Lindy La Rocque’s case for staying at UNLV is a lesson for the rest of the athletic department. Asked why she has remained in Las Vegas, she pointed beyond family ties to support from the athletic department and university president, and to the resources around women’s basketball.
She described the combination of family, institutional backing and Las Vegas’ sports opportunities as too good to leave right now. UNLV should pay attention to that explanation as closely as it does her record.
La Rocque is also considering how the program might need to change. She sees value in a general manager if the right person fits the staff, head coach and university, though she said UNLV is not quite there yet. If that job comes to women’s basketball, she wants it working directly with her program rather than loosely shared across departments.
La Rocque wants any future general manager to have responsibilities that serve the team. UNLV has not announced a hire for that position.
Since taking over in 2020, she has gone 149-41 overall and 94-16 in Mountain West play. From 2021-22 through 2024-25, UNLV won at least 26 games in four straight seasons, finished first in the Mountain West four straight times and reached three NCAA Tournaments. Even a 21-11 season now feels like a step back because La Rocque changed the standard.
The Lady Rebels still need an NCAA Tournament win to extend their conference success onto the national stage. La Rocque has raised expectations enough that the program should be judged against that goal.
Football under Dan Mullen, men’s basketball under Josh Pastner and baseball under newly hired Nick Garritano face different demands. They can still learn from the relationship La Rocque describes between winning, local ties and institutional support.
La Rocque was born and raised in Las Vegas, attended Durango High School and now has young children growing up here. Her father, Al La Rocque, is a respected local coach.
Those connections help explain why she has stayed. Her coaching background also matters to what she has built at UNLV.
She played at Stanford under Tara VanDerveer, reached four Final Fours as a player and later returned to Stanford as part of the coaching staff. She also spent time at Oklahoma under Sherri Coale.
That career gave her experience in programs with national expectations before she took over at UNLV. Her work here has produced repeated conference contention rather than one isolated winning season.
La Rocque has emphasized recruiting high school players and developing them over time, while continuing to use the transfer portal to build her roster.
Desi-Rae Young’s career shows what UNLV can gain by developing a player over several seasons.
La Rocque described Young as a true diamond in the rough who had only one or two Division I offers before staying home at UNLV. Young was not a finished product when she arrived.
She became one of the best players in program history, finishing second all-time in rebounding and third all-time in scoring, with La Rocque saying the school will probably retire her jersey.
Young’s rise from lightly recruited local prospect to one of UNLV’s best players gives the staff a specific development example to show the next recruit.
Keeping the coach who oversaw that development requires more than assuming she will stay because she is from Las Vegas. La Rocque’s own explanation includes support and resources alongside family.
La Rocque has kept winning at UNLV and still sees reasons to stay. The school has to keep giving her those reasons.
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