Lindy La Rocque

Lindy La Rocque (born December 15, 1989) is an American college basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the women's basketball team at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

Lindy La Rocque
Current position
TitleHead coach
TeamUNLV
ConferenceMountain West
Record72–19 (.791)
Biographical details
Born (1989-12-15) December 15, 1989
Las Vegas, Nevada
Playing career
2008–2012Stanford
Position(s)Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2013–2015Oklahoma (graduate assistant)
2015–2017Belmont (assistant)
2017–2020Stanford (assistant)
2020–presentUNLV
Head coaching record
Overall72–19 (.791)
Tournaments0–2 (NCAA)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
Awards
Mountain West Coach of the Year (2021)

Early life and education

La Rocque was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. She graduated from Durango High School in Las Vegas in 2008.[1] At Durango, La Rocque played at shooting guard.[2] With her strengths being in scoring and three-point shooting, La Rocque won Nevada All-State honors in all four years, second team honors in 2005 and 2006 then first team honors in 2007 and 2008.[1][3] With a 4.7 GPA, La Rocque was the valedictorian of her high school class.[1]

ESPN graded La Rocque 70 points out of 100 as a high school recruit.[2] On November 14, 2007, La Rocque signed her letter of intent to play college basketball for Stanford.[3] Playing under head coach Tara VanDerveer from 2008 to 2012, La Rocque played 138 games with 43 starts, averaging 3.1 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 15.3 minutes per game.[1] La Rocque graduated from Stanford with a bachelor's degree in science, technology, and society, with an emphasis on earth systems, civil and environmental engineering, and calculus.[4]

Career

Early coaching career (2013–2020)

After graduating from Stanford, La Rocque enrolled at the University of Oklahoma in 2013 and served for two seasons as a graduate assistant for Oklahoma Sooners women's basketball under head coach Sherri Coale. Oklahoma appeared in the 2014 and 2015 NCAA Tournaments. La Rocque graduated from Oklahoma in 2015 with a master's degree in adult and higher education.[4]

From 2015 to 2017, La Rocque was an assistant coach under head coach Cameron Newbauer at Belmont, during which Belmont appeared in the 2016 and 2017 NCAA Tournaments.[4][5]

Returning to her alma mater, La Rocque was an assistant coach at Stanford from 2017 to 2020 again under VanDerveer. In those three seasons, Stanford went 82–22 (43–10 in Pac-12 games) and appeared in the NCAA Tournament twice, advancing to the Elite Eight in 2019.[4][6]

UNLV (2020–present)

On March 18, 2020, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) hired La Rocque to be women's basketball head coach, nearly two weeks after the resignation of previous head coach Kathy Olivier.[4][7] At the time of her hiring, La Rocque was the second-youngest coach in Division I women's basketball at the age of 30.[8]

In 2021, the Mountain West Conference named La Rocque its Coach of the Year in women's basketball after La Rocque's debut season in which UNLV finished 13–5 in Mountain West play and second in conference standings.[9]

The 2022–23 UNLV team was La Rocque's most successful with a perfect 18–0 record in Mountain West regular season games, the first season where UNLV went undefeated in conference play since going 8–0 in the PCAA in 1984–85.[10] In mid-February 2023, UNLV was ranked no. 23 in the AP Poll, UNLV's first top 25 ranking in that poll since 1994.[11]

Head coaching record
Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
UNLV Lady Rebels (Mountain West Conference) (2020–present)
2020–21 UNLV 15–913–52nd
2021–22 UNLV 26–715–31stNCAA First Round
2022–23 UNLV 31–318–01stNCAA First Round
UNLV: 72–19 (.791)46–8 (.852)
Total:72–19 (.791)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

References
  1. "Lindy La Rocque". GoStanford.com. Stanford University. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  2. "Lindy La Rocque: Basketball Recruiting". ESPN. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  3. "Stanford Women's Basketball Signs Talented Trio To Letter Of Intent". Stanford University. November 14, 2007. Archived from the original on January 5, 2009. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  4. "Lindy La Rocque Chosen To Lead UNLV Women's Basketball Program". University of Nevada, Las Vegas. March 18, 2020. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  5. "Solid as La Rocque Addition". Belmont University. May 4, 2015. Archived from the original on October 30, 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  6. "2018-19 Women's Basketball Schedule". Stanford University. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  7. Anderson, Mark (March 6, 2020). "UNLV's Kathy Olivier resigns as women's basketball coach". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  8. "New women's coach ready to return UNLV to glory". Las Vegas Sun. 21 November 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  9. "Mountain West Announces 2020-21 Women's Basketball All-Conference Team". Mountain West Conference. March 7, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  10. Yamashita, Andy (February 28, 2023). "Lady Rebels rally to complete perfect run through Mountain West". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  11. Yamashita, Andy (February 15, 2023). "Newly ranked UNLV goes for Mountain West clincher at Thomas & Mack". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
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