Lady Rebels’ Lindy La Rocque rides momentum of 1st season

Her first season as the UNLV women’s basketball coach concluded in March, but Lindy La Rocque’s first offseason is just getting started.

There weren’t any spring workouts last year. Nor were recruits allowed to visit campus because of the pandemic.

“There’s definitely a different buzz,” La Rocque said of this offseason. “Frankly, I’m really eager to build and continue to put a program out there that our city and town deserves. We know we’re the basketball mecca, and we’ve got to get the Lady Rebels on that standard with everything else.”

The Lady Rebels are enjoying some semblance of normalcy as they seek to build upon a surprisingly successful 2020-21 season. UNLV finished sixth in the Mountain West in 2019-20 and second last season under La Rocque, leaving the coach and the players optimistic about next season amid what has been a productive spring.

The Lady Rebels added transfers Essence Booker, Nneka Obiazor and Khayla Rooks to a talented group of returning players, including perhaps the best rising sophomore class in the conference. They’re also bringing in five freshmen to compete under a new set of standards constructed around one thing.

Winning with integrity.

“Lindy came in and instilled that we’re going to be a winning team from the jump,” said Jade Thomas, a guard who played 35.7 minutes per game last season, averaging 8.8 points and 4.9 rebounds. “She wants to keep winning, and she’s putting in the work to bring in players that can help us have this winning culture.”

The Lady Rebels accomplished their turnaround without the benefit of offseason practices or workouts. Instead, they met virtually and worked to establish camaraderie digitally. The format might have slowed what they were able to do on the court, but it helped forge more personal relationships and a sense of trust that ultimately manifested throughout the course of the winter.

As a result, UNLV finished with a 15-9 record, including 13-5 in Mountain West play.

“But in reality, our expectation was even higher than that,” La Rocque said. “Really, I think we’ve just laid the foundation. They kind of say that the first year is like the honeymoon. If anything, the second year is probably going to be where we’re even challenged even more to uphold our standards and high expectations.”

With that in mind, La Rocque probed the transfer portal and secured commitments from Booker, Obiazor and Rooks.

Booker played at Spring Valley High and was a double-figure scorer at UNR and Ball State. Obiazor is the reigning Horizon League Freshman of the Year. Rooks brings a Pac-12 pedigree, having played the past four years at Washington.

About half the team is going to be on campus in June, La Rocque said, with the other half joining the program in July — allowing ample time to build chemistry before the beginning of the academic year.

“I’ve lost a lot the last four years, and so seeing the winning record in (La Rocque’s) first season is big time,” Rooks said. “The pieces we have coming back are great, and the pieces that are transferring in like myself and the other two transfers are huge. I definitely think we have the chance to compete for a (conference) championship.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.