to have a packed JMA Wireless Dome for Cuse’s matchup with Clemson on Sunday. Moments like this are extremely rare and why wouldn’t you want to celebrate such a momentous milestone? If you’re not able to attend, I’ll be on the call for the broadcast on ACC Network Extra with tip-off at 2 p.m.
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