Lindy La Rocque knew this offseason would be a unique one. The transfer portal made sure of it.
“It’s changed the landscape of just, kind of everything,” the UNLV women’s basketball coach said in an interview with the Review-Journal. “Anything can happen, and that’s what we felt this year.”
The Lady Rebels entered this past season as the Mountain West’s regular-season and tournament champions for three consecutive seasons. Seniors Kiara Jackson and Alyssa Brown headlined a group of upperclassmen who were present for each chapter of the program’s dominance.
But after finishing a season without the conference tournament crown or a NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time since 2021, La Rocque’s roster began to lose more than its graduating talent.
Sophomores Amarachi Kimpson, McKinna Brackens and Macy Spencer announced they were entering the transfer portal after the Lady Rebels’ season ended with an 86-84 loss to Florida in the second round of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.
Kimpson landed at Miami, Brackens committed to Arizona State, and Spencer will play for High Point.
It didn’t take long for UNLV to recoup its losses in the transfer portal, concluding with a group of six additions to jell with incoming freshmen Trystan James, Hodaya Kabada and Alexis Swillis.
Junior San Jose State guard Sydni Summers joined the team last month, marking the final addition for the 2025-26 roster. The group of transfers also includes junior forward Ongolea Afu (Murray State College), senior forward Destiny Brown (Alcorn State), graduate forward Shelbee Brown (Akron, Memphis), senior guard Mariah Elohim (Fresno State) and graduate guard Destiny Leo (Cleveland State).
“We didn’t know what we were going to get, but we got better,” La Rocque said.
Aggressive from start
While the transfer portal and name, image and likeness payments have made it difficult to retain players, La Rocque isn’t planning on altering any aspect of her approach.
“I don’t think it can change me and how I coach or the investment that I give our players each and every day — because that’s who I am,” she said. “And I think the biggest thing is you can’t dwell on it, and it’s not personal. That’s just what it is now.”
La Rocque acknowledged that it wasn’t ideal to see her young core move on, but she credits her staff for being active in the portal immediately.
“Our mindset going into the portal season was to be aggressive from the get-go. Then, of course, you know, we lose a couple of pieces, and we were disappointed in that. But I think it just doubled our efforts,” La Rocque said. “I really credit our staff. When people were getting in the portal, we were calling them within the first hour.”
Her support staff did this even as assistant coach Karlie Burris moved on to become the head coach at Portland State, later to be replaced by former Pepperdine assistant and recruiting coordinator Joslyn Tinkle. La Rocque and Tinkle played together at Stanford for three seasons.
La Rocque said because of her close relationship with Burris, there was never a moment when her staff was down a member in its portal recruiting efforts. Burris helped until her final day, and Tinkle hit the ground running.
“Bringing a new person in with great energy and a fresh perspective, that can help push us to more championships,” La Rocque said. “The communication that I had with (Burris) in that whole job process gave me some runway to do my own hiring search on the backside, and I was able to get that done quickly.”
Championship culture
In addition to her staff, La Rocque turned to her returning players in the recruiting process. That group includes double-digit scorers Aaliyah Alexander (10.6 points per game) and Meadow Roland (10.2).
“We had a million visits, and I credit our returning players for being the champions because people came to play with them and to be a part of the culture that they have established,” La Rocque said.
The culture La Rocque mentioned was also what she used most consistently in her pitches to prospects.
“Obviously NIL is a part of the conversation,” La Rocque said, “But no one’s committing here to play for us strictly off of the NIL. We have a very competitive collective that we’re really excited about that has helped us get players, but that’s not the first and the only thing that they come for.”
Instead, La Rocque looks for players who want to be part of a championship team. That means she’s not looking for the next big star.
“Sometimes that’s not what they’re looking for at all,” La Rocque said. “They want somewhere where they can be the show. They don’t necessarily care about winning, but they want to score their points. … So then it’s like, ‘Cool. Well, I don’t think that’s here.’”
UNLV isn’t far removed from the Desi-Rae Young era, which saw the center dominate the conference and rack up every accolade available in her four seasons. Despite the constant player movement in the portal era, La Rocque believes it’s possible for another player to have a similar arc in her program.
“I think that just evolves,” La Rocque said. Obviously (Young) was a star for us, but I didn’t create that necessarily. Sure, I created the platform, but she made that opportunity and then was so good that we were silly not to play through her.
“So I don’t know, we have great players, players that are going to be just as good as (Young) if not better. That’s the exciting piece.”
Contact Callie Fin at [email protected]. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.
