Q&A with Shakyla Hill, the Grambling State star responsible for the first quadruple-double in 24 years

In January, Shakyla Hill, a guard for Grambling State’s Women’s Basketball Team, recorded the first quadruple-double in nearly 25 years in women’s basketball in the Lady Tigers’ win over Alabama State. The performance led her to appearances on SportsCenter, shoutouts from James Harden, Chris Paul and LeBron James and the chance to be recognized as one of college basketball’s most promising stars.

In the interview below, Hill talks about her viral moment, yes, but also how she adores LeBron James, enjoys neck bones, believes everybody in Arkansas is built like Bobby Portis, wishes she was in Drake’s “God’s Plan” video and thinks America’s gun problem is out of control.

The interview has been edited and condensed.

Let’s start at the beginning, in January you dropped a quadruple-double. The general public started to know you more then. What was that whole game experience like?

Shakyla Hill: I actually started off really slow. Nobody believes me when I say that. In the second half I kind of came out and I really didn’t know after the fact that it was going to be a big deal like everybody made it seem. But it ended up being bigger than I could have ever thought.

Those first half stats were like four points, four steals, three assists.

SH: Yeah. [Laughs] Reaaaal slow.

That second half was crazy, though. [Hill finished with a 15-10-10-10]. So, how do I drop a quad double? Do I need to start drinking almond milk?

SH: Alright, first things first: You gotta go to Waffle House. When you go to Waffle House your whole day is just, great. That’s what I make sure I do. I make sure I go there before every game. That’s what I had that morning.

You had Waffle House?

SH: Waffle House, yeah.

What you eat?

SH: You gotta get the All-Star Special! That’s the only thing you can eat.

See that’s crazy. I’m from Philly. I’m from the Norf. We don’t have Waffle Houses up here.

SH: Y’all missing out. What do y’all have? Like, Huddle House?

I don’t know what a Huddle House is. Do you shop there?

SH: [Laughs.]

We don’t got none of that. We got cheese steaks.

SH: Y’all don’t got iHop?

Yeah, but that’s corny. Anyway, the last time somebody dropped a quad double in Women’s Basketball was 24 years ago. Before that, nobody has ever done it at an HBCU. In general, only nine people have ever done it in basketball history.

SH: The last time it happened was at Arkansas State. Sonja Tate did that. And I’m from Arkansas, so, I kind of brag that Arkansas breeds superstars. The next person that do it gotta be from Arkansas. That’s how it is. But, actually, that’s a really big deal. It’s way more rare than I actually thought. Me and my teammates looked it up after the game and it really didn’t give us a lot of information. So we really didn’t know until it turned into this big, big thing.

Arkansas obviously has ballers, right?

SH: Indeed!

We got you, Malik Monk was killing it at Kentucky, what else is lit about Arkansas? I don’t automatically think of ball when I think of Arkansas.

SH: That’s where people go wrong. We breed nothing but superstars. You got, like, Tyler Scaife, Bobby Portis, Patrick Beverly, me, my little brother, my big brother, um, a lot of people sleep on Arkansas! They think we country. Which, we are, we are kinda country.

So you own that, huh?

SH: Yeah, yeah we are. We are kinda country. But when it comes to football or basketball we breed superstars. We make superstars.

When I see folk from Arkansas, and I see Bobby Portis, I don’t wanna fight Bobby Portis.

SH: [Laughs] Nah, we really built like that! Like, everybody down here. Well, I can’t really speak for everybody, but we really built like that, forreal.

Everybody in Arkansas built like Bobby Portis? [Jots down notes] That’s good to know.

SH: Not everybody, but most people from the city, like, we built like that, we don’t play no games.

So, obviously you’ve had some viral fame since January. You had mentioned one of the cooler things that’s happened to you was copping 12,000 Instagram followers.

SH: Yes. Right now, when you get your 15 minutes of fame, after it dies down, and it’s starting to die down, but at one point I think I was around 25,000 followers. It blew up out of nowhere. I think Sportscenter put me on their Instagram and it took off from there. It just went crazy.

So you trying to share?

SH: Nah. See, at first I was with the shoutouts! I was giving people shoutouts. But too many people was asking so I had to shut down the whole shoutout thing.

I feel that. I feel that. I get a quick lil 300 likes and I’m like “chill, no paparazzi.”

SH: Exactly.

Regarding the fame: You’ve been on SportsCenter, Chris Paul and James Harden were tweeting about you, but you’ve said over and over you wanted LeBron James to say something. LeBron spoke highly of you days later. He said he saw your stat line eating at a taco spot in Florida with JR Smith. And they both started cussing because it was so crazy to them. Have you kept up with those stories about you?

SH: Actually, we were about to play Southern that day. I came down for breakfast and [the team] takes our phones the day of the game. We don’t get to see all the social media. They had already took my phone anyway because it was beginning to be too much. But, [the team] had given me a phone and I got to watch the video [of LeBron] and I just started crying. I was crying at breakfast. And after I got myself together, and gathered myself, I realized: Can’t nobody tell me nothing for the rest of my life because LeBron spoke about me.

I’ve seen some of your tweets. Every time something happens with LeBron, you always tweet the GOAT. Why is LeBron so important to you?

SH: I’ve been watching LeBron for as long as I can remember. I try to model myself and my game after him. I don’t think there’s anybody like him. Whether you need a rebound, a scorer, an assist, he does whatever it takes for his team to win. Outside of the court, you never hear anything bad about him. He’s very humble. He does what needs to be done. He’s an all around great person and role model. I am his biggest fan. I’ll endorse him wherever I go.

A lot of players a generation removed from LeBron feel the exact same way. People are hyper-aware of his exploits. People have started feeling closer to him in this moment for his public comments about race. Does it help that your role model appears unapologetic when it comes to talking about blackness?

SH: It makes me love him more. Coming from an HBCU, we don’t really get as much love as most D1 colleges. We are looked down upon and not put to the same standard. LeBron speaking up about problems that black people face and when he said something about me, it put a spotlight on HBCUs. I’ll always think that’s big.

So, why did you pick your HBCU? Was it just basketball or that Gram-Fam feel?

SH: I always wanted to go to an HBCU. I love my people. I always wanted to be around my people. That was a big thing for me. When they told me I could play basketball, too, that was a plus. I felt the love on my visit here. I fell in love immediately. Anybody that’s been to an HBCU, specifically Grambling knows, once you step on the G, once you step on campus, like, you never wanna leave. You might wanna go home for the summer but you always wanna come back. That’s why we got 30 year olds still going to school and still be around.

While your season’s exploits have been noticeable, it took something otherworldly for people to care about women’s college basketball and your side of the world. Why do you think that is?

SH: Women’s basketball isn’t respected as a whole. You know, WNBA players are paid way less than NBA players. For one it’s about respect. Also, I go to an HBCU and HBCUs aren’t necessarily respected when it comes to the sports world. That’s why it took something like a quadruple double for me to get acknowledgement from SportsCenter and all types of other things. That’s had a big thing to do with it: Because I’m a girl and because I’m a black girl.

Does it empower you at all?

SH: It pushes me a lot. I don’t know and I’ve never heard of a lady from an HBCU going to the WNBA. I don’t know what it is but I haven’t heard about it. I’m striving to be that person that people can say “yeah I saw her play. She went to Grambling. She got to the WNBA from Grambling” because you rarely ever hear of that. The WNBA only drafts 36 women. It’s really hard to get there from any college, especially from an HBCU.

What’s the best thing to eat at Grambling?

SH: I go to this place called “Cash Street.” Every Wednesday they have neck bones and that’s my fave thing to eat.

Your favorite thing to eat is neck bones?

SH: Yes.

And you said Arkansas country right?

SH: [Laughs] Yes.

What’s the music you play before you go on the court? What’s your hype up songs?

SH: I don’t have any. I listen to slow music before games. I listen to Sam Smith.

What song?

SH: “Too Good at Goodbyes”

Now see. That’s my shit. I can’t even lie. I listen to that every morning.

SH: I gotta get calm and peaceful so you don’t have all that negative energy before the game.

“God’s Plan” is my song for that.

SH: See, at practice, we got like a playlist, they done played that song out for me. It’s annoying. They play Motorsport, No Limit, that Kodak song, and God’s Plan, they play it everyday. I’m tired of that song.

The video was great, though. It got some thug tears out of me.

SH: It woulda got more tears outta me if I was in Miami and Drake was giving me money and I was one of those people.

What’s left to talk about?

SH: Guns. Can we please take the guns away? 17 kids getting killed at a high school is ridiculous. We need to do something about these guns. Anybody who knows me knows I’m afraid of guns. That’s something that needs to change ASAP. These 17 kids getting killed at a high school is touching my heart. It’s the saddest thing. People do not go to school to be killed or be scared...In Arkansas they have gun shows all the time and you can just walk in there and get a gun.