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Making it to the WNBA or setting incredible NCAA records never crossed Shakyla Hill’s mind when she arrived at Grambling State in 2015. She had other aspirations. She wanted to be a lawyer.
Recording a quadruple-double in a game was never part of the plan. Getting two in a career wasn’t even a thought.
As March Madness continues, she is paying attention to the tournament brackets on both the women’s and men’s sides. Basketball always will be of value to her life, but she’s now 28 and works in compliance. Hill plans to start law school in August.
She just happened to achieve phenomenal feats while playing collegiately — feats that aren’t expected to be duplicated any time soon.
On Feb. 2, 2019, Hill had 21 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists and 10 steals in a 77-57 defeat of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. It was a special performance for her, as she is from Little Rock, Ark.
After recording the first one, she was accustomed to the attention. Then it got uncontrollable. She had to turn off her phone because it was going crazy.
Isayra Diaz was an assistant coach with Grambling at the time. She said when James spoke about it during a media session, that really got Hill excited.
Hill credits her coaches for not allowing the moments to get too big. She was revered at Grambling, an HBCU best known athletically for legendary football coach Eddie Robinson and as the alma mater of Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams and Pro Football Hall of Fame defender Willie Brown, among others.
Hill finished her college career as a first-team All-SWAC performer her last three seasons. She was the SWAC Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. And, of course, there were the two quadruple-doubles.
Grambling has never had a player drafted to the WNBA, and Pierre believes Hill could have been based on how she fared against opponents from bigger schools. He also believes Hill would have been an even bigger sensation had she played in today’s name, image and likeness era.
After the draft, Hill chose to play professionally overseas. She headed to Serbia to compete with ZKK Kraljevo of the First Women’s League of Serbia (ZLS).
Hill wanted her play that year to send a bigger message than delivering quality stats. “How people talk about the SWAC and HBCU sports, they kind of downplay it… That was kind of like vindication for myself, and also like, ‘OK, I am really a hard worker,’” Hill said. “Outside of the skills it takes to score, you definitely have to have a lot of grit and a lot of grind to get a quadruple-double because it’s not only time-consuming but energy-consuming.”
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