Lady Rebels await seed, opponent for 3rd straight NCAA Tournament

UNLV women’s basketball coach Lindy La Rocque said she was going to make sure her team took time to celebrate winning another conference championship.

The Lady Rebels defeated San Diego State 66-49 on Wednesday to win their third straight Mountain West tournament title to earn the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

But, as UNLV enjoyed another title and showed it was clearly the best team in the Mountain West again, senior center Desi-Rae Young wasn’t shy when asked about expectations for the NCAA Tournament.

“We expect to win games. That’s what we want to do,” Young, the conference’s player of the year, said. “This is our third time here, and we expected to be here for a third time, so winning games is our highest expectation.”

No. 21-ranked UNLV (30-2) will find out its seed and first-round opponent when the NCAA women’s bracket is revealed at 5 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.

The Lady Rebels will host a free public watch party at the Strip View Pavilion at the Thomas & Mack Center, with doors opening at 4 p.m.

“While it’s expected, you still have to celebrate it. But we want more, and that ‘we’re not just happy to be here’ type of feeling,” La Rocque said. “We’ve got to work. We’ve got to get people healthy and put some work in even before we get the selection show.”

Throughout the regular season, UNLV was projected as a No. 8 or 9 seed, which suggested it would have been in the tournament regardless of winning the Mountain West tournament.

The Lady Rebels took matters into their own hands and clinched their spot. Many projections still have them anywhere from a No. 8 to No. 10 seed.

In ESPN’s projections as of Friday night, UNLV is a No. 9 seed in a first-round game against Iowa State in a pod hosted by No. 1 Southern California in Los Angeles.

The Athletic has UNLV as a No. 10 seed facing No. 7 Florida State in No. 2 Texas’ pod in Austin. CBS Sports has UNLV listed as a No. 8 seed.

“We expect to go in (the NCAA Tournament), compete and have a different outcome than we’ve had the last two years,” junior forward and Mountain West tournament MVP Alyssa Brown said. “I think we’re all excited to be back in that position, and we’re ready to work.”

UNLV bolstered its chances at a higher seed in nonconference play with wins over power conference opponents Arizona and Oklahoma, both projected to make the NCAA Tournament field, according to ESPN and The Athletic.

The Lady Rebels managed to move up in the NCAA’s NET rankings through conference play, now sitting at No. 26, despite the next highest Mountain West team being Colorado State at No. 98.

“I think it’s a testament to the people that we have here, the players that we have, the staff that we have,” La Rocque said. “It’s great. We’re in a fortunate position where our players, our staff, we haven’t felt a lot of losing. We want to keep it that way.”

In 2022, UNLV was a No. 13 seed and lost in the first round to host No. 4 seed Arizona 72-67 in Tucson. Last year, UNLV lost as a No. 11 seed to No. 6 Michigan 71-59 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

This season, Young averaged 17.9 points and 9.1 rebounds to earn her second conference player of the year award. Junior Kiara Jackson, an All-Mountain West selection, seamlessly transitioned to UNLV’s starting point guard to help the Lady Rebels put together a second straight 30-win season.

The emergence of freshman guard Amarachi Kimpson, the conference’s freshman and sixth player of the year, gave the Lady Rebels another ballhandler and scoring option throughout conference play.

“You have to find your own path. You have to make different sacrifices,” La Rocque said. “Whatever it takes to get here, you have to have people that are willing to do it. We do.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.