Shavon Shields

Classroom

Shavon Shields is a biological sciences major who carries a 3.77 GPA. He is a returning first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American (the only one on the Division I level) and a two-time first-team Academic All-District VII selection. In 2014, Shields was one of 16 national finalists across all sports for the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award. He is also a two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, a 2015 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and had been on the UNL Scholar-Athlete honor roll all six semesters at Nebraska through three years.

Character

Shields is one of most active Husker student-athletes in the Lincoln community. He has served as a keynote speaker for the Sportsmanship Pep Rally, as well as a volunteer for Husker Heroes, Ollie Webb and Nebrasketball Buddies Kids Clinics, among other activities. For his efforts, he earned the UNL Hero Leadership Award in 2016 and was chosen to the Tom Osborne Citizenship Team in 2015. Shields served on Nebraska’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for two years and has been on the team’s leaders in raising awareness for bone marrow donations.

Community

Shields is in his third season as team co-captain for the basketball program, one of the few student athletes at Nebraska to receive the honors. Shields was honored by as the program’s nominee for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award in 2014. The best example of Shavon’s character came last year off the court when he shaved his head to support Avery Harriman, the son of former assistant coach Chris Harriman. Avery was in his third battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and Shields—who is Avery’s favorite player—decided to shave his head to support Avery and to help raise awareness. Shields and the basketball team used their Coaches vs. Cancer event to raise bone marrow awareness on #AveryStrong Day. He has also been chosen to serve as a high school counselor at the Adidas Nations Camp in each of the past two years.

Competition

Shields is one of the top returning players in the Big Ten Conference. He is a four-year starter who, prior to his senior season, already had more than 1,100 points and 500 rebounds and could finish his career as one of the top 10 scorers in school history. As a junior, he ranked ninth in the Big Ten in scoring (15.5 ppg) and 14th in rebounding (6.0 rpg). Shields was in double figures in 26 of 31 games, including nine 20-point efforts. He had a career-high 35 points in a win over Omaha, the 10th-highest single-game effort in school history. Shields also ranked among the Big Ten leaders in free throw percentage (.827, fifth) and minutes per game (35.3, fourth).  He was a two-time Big Ten Player of the Week and earned honorable-mention All-Big Ten honors as in 2014. Shields was instrumental in helping Nebraska reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 16 years in 2014. In addition, Shields played for Denmark’s U-20 National Team in 2013.