In 2010, Shoni Schimmel was the talk of the college recruiting scene, rated as high as the #6 recruit in the nation by Hoop Gurlz. At the time, Shoni was the only ESPN 100 recruit who had not signed with a college during her senior year. Speculations and rumors began to mount as to why as to why the dynamic guard, who had been compared to “Pistol” Pete Maravich, hadn’t signed with a college even after her high school season was over. Fast forward now four years later, all that doubt on whether Shoni or her sister Jude could make it at the next level is all water under the bridge.

Since arriving in Louisville, Shoni has been a four year starter for the Cardinals and averaged an amazing 15.1 points per game as a freshman which was good enough to get her named to the Big East Conference All-Freshman team and honorable mention for the conference. Shoni arrived at Louisville more like a junior college transfer than a freshman and what head coach Jeff Walz knew from the beginning is that she just needed some court time to adjust her play to the next level. By the time the NCAA tourney arrived, Shoni was fearless and in rare form and for the first time broke into the national headlines when she scored a game and career high 33 points over the No. 2 seed Xavier to advance the Cardinals to the sweet 16 round of the women’s March Madness tournament that season.

During her sophomore season, Shoni was the team’s leading scorer at 14.3 points per game and for the first time in her college career was named to the Wooden Watch list, which was an honor in itself considering that list is reserved generally for WNBA top 10 picks. Shoni finished the season being named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) All-Region 1 team.