Tai Webster

Education

Born in Auckland, Webster attended Westlake Boys High School where he led them to the National Secondary Schools Basketball Championships in October 2012, scoring 24 points en route to garnering tournament Most Valuable Player honours.

Career

He has previously played professionally in both the Australian National Basketball League and the New Zealand National Basketball League, winning championship in 2012 with the Auckland Pirates and in 2012-2013 with the New Zealand Breakers. While attending Westlake, he played basketball for the North Harbour juniors. From 2010 to 2012, he played for the North Harbour U17s, U19s and U21s.

In 2012, Webster played for the Auckland Pirates, where in two games, he recorded a total of two points and two assists.

In August 2012, Webster joined the New Zealand Breakers as a non-contracted development player for the 2012-2013 NBL season. In December 2012, he signed a National Letter of Intent to play college basketball at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

In April 2013, Webster signed with the Waikato Pistons for the 2013 New Zealand NBL season. In 15 games for Waikato, he averaged 18.5 points, 3.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.0 steals per game.

As a freshman for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 2013-2014, Webster was an immediate contributor, averaging 3.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 32 games (30 starts) while helping the Huskers reach the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament for the first time since 1998.

He led Nebraska with 63 assists and was also among the team leaders in steals. Webster reached double figures four times, including a season-high 14 points against Georgia, and paced the squad in assists eight times. His season-best was five assists on three occasions.

As a sophomore in 2014-2015, Webster emerged as one of the first Huskers off the bench, backing-up starting guards Terran Petteway and Shavon Shields.

He fell out of the rotation early in Big Ten play but found a role as the Huskers" energy guy off the bench and his improved defense showed in other facets of his game. In 30 games (four starts), he averaged 3.9 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 18.4 minutes per game.

Webster represented New Zealand in the 2012 International Basketball Federation World Cup Qualifying Tournament where he averaged 13.5 points per game. On August 19, 2014, he was named in the Tall Blacks" twelve-man squad for the 2014 International Basketball Federation Basketball World Cup.

Webster is the son of Tony and Cherry Webster.

Tony was a standout athlete in his own right, earning first team All-Women's Army Corps honors at Hawaii in 1983 and ranking fourth on Hawaii’s career steals list before playing professionally in New Zealand.

Achievements

• The Pirates went on to win the 2012 championship with an 89-83 win over the Wellington Saints in the grand final.