Shoni Schimmel (born May 4, 1992) is an American former professional basketball player. She is a former All-American college player at the University of Louisville and was selected with the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 2014 draft by the Atlanta Dream.

Shoni Schimmel
Personal information
Born (1992-05-04) May 4, 1992 (age 32)
Pendleton, Oregon, U.S.
Listed height5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Listed weight161 lb (73 kg)
Career information
High school
CollegeLouisville (2010–2014)
WNBA draft2014: 1st round, 8th overall pick
Selected by the Atlanta Dream
Playing career2014–2018
PositionPoint guard / shooting guard
Number23, 5
Career history
20142015Atlanta Dream
2016New York Liberty
2018Las Vegas Aces
Career highlights and awards
Stats at WNBA.com
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata
Medals
Women's Basketball
World University Games
Gold medal – first place 2013 Kazan, Russia Team Competition

Early life and high school

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Schimmel, a 5'9" shooting guard, first received attention as a high school player in Oregon. Raised on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Mission, Oregon, she was the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Jonathan Hock called Off the Rez, which chronicled her journey to earn an NCAA scholarship with her basketball ability. She transferred from Hermiston High School in eastern Oregon to the larger Franklin High School in Portland, Oregon, to increase her chances of being recruited to a Division I school.[1] After her senior year at Franklin, Schimmel was named a first team All-American by Parade magazine.[2]

Schimmel was selected to the 2010 Women's Basketball Coaches Association High School Coaches' All-America Team. The top twenty high school players in the country are named as WBCA All-Americans, and eligible to play in the all-star game. She participated in the 2010 WBCA High School All-America Game, scoring six points.[3][4]

College career

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Schimmel chose Louisville for college and became a four-year starter for the Cardinals. As a junior in 2012–13, Schimmel led the team to the championship game of the 2013 Tournament. In her senior season, Schimmel averaged 17.1 points per game to lead the team in scoring and was named an All-American by the USBWA and Associated Press.[5][6]

For her career, she finished second on the Louisville career scoring list, finishing with 2,174 points.[7]

College statistics

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Source[8]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2010–11 Louisville 35 528 40.0 36.5 69.8 3.6 4.9 2.1 0.1 15.1
2011–12 Louisville 31 444 35.3 29.9 72.5 4.5 4.7 2.4 0.5 14.3
2012–13 Louisville 38 539 39.1 32.9 79.2 3.1 3.6 1.7 0.3 14.2
2013–14 Louisville 38 663 39.7 37.6 81.7 4.5 3.8 1.3 0.2 17.4
Career Louisville 142 2174 38.7 34.4 76.9 3.9 4.2 1.8 0.3 15.3

USA Basketball

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Schimmel was selected to be a member of the team representing the US at the 2013 World University Games held in Kazan, Russia. The team, coached by Sherri Coale, won the opening four games easily, scoring in triple digits in each game, and winning by 30 or more points in each case. After winning the quarterfinal game against Sweden, they faced Australia in the semifinal. The USA team opened up as much as a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter of the game but the Australian team fought back and took a one-point lead in the final minute. Crystal Bradford scored a basket with 14 seconds left in the game to secure a 79–78 victory. The gold medal opponent was Russia, but the USA team never trailed, and won 90–71 to win the gold medal and the World University games Championship. Schimmel averaged 4.6 points per game.[9]

Professional career

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On April 14, 2014, Schimmel was selected in the first round of the 2014 WNBA draft (eighth pick overall) by the Atlanta Dream. Despite coming off the bench, Schimmel had an impressive rookie season, averaging 8.3 ppg and was voted a WNBA All-Star starter, become just the third reserve in league history to achieve that.[10] In her first career game, Schimmel scored 7 points to go with a franchise-record 11 assists against the San Antonio Stars.[10] In a regular season game win against the Phoenix Mercury, Schimmel scored a career-high 24 points, where she scored 20 of them in the second quarter, becoming one of six players in WNBA history to score 20 or more points in a quarter.[10] She also earned recognition as the 2014 WNBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player on July 19, 2014, in Phoenix, Arizona, as Schimmel out battled Skylar Diggins by scoring a then WNBA All-Star Game record, 29 points (which would be broken by Maya Moore the following year).[7] In 2014, her jersey was the league's best seller.[11] Some of the other WNBA franchises have held events honoring Native Americans when the Dream is the visiting team.[11] With Schimmel's productivity on the court along with a supporting cast of Sancho Lyttle, all-star center Érika de Souza and superstar small forward Angel McCoughtry, the Atlanta Dream were the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, but were upset in the first round of the playoffs, losing 2–1 to the fourth-seeded Chicago Sky.

In the 2015 season, Schimmel averaged 7.6 ppg despite starting in more games than she did in her rookie season. However, she was voted once again as a WNBA all-star starter, but the Dream never made it to the playoffs. Schimmel led the team in assists throughout the whole season.

Right before the 2016 season, Schimmel was traded to the New York Liberty in exchange for a 2017 second round draft pick.[12] Despite being a two-time all-star, Schimmel would have a significantly reduced role on the team while averaging career lows in minutes per game (4.5 mpg) and points per game (2.1 ppg). She was also out of shape coming into training camp which ultimately led to the amount of playing time she would get.[13][14] Midway through the season, Schimmel suffered a concussion that would cause her to miss the rest of the season, including the playoffs.

In May 2017, it was announced that Schimmel would be sitting out the 2017 WNBA season due to personal issues.[15]

In April 2018, Schimmel made her return to the Liberty in training camp but would be waived a month later before the start of the 2018 WNBA season.[16][17]

On May 15, 2018, Schimmel signed with the Las Vegas Aces.[18] On May 23, 2018, Schimmel was waived by the Aces.[19]

Personal life

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Schimmel has a younger sister, Jude, who was also a teammate of hers at Louisville.[20] Her youngest sister, Milan, played basketball for the University of Cincinnati.[21] She has five brothers: Shae, Mick, Saint, Job and Sun. Her parents are Ceci and Rick Schimmel. On June 15, 2021, she was arrested for felony assault and criminal mischief.[22]

WNBA career statistics

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Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career best ° League leader

Regular season

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2014 Atlanta 34 2 21.0 .374 .342 .840 2.7 5.7 0.7 0.0 2.4 8.3
2015 Atlanta 32 16 19.8 .378 .383 .857 2.5 3.2 0.7 0.1 2.3 7.6
2016 New York 17 0 4.5 .550 .563 .800 0.5 0.6 0.1 0.0 0.4 2.1
2018 Las Vegas 2 0 6.4 .000 .000 .000 1.0 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.0
Career 4 years, 3 teams 85 18 17.0 .379 .366 .845 1.9 2.8 0.6 0.1 2.0 6.6

Postseason

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2014 Atlanta 3 3 19.7 .368 .375 .840 5.7 3.6 1.0 0.0 2.3 6.3
Career 1 year, 1 team 3 3 19.7 .368 .375 .840 5.7 3.6 1.0 0.0 2.3 6.3

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Mother, Daughter Prove Themselves 'Off The Rez'". NPR.org. May 14, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  2. ^ "Franklin's Shoni Schimmel makes Parade All-American first team". OregonLive.com. March 22, 2010. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  3. ^ "Past WBCA HS Coaches' All-America Teams". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  4. ^ "WBCA High School All-America Game Box Scores". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  5. ^ Linter, Jonathan (April 1, 2014). "Shoni Schimmel named second team AP All-American". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  6. ^ Linter, Jonathan (March 31, 2014). "Shoni Schimmel makes USBWA's All-America team". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Shoni Schimmel Selected Eighth in the 2014 WNBA Draft". Louisville Cardinals. April 14, 2014. Archived from the original on April 18, 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  8. ^ "NCAA® Career Statistics". web1.ncaa.org. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  9. ^ "Twenty-Seventh World University Games -- 2013". USA Basketball. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  10. ^ a b c "Shoni Schimmel closing out the regular season the way she started; Breaking records | NDNSPORTS". www.ndnsports.com. 15 August 2014. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  11. ^ a b "Franklin's Shoni Schimmel brings 'Rez Ball' back to NW". kgw.com. KGW. August 7, 2014. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
  12. ^ "Liberty acquire All-Star Schimmel from Dream". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  13. ^ Roberson, Doug. "Dream's Cooper disappointed in Schimmel". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  14. ^ "Shoni Schimmel not much of a factor for New York Liberty | |". uoflcardgame.com. 19 July 2016. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  15. ^ "Liberty's Schimmel sitting out 2017 season". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  16. ^ Tribune, Portland (14 May 2018). "Schimmel, Hamblin waived on eve of WNBA season". portlandtribune.com.
  17. ^ "After year away, Schimmel back with Liberty". ESPN.com. April 30, 2018.
  18. ^ "Las Vegas Signs Two-Time WNBA All-Star Guard Shoni Schimmel". Las Vegas Aces.
  19. ^ "Transactions - WNBA". WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA.
  20. ^ "Two Sisters Bring Native American Pride To Women's NCAA". NPR.com. April 8, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
  21. ^ "Milan Schimmel". UC Women's Basketball. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  22. ^ "Former WNBA, Louisville guard Schimmel arrested in Oregon". KCBY. Associated Press. 15 June 2021.
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