The latest word from the University of Louisville athletic department is that 19,000 tickets — around 3,000 short of a sellout — have been sold for Monday’s regular season finale at the KFC Yum! Center between the third-ranked Cardinals and No. 1 UConn.
Most of the demand has been driven by the game itself, between the combatants in last year’s NCAA national championship game, and Louisville’s Senior Night festivities.
But more than 1,500 tickets have been purchased by Native Americans who will be coming to Kentucky from nearly 40 states to pay tribute to two heroines of their people.
That’s because Monday’s American Athletic Conference showdown also has been designated Native American Night at Louisville. The first 500 fans will receive free turquoise t-shirts as part of the promotion. 
All-American guard Shoni Schimmel will be honored twice, first with three other senior classmates, and also with her sister, Jude.
The sisters grew up on the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon, but tribal allegiance has spread far and wide because of their dynamic play. According to U of L assistant athletic ticket manager Erika Aemmer:
“There’s not many states we haven’t touched. They tell you when they call, ‘We are taking our vacation or spring break early to see them play.’ ”
Shoni Schimmel recently explained the relationship in an interview with Hoopfeed’s David Siegel:
“People are coming up, ‘Hi, I’m a Native American, thanks for coming [to Louisville].’ It’s great for them to support me and my sister; being Native American it is special to us because it’s something we embrace. We traveled halfway across the country just to come play here, and in turn they are showing that respect for us, and we are bringing in that fan base.”
They were well known in the Native American community before Louisville’s improbable run to last season’s Women’s Final Four — including dispatching Baylor in the Sweet 16. But that game turned heads in so many ways, beyond what’s arguably the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA women’s tournament.
Shoni Schimmel’s audacious one-woman fastbreak against Brittney Griner — which included a behind-the-back-dribble in the open floor, a backwards behind-the-head layup off the glass to draw a foul and Schimmel’s primal scream rising into a stunned Griner’s face — seems even more unforgettable now.
Jude Schimmel, a junior, isn’t the flashy player that her sister is, but their on-the-court telepathy is special. In the national semifinal game against Cal, Shoni drilled a behind the back pass to Jude as she broke to the basket for an uncontested layup in a play they undoubtedly ran hundreds of times on “The Rez.”
Their parents have used their daughters’ examples in speaking to Native American youth around the country. Most recently, they visited the Potawatomi reservation in Kansas and encouraged the kids there to “go out in the world and teach what it is to be Indian.”
On the court, there’s quite a bit to play for on Monday. UConn defeated Louisville in Hartford earlier this season, but the Cardinals have a chance to nail down a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament. U of L will be hosting a regional, and a win over the unbeaten Huskies, either in this game or in a possible matchup in the AAC tourney, could help its case.
So while this won’t necessarily be the last game for Shoni Schimmel on what’s become a very hospitable home floor, there’s plenty of basketball meaning attached. She’s part of a senior group that includes Antonita Slaughter, Asia Taylor and Tia Gibbs, a class that Cardinals coach Jeff Walz said demonstrated that “this is going to a program.”
