Desi-Rae Young makes immediate impact for Lady Rebels

Looking back on her basketball beginnings, Desi-Rae Young can laugh at herself now.

Young wasn’t a basketball-obsessed kid. She didn’t spend hours in the gym working on her game or dream of getting a Division I scholarship.

In fact, the UNLV freshman forward didn’t even want to play.

“When I was younger, my uncle saw I was getting so tall and said, ‘She can’t just be in the house all day,’” Young said. “So he started pushing me to play basketball, even though I really didn’t want to. I just wanted to hang out with my friends.”

Young, who grew to 6 feet 1 inch, finally relented and began playing basketball at “about 12 years old.” But she wasn’t an immediate star.

“Every game, I’d foul out,” Young said with a laugh. “I was the hot head, they’d always say. I’d always have a technical foul, and they’d send me out. Or I’d have three fouls, and if somebody fouled me, I’d try to foul them back.”

Young eventually learned the best way to get her opponent back was not by fouling but by channeling her natural aggressiveness into finding a way to score.

She became one of the top players in the Las Vegas Valley in her final two years of high schools, leading Desert Oasis to the Class 4A state semifinals as a junior and the school’s first state championship game berth as a senior last season.

“She still has foul trouble issues, only because she plays more like a male athlete in that she’s super tough,” Desert Oasis coach Laurie Evans said. “She plays with a lot of passion and aggression, and it’s awesome to watch, but it’s not something you see every day in the women’s game.”

Young has fought through the foul problems to make an immediate splash at UNLV (4-4, 2-1 Mountain West). She has scored in double figures in six games and had nine in the other two. She posted her first double-double Thursday against Colorado State with 16 points and 12 rebounds in an 80-76 win.

“Desi’s a fun kid. It’s been a joy to watch her blossom a little bit, find her personality and then obviously to contribute on the court and in practice every day,” UNLV coach Lindy La Rocque said. “She’s fun, she’s well-liked by her teammates and she’s a hard worker. In a lot of ways, that can be a recipe for success.”

Making an early impact

Thursday’s performance pushed Young’s season averages to a team-high 12.5 points and 6.1 rebounds, second on the team. The Lady Rebels go for a sweep of the two-game set with Colorado State at noon Saturday at Cox Pavilion.

Evans said Young has gotten better each season about not fouling as much and expects that to continue.

La Rocque doesn’t expect a player with Young’s aggressive nature to never foul, but she wants Young to use them wisely.

“I told her, ‘I don’t mind you fouling in the second half. But if you get a foul in the first minute of the game, I’m not going to be happy, and you’re not going to be happy because then you’re coming out,’” La Rocque said. “She’s a valuable player to our team with her defensive ability and rebounding. I told her, ‘I want to be able to take you out because you’re tired, not because you fouled.’”

Young is also adding touch around the basket. She’s hitting a team-high 58.1 percent from the field (36 of 62).

Still room to grow

Young, Evans and La Rocque agree the next evolution is to extend her range to the high post and possibly even the 3-point line.

La Rocque also wants to see Young get stronger and improve her balance and positioning. But the coach is thrilled with her progress.

“Her improvement since we had some workouts over the summer, it’s been awesome,” La Rocque said. “For young people, the hardest thing is consistency. It takes maturity and wisdom to understand that. She’s still a young player, so she’s still trying to figure some of those things out, but the sky could be the limit for her.”

Contact Jason Orts at jorts@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2936. Follow @SportsWithOrts on Twitter.