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during the semifnal game against No. 2 seed California: Shoni, suddenly surrounded by Cal defenders, bounced a no-look, behind-the-back pass just as Jude sprinted in, scooped up the ball and made the layup. Magic. Te U of L run marked the frst time a No. 5 team had ever made the fnals. It was the second time a fve-seed ever made it to the Final Four. Walz and his players were calling themselves the party crashers, relishing the role of the underdog who steals the turkey before the stunned family can react. And then Auriemma's Huskies whomped the dog. Tey crushed the Cards in the fnal, 9360, the biggest margin of victory in a women's championship game. Ever. Only one winner ever racked up more than 93 points in the women's fnal. Shoni and Jude say UConn, voted No. 1 to start this season (U of L was No. 5), has no weak points. Still, they expect to beat them this year. How will they do it? "Score more points," Shoni says. Rez Ball Te sisters started playing basketball as toddlers on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in eastern Oregon. Both were dribbling basketballs by age four. When Shoni was in ffth grade and Jude was in third, they played against sixth-graders on an AAU team coached by their parents. Like thousands of Native Americans, they were baptized in the religion of "rez ball," a term that refers as much to a fashy style of play as to the game itself. Basketball is huge across the Indian nation. In Arizona towns in Navajo country, hundreds line up hours early to get into arenas with as many as 8,000 seats for what become standing-room-only games. New Town, N.D., a reservation of about 1,400 located some 70 miles from the nearest movie theater, built a 3,000-seat gym and basketball court in its Boys & Girls Club. Tat's more than two seats for everyone in New Town. Tere are Native American basketball tournaments in at least 11 states and throughout Canada. Any Google search of rez ball brings up all these things, and always, near the top of the frst page, Shoni and Jude Schimmel. Te Indian Country Today media network tracks the Schimmels like the Hubble telescope bird-dogs supernovae. Since the start of 2011, there have been 80 Schimmel sightings on the Indian Country Today website. In the world of supernovae, Shoni has been the more explosive. An ESPN writer might have been the frst to compare her to ball-handling legend "Pistol" Pete Maravich, but he certainly wasn't the last. And the ESPN guy was writing about Shoni when she was a sophomore in high school. "Just watch her come cold of the Hermiston High School bench, spin of the dribble and cause a pair of defenders to tumble like bowling pins. Ten, with the defenders sprawling, watch Schimmel raise up, fve feet beyond the 3 point line, and bury a jumper," Glenn Nelson wrote. "She conjures visions of Pistol Pete. . . . Pistol with a ponytail." Jude's play is not as fashy, but deadly efective. Last season she was second on the team in assists (behind her sister), second in three-point percentage at 35.6 percent (behind Antonita Slaughter's 35.8 percent). She averaged 5.7 points per game and ranked second in steals (behind Bria Smith's 78), with 74. When Jude does go fashy, the U of L Pep Band swings into "Hey Jude." She barely cracks a smile when it happens, but she loves it. Te song was one of the reasons her grandmother named her Jude. Shoni doesn't have a theme song, but last season she scored in double fgures in 30 games and ranked frst in scoring for the Cardinals at 14.2 points and was 13th in the Big East. "Shoni's play is high-risk, high-reward," says Stephanie Norman, an assistant coach for the Cards. "Jude . . . is 'crafty.' Jude is a cerebral player. She's a thinker of the game." "It's kind of related to our outside-basketball personalities," Jude says. "She's more like the outgoing one, and she's more the one who's not afraid to try new things. Tat's another thing. I think twice about everything I do." "And I don't," Shoni says. She showed that during the Baylor game several times, including the shot over Griner. "I got the ball from Jude, I think it was, and I just start dribbling down to half-court, and I see Brittney Griner at about the three-point line, so I'm like, all right, I will dribble this, and make a couple moves, and get to the basket before she gets there." Ten Shoni's pitch rises uncharacteristically: "Well, my fve steps was her two steps, and she ended up getting there right with me, and I'm like, oh, so I need to move . . . and it just went in. "But I remember doing that as a little kid," she adds, "outside my house, just shooting around, just messing around, just doing trick shots." "You even do that now," Jude says. Shoni's impulsiveness showed in a few oncourt fare-ups, too. Although she says she didn't say a word to Baylor guard Odyssey Sims when both were charged with technical fouls, it sure looked like she did. After the behind-theback shot over Griner, Shoni appeared to taunt her. But it wasn't like that, Shoni says. "I just asked her how the weather was up there. I'm just kidding. I don't really remember if I said something, it was so long ago." www.helpkosairchildrenshospital.com The Freshman Funk Te sisters are among 12 players to return, with only freshman forward Emmonnie Henderson and sophomore guard Starr Breedlove new this year. But it may seem like a brand-new team with ffth-year forward Asia Taylor; guard Tia Gibbs, in her sixth year as a Cardinal; and forward Shawnta' Dyer all back from injuries, and redshirt sophomore guard Monny Niamke 12.13 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 31