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The returning players connected UNLV’s women’s hoops squad recognize second-year manager Lindy La Rocque and her standards. They recognize the league championship-caliber expectations that travel a second-place finish.
“All of the caller players, we recruited them based disconnected of that,” she said. “Now it’s conscionable blending everyone and each of those expectations together.”
While it’s bully to beryllium recognized arsenic 1 of the Mountain West’s champion team, La Rocque says “really it’s astir our interior expectations and standard.
“We’re not going to beryllium a hidden gem anymore. We’re going to person much of a people connected our back.”
That’s the world the Lady Rebels look aft posting a 15-9 grounds and 13-5 league grounds en way to past season’s second-place finish. The league’s media and coaches picked UNLV to decorativeness 3rd this twelvemonth successful its yearly preseason poll.
La Rocque has her sights acceptable connected a league title. UNLV opens its play Tuesday astatine Oral Roberts.
“I ever privation to win. That’s my anticipation arsenic the manager and the leader,” she said. “The occurrence we had (last year), it wasn’t a fluke. It was the process, the enactment we’ve enactment successful that we’ve continued to incorporated and physique upon. Was I suprised astatine past year? … No. Was I pleased and excited astir it? Absolutely. And we’re going to physique upon that for sure.”
Like their antheral counterparts, the Lady Rebels person retooled their roster astir a halfway of returners that includes reigning Mountain West Freshman of the Year and sophomore station Desi-Rae Young, sophomore defender Jade Thomas and inferior station Keyana Wilfred. Senior all-conference defender Nia Johnson was slated to articulation that radical but opted this twelvemonth to measurement distant from the team, per La Rocque.
The remainder of the roster is comprised of 9 newcomers: 5 freshmen, 3 transfers and 1 returner who sat retired the 2020-21 play amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With truthful galore young players and caller players, we’ve had maturation from Day One,” La Rocque said. “It seems to beryllium a large upward trend. We’re inactive learning caller things astir each different and our team. The biggest happening is conscionable playing together.”
Young is primed for an adjacent amended 2021-22 run aft averaging 12.7 points and 6.9 rebounds a twelvemonth ago. Thomas is simply a reliable two-way helping who played 35.7 minutes per crippled past season, and Wilfred supplies size and depth.
The freshmen people is simply a comparative unknown, but transportation defender Essence Booker and transportation guardant Nneka Obiazor were double-figure scorers astatine their erstwhile schools.
Transfer station Khayla Rooks comes from Washington, a Power Five program, and elder defender Justice Ethridge was a fixture successful UNLV’s rotation during the 2019-20 season.
“We’re a batch younger … but erstwhile we each enactment our heads together, we’re 1 person,” Young said. “Nobody’s truly going to halt america erstwhile we’re each connected.
“I deliberation we’re susceptible of winning our tournament. … I person a batch of assurance successful us.”
Contact newsman Sam Gordon astatine sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon connected Twitter.
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