Will the third time be the charm for the UNLV women’s basketball team?
NCAA Tournament brackets were revealed on Sunday, and UNLV appears to have a good shot at earning its first victory in the dance under head coach Lindy La Rocque, as the Scarlet and Gray earned a No. 10 seed and will face No. 7 Creighton in the first round. They were placed in the UCLA pod and will play in Los Angeles on Saturday.
The team responded with much enthusiasm when the matchup was announced at a watch party at the Thomas & Mack Center. Players leapt out of their seats and celebrated, with their reaction going live over the ESPN broadcast.
Senior forward Desi-Rae Young, the Mountain West Player of the Year, expressed confidence in the matchup.
“I’m super-duper excited,” Young said. “I think we’ve got it in the bag. I think this is a good team that we can really play well and really put our name in and get past the first round.”
UNLV went 30-2 this season, including a 17-1 mark in Mountain West play. La Rocque then guided the squad to three wins in the MWC tournament, claiming the league’s automatic NCAA bid for the third straight year.
UNLV has now reached the NCAA Tournament in each of the past three seasons. Last year, they were a No. 12 seed and lost a first-round game against No. 5 Michigan in Baton Rouge, La. In 2022, they were seeded 13th and lost to No. 4 Arizona in a first-round game played on the Wildcats’ home floor in Tucson, Ariz.
Junior forward Alyssa Brown, the MVP of the Mountain West tournament, is one of several core players who have been around for previous NCAA Tournament runs, and she said this team is determined to bust some brackets.
“We’re hungry for a win in the NCAA Tournament,” Brown said. “We’re ready to put Vegas on the map.”
UNLV is currently on a 15-game winning streak, including a 66-49 victory over San Diego State in the Mountain West title game on Wednesday. The Scarlet and Gray won all three conference tourney games by double digits.
While the program was likely holding out hope for a better seed — which would have been a sign of respect for their dominance in and out of conference this season — it’s hard to nitpick with the draw. Creighton is not a juggernaut opponent, and the Los Angeles venue is within driving distance for Scarlet and Gray fans who wish to travel to support the team.
Several hundred fans came out for the watch party, and Young is hoping for a sizable partisan crowd in the first round.
“It’s exciting,” Young said. “A lot of fans can come. A lot of my family lives in Los Angeles, a lot of our teammates’ families live in California, so it’s very exciting. We should have a really nice crowd.”
Brown said the team was excited both for the opponent and the location.
“Creighton, they’re a very good team. I think that we’ll match up well with them,” Brown said. “I know it will be close for everyone. We have a lot of West Coast kids, so everyone is excited that our families will be able to make it.”
The team practiced on Sunday before the watch party, and La Rocque said they will hold another practice on Monday before determining how they’ll handle the rest of the week.
As for notching the program’s first NCAA win? La Rocque feels UNLV is ready to meet the moment.
“I think we have a different energy and edge about us coming into this tournament,” La Rocque said. “Obviously we’ve been here a couple of times. We were really high and really low at different points. I think the group is mature and really determined to get the job done, and balance the excitement with the preparation and the commitment to knowing what it takes to come out with a win.”
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
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