Nebraska point guard Jaz Shelley has heard her name called in the 2024 WNBA Draft. She was selected by the Phoenix Mercury with the 29th overall pick in the third round.
Shelley’s pro career begins after the 23-year-old has already had quite the hoops career. Hailing from Moe, Australia, Shelley grew up a multi-sport athlete and first played for the Melbourne Boomers in the WNBL before going to college. Stateside, she spent two years at Oregon before transferring to Nebraska for three very strong seasons, including her super-senior year in 2024.
With the Ducks, Shelley averaged 17 minutes per game in a more secondary role on one great team in 2020 and a decent squad in 2021. However, that ’21 Oregon squad was loaded with some future stars on other teams, including Shelley and current South Carolina star Te-Hina Paopao in the backcourt. Kentucky’s leading scorer in 2023-24, Maddie Scherr, and Notre Dame’s starting center, Kylee Watson, also both played reserve roles on that 2021 Oregon team.
Once at Nebraska, Shelley shined, immediately elevating to be the team’s starting point guard and averaging 13 points and five assists per game in year one. As a true senior in 2022, those numbers were 14 and six, and then this season, back to 13 and five.
Shelley’s hallmark skills are her jump shot and passing. The Aussie point guard chucked up more than six 3-point attempts per game across her three seasons at Nebraska and knocked down 37% of those shots. Meanwhile, she averaged 5.7 assists per game across three years with the Huskers.
Per the Nebraska athletics website, Shelley set some records in both departments with the Cornhuskers:
“Her 199 assists ranked No. 3 on the Husker single-season charts. Shelley’s 405 assists combined in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons were the most in school history in any two-year span, while her 244 threes were the most by any Husker over any three seasons in the Husker record book.”
Jaz Shelley was also honored as a member of the Big Ten All-Defense team in 2022, when she averaged 0.9 blocks and 1.8 steals per game, both the best averages of her career in those stats. She also averaged north of six rebounds per game that year, another career-high.
After three strong years as a do-everything point guard with strong, scoring, shooting, rebounding and assist numbers, Shelley’s projects as a stable pro who should enjoy a long WNBA career.
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