Wally Szczerbiak

Szczerbiak was born in Madrid, Spain, to Marilyn[4] and Walter Szczerbiak, a former ABA player who helped lead Real Madrid to three FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague) championships. While there, he set a Spanish League single-game scoring record, with 65 points.[4] Szczerbiak spent much of his childhood in Europe, during his father's playing career.

When Walt retired, he moved his family back to his native Long Island, New York. Szczerbiak played basketball at Cold Spring Harbor High School in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. As a senior in the 1994–95 season he averaged 36.6 points per game[5] and 15.9 rebounds.[4] He was named the winner of the Richard Sangler Award as Nassau County's outstanding boys' basketball player.[6] Szczerbiak competed for the Long Island team in the 1994 Empire State Games. Despite his outstanding high school statistics, the small size of Szczerbiak's school did not win him the attention of East Coast college coaches, and he went unrecruited.[4]

During the fall of his high school senior year, Szczerbiak and his parents visited the Miami University campus. The following Monday, despite Walt's wishes for Szczerbiak to wait on making a decision, Szczerbiak called coach Herb Sendek and committed to play for Miami.[4]

In his first two seasons there he averaged 8.0 and 12.8 points. As a junior in 1997–98, he burst onto the scene as one of college basketball's leading scorers, averaging 24.4 points per game and earning first-team All-MAC honors despite missing several games with a broken right wrist.[7][8]

In his senior season, he averaged 24.2 points per game and led the Redhawks to the Sweet 16 in the 1999 NCAA Tournament as a #10 seed. Szczerbiak scored a career-high 43 points in a first-round win over #7 seed Washington. He followed that with 24 points in a second round toppling of #2 seed Utah, leading the Redhawks to the Sweet 16. Despite Szczerbiak's 23-point performance, they would eventually lose to Kentucky 58–43. Miami finished the season 24–8.

Szczerbiak was named MAC Player of the Year, and first-team All-American by Basketball News and Sports Illustrated and second-team All-American by the Associated Press (AP).[8]

He finished his college career with a degree in marketing as Miami's second all-time leading scorer, with 1,847 points.[9]

In 2001, Szczerbiak became the fifth Miami player to have his jersey retired (#32). In 2009, he was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame.[8]

Szczerbiak succeeded in making the transition to sports broadcasting, becoming a basketball analyst for CBS College Sports.[15]

Currently, he is an analyst at MSG Network covering the New York Knicks as a color analyst backup for Walt Frazier and contributor to the teams' post-game broadcasts.[16]

Szczerbiak is of Ukrainian origin: his grandparents were Ukrainians and met in a refugee camp in West Germany after World War II.[17] After the war, they emigrated to Pittsburgh.[17]

Szczerbiak met his wife, Shannon (Ward), when they were both in the same freshman orientation group at Miami University and were married July 1, 2000.[18] They have five children.

Szczerbiak has a brother, Will, nine years his junior, and a sister, Wendy, thirteen years younger.[4] Wendy played college basketball for Lehigh University.[19]

In 2013, Szczerbiak was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.[20]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wally Szczerbiak.

• Career statistics and player information from Basketball-Reference.com
• NBA profile (archived from 2008)
• ESPN 1999 draft profile