Former Nebraska guard Jaz Shelley hosts basketball camp in Lincoln, reflects on journey (2024)

LINCOLN — It still hasn’t sunk in for Jaz Shelley, the reality that she’s about to leave her old life behind. After three years, exactly 100 games and a host of Big Ten accolades at Nebraska, the point guard will soon go back to her home country of Australia to begin her post-college basketball career.

She’s spent her remaining days in the United States working out, catching up with as many people as she can and relaxing in one of the few quiet stretches over the past year. Thursday, she hosted a basketball camp for 62 sixth- to ninth-grade girls in Lincoln and reflected on her journey.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling, just how much Nebraska has done for me, and now I’m able to excel my game,” she said. “I’m excited for (Australia), but I’m gonna miss a lot of people here.”

It won’t be long before life accelerates for Shelley. She leaves Nebraska on Monday, begins practice with Ballarat Miners of the semi-professional NBL1 on Wednesday. Her first game is that Saturday.

After the season concludes in July, Shelley will join Geelong United in the professional Women's National Basketball League. She played for Geelong before coming to the United States in 2019, back when it was a NBL1 team known as the Geelong Supercats.

As Geelong made its transition to the WNBL, Shelley became its first signing, continuing her life’s sprint over the past three months.

In April, the Phoenix Mercury took Shelley in the third round of the WNBA draft. She went to training camp and played in the preseason before being waived less than a month later. Sharing the floor with greats like Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, competing against players at the highest level pointed to where Shelley needed to improve to make it back to that stage.

She realized she needs to get bigger and stronger, more physical. She has to improve her finishing ability in the paint.

“Obviously it was shorter than I hoped, but I took away a lot of stuff from there that hopefully I can get my foot back into the door of the WNBA,” Shelley said. “But just working on my game at the moment, and hopefully my opportunity will come at some point.”

Until then, she’ll enjoy being back home in Australia. She left for Oregon, where she spent her first two years of college, in 2019. Five years later, she returns to aspects of life she had grown accustomed to being without: family events like siblings’ weddings, having her family regularly in attendance for her games.

The flip side is the difficulty of leaving Nebraska, saying goodbye to the people she met over the past three years, ending an era that created plenty of memories. NU made the NCAA tournament in two of Shelley’s three seasons in Lincoln, winning a game in 2024.

Her favorite memory is the court storming at Pinnacle Bank Arena after the Huskers topped Caitlin Clark and Iowa in February. Now, the next phase of her career awaits, Nebraska leaving her everyday life as the people and memories remain.

“I’ve made so many connections with a bunch of people here,” Shelley said. “Gonna miss the kids, being able to coach them and have an impact on them, but hopefully can still have that from Australia and stay in touch with a bunch of people.”