SE: Senior Spotlight — Sheble Makes Most of Limited Role for K-State WBB
Jan 25, 2017 | Women's Basketball
When Jessica Sheble hears her name called from the bench, three words echo in her head: ‘Just go play.’
Sheble, a senior for the K-State women’s basketball team, has no idea how long she will be in the game each time. It could be 30 seconds. It could be 300 seconds — more commonly referred to as five minutes, or half a quarter.
Frankly, Sheble isn’t concerned with how much time she spends on the court. She’s focused on bringing certain intangibles to the floor for as long as she’s in the game.
“It’s not about how much you score, how many blocks you get, how many rebounds you get, it’s doing what you can do to raise the energy of the game,” said Sheble, the elder amongst a youthful and impactful K-State bench, who recalled a message from K-State head coach Jeff Mittie’s first year with the Wildcats. “A big thing he told me when he got here is, ‘All we’re asking from you guys is to raise the energy of the game. Whether (the starters are) in a slump or there’s energy already in the game, just raise it a little bit more.’ It’s our job to keep it at that level that it started at or just bring it up higher.”
Sheble is well versed in her role. It has, more or less, remained the same all four years of her K-State career. The 6-foot-3 forward out of Olathe has played in all but four games in her Wildcat career, but has never started and only played more than 20 minutes once in 111 games.
Again, Sheble is not frustrated by her situation. She takes pride in backing up one of the best centers in the Big 12 in Breanna Lewis.
“As a freshman, you don’t really expect to get much playing time, but I think Lewis definitely developed her game and has become an amazing player,” Sheble said. “That kind of gave me an opportunity to step back and say, ‘Hey, you know what? You may not be getting the fame and the shine on you, but you’re still coming in and you’re still bringing quality minutes when she is on the bench because of foul trouble or just to get a quick blow. Your minutes are just as important, just maybe not in the same quantity… more quality than quantity.’”
In her career, Sheble has averaged 2.5 points per game, which includes 0.31 points per minute of action. Senior guard Kindred Wesemann, a 1,000-point scorer, has put up 0.32 points per minute in her career. The comparison isn’t intended to show what Sheble could have done with a bigger role, but rather to display how well she’s handled her current position.
“She’s handled it very well. She knows her role. She comes in and does a good job,” Mittie said of Sheble, whose career high for scoring is 11 points. “She’s been a big part of the team ever since I took over here and she’s accepted that role and done very well.”
While her offensive numbers are down from a career-high season average of 2.7 points per game on 47 percent shooting last year, Sheble has continued to impact the game in other areas — namely, her defense.
Sheble, despite her limited minutes, has 15 blocks this season – good for second on the team – and 69 for her career to rank 11th in school history. One more block will move her into a tie for 10th all-time at K-State with Ashley Sweat. Two more will match Kendra Wecker’s total in ninth, five more will hit Tina Dixon in eighth while seven more would move Sheble all the way to seventh with Branshea Brown.
“There’s definitely a list of great people on there. I think it’d be an honor to be up there with them,” said Sheble, who will finish her career with far fewer minutes played than anyone else on K-State’s top 10 blocks list. “I just need to continue, every game, to try to get one more and maybe by the end of the year I’ll be up there.”
“That’s pretty cool for her because you don’t see that a lot for a player that plays (limited minutes),” added Mittie, whose team hosts No. 2 Baylor on Wednesday at 7 p.m. “She’s longer than most people think. She has pretty good aggressiveness there, and that will be pretty cool for her to end her career moving up the ladder in those rankings.”
Continuing with historic measurements, Sheble’s 0.62 blocks per game currently ranks eighth all-time at K-State. For her, protecting the rim is as much a mentality as it is a skill.
“We spend a lot of time in practice getting in position to get clean blocks and we know we’re our second line of defense if our guards get beat. It’s just kind of thrown upon us, like, ‘Hey, that’s your rim. You have to protect it,’” said Sheble, who has 18 career games with two or more blocks. Her career high is three, which she’s reached twice this year and four times in her career. “That’s just the mentality that I’ve had since Coach Mittie’s been here. I think every day I’m coming in here with the attitude that I have our guards backs if they get beat and just try to make it a clean block.”
Sheble, a self-described “diehard K-State fan” growing up, used to joke about how cool it would be to play for the Wildcats. When the opportunity presented itself following a high school team summer camp in Manhattan that, ironically, Wesemann and Lewis were both at as well, Sheble said she knew “it was meant to be.”
“When we have camps, we talk to the younger girls, saying, ‘Anything can happen while you’re here. Just play your heart out and have fun,’” said Sheble, who has done exactly that for the Wildcats.
Even if her minutes have remained relatively unchanged throughout her career, Sheble has embraced what she calls “the K-State way,” an attitude she’s worked to pass on to her younger teammates.
“I’m now helping lead the bench crew, getting them excited and showing emotion on the bench,” Sheble said. “If you look back on my career, emotion on the bench is probably one of the things I’m known for, so just setting a standard for them and letting them know, ‘Hey, this is the K-State way. You may not be a starter, but this is how you can provide energy to the team when you’re not out there.’
“Also, just being a source of encouragement, helping out some of the younger kids, taking them under our wing and getting them going, because after we leave they are the future. Making sure that we leave them off on a good note, I think, is really the main focus of all of our seniors.”
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