HALL OF HONOR - AMBER NICHOLAS While others may have better statistics, arguably no other Razorback has had the impact upon the Arkansas women’s basketball program as Amber Nicholas Shirey. An All-SWC and Academic AllAmerica player in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she is the first former women’s player to become a full-time coaching staff member at Arkansas. As a result, she played a critical hand in recruiting and coaching the athletes who replaced her in the record books. It seems fitting that the player to hold the Arkansas record for assists would have the best winning percentage in her career (over 75%) of any Razorback. In the process, her teams won 86 games, two SWC titles and made three NCAA appearances. Thanks in part to her 538 assists, her post players led the SWC in scoring twice. She ended her career second in steals and one of only two players to rank in the top 10 in points, rebounds, steals and
Records held by Nicholas Of all the records that Amber Nicholas set during her career, which included virtually every assist and free throw mark, the two that speak to the essence of her game remain to this day. She is the only starting point guard to take her team to three consecutive NCAA tournaments and the only Arkansas player named MVP of the SWC Classic. Career
Three-point percentage, career: 41.6% Three-point percentage, season: 47.7% Free throw percentage, career: 84.7% Consecutive games started: 87
assists. Nicholas can rightly lay claim to a stake in the 86 games won during her four years as she played in all 117 games and started a school-record 87 consecutive games. The 1991 SWC Tournament MVP, Nicholas also was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American and NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship recipient. Her legacy to the program continued as an assistant coach, working with guards like former SEC three-point accuracy champion Kimberly Wilson, former four-time AP All-American Christy Smith and three-point record holder Wendi Willits. She had the privilege to coach the woman who finished off her assist record, Amy Wright.
“Miss Lady’Back”
During the program’s 25th anniversary celebration, that’s the headline on the newspaper article about Amber Nicholas Shirey. The label fits as no person has been involved in more games than any other individual in Arkansas history, 117 as a player, 27 as a graduate assistant coach and 436 as an assistant coach. That’s a total of 580 games over a span of 19 years.
A Scholar and an Athlete
Recipient of several academic awards, Amber was the first Razorback to earn an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship. She also was the NCAA Woman of the Year from the state of Arkansas in 1992.
Amber Shirey today
Honored by the university with selection to the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor in 2002 as the third Razorback women’s basketball player inducted, Shirey was also honored by the athletic department’s as the Legend player at the 2003 Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament hosted in North Little Rock at ALLTEL Arena. She married Fayetteville High softball coach Jason Shirey in 1999, and the Shireys have three children, a son, Ross, and daughters, Reese and Rheid.
Class records
It’s somehow fitting that the consummate point guard of her era hold no class records. However, her post players, Delmonica DeHorney (junior season) and Shelly Wallace (senior season) hold the school class records for most points in a game, season and season scoring average.
AMBER NICHOLAS’ CAREER STATS
YEAR GP-GS FG-FGA PCT. 3P-3PA PCT. FT-FTA PCT. 88-89 30-3 79-178 .444 18-46 .391 26-31 .839 89-90 30-30 128-292 .438 31-71 .437 46-53 .868 90-91 32-32 152-308 .494 41-86 .477 53-66 .803 91-92 25-25 98-255 .384 31-88 .352 49-56 .875 TOTAL 117-90 457-1033 .442 121-291 .416 174-206 .845
172
REB RPG PF-DQ A TO BK ST PTS PPG 61 2.0 63-0 99 61 1 29 202 6.7 131 4.4 69-4 169 116 3 67 333 11.1 118 3.7 56-1 180 96 1 58 398 12.4 118 4.7 60-2 89 100 1 66 276 11.0 428 3.7 248-7 537 373 5 220 1209 10.3