Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Lindy La Rocque: UNLV Head Women's Basketball Coach On Developing A Winner's Mindset

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

Linday La Rocque (@lindylarocque) is the head coach of the women's basketball team at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas (UNLV). At her time of hiring, she was the second-youngest coach in Division I women's basketball at age 30. She joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn Las Vegas to talk about her style of coaching, what she looks for in an athlete, why a team is different from a family, he favorite quotes, what she learned playing basketball at Stanford University and making it to four NCAA Final Four tournaments under coach Tara VanDerveer and much more! If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleed! Well, here we go, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet, and oh yeah, another in-person interview for you. Thank you so much for joining us inside the beautiful Blue Wire Studios at the Wind Las Vegas, and such a good one today. We dive into the mind of the head coach

of the women's basketball team at UNLV, Lindy LaRoc, who is such a badass. She's also the second youngest NCAA Division I Women's Basketball coach, and we get into what it takes to become a winner. You can find her on social media. It's just her name at Lindy LaRoc. If you're not following me,

you can find me at Chris Van Fleet. And a big shout out to our fan of the week, Disco Boogie Nights, who says, What makes Chris great is when you watch him, you can tell that he's enjoying every moment of this.

With him, it just feels like he's representing the fans. He also seems like a great guy off camera, which is always a plus. Well, thank you so much for that. I read one review on every single episode as my way to say, thank you, to shout you out.

Thanks for being on this journey with me. So if you have an iPhone and you have the podcast app on there, please open it up, leave a few words, or if you've already left a few words, go back in, leave a few new words, and your review will now go to the top so we can shout you out.

Also, if you have Spotify, did you see that Spotify has a rating system now? Yeah, go in there, you'll see the review there, you'll see the stars, and just go in, click that. It'll take like two seconds. I'd be so, so appreciative if you could do that. All right, let's dive into this live from the Blue Wire Studios at the Wind Las Vegas. please welcome. Lindy, LaRock. Well, thank you for building this into your day.

Yeah, no, this is great. I guess we're kind of just down the street, right? Yeah. Yeah. Rock throw, maybe a, you know, three wood, not quite a nine-eyer. I don't know. That'd be a long, I don't know. A long three-wood shot.

Top golf's not far from here. Right. I feel like I'm in the top-golf mood now. What was practice like today? And is it different every day? Practice is a little bit different every day. We're right here kind of in the middle of the season. And so today, you know, we just are continuing to try to balance improving ourselves, working on ourselves, but also preparing for our opponents.

So we play on Saturday. So it's kind of about half and half of focusing on us and what we have to do, but then also given some attention to how we are going to prepare and scout our opponents. And I don't know if people realize this. Everybody watches sports, but I think they only think about the game day. There's a lot of preparation that goes into what's practice going to look like. Oh, man, you know, I sleep and dream about practice plan. I just, you know, I just put a lot of detail and attention to it because, you know, you want to be really efficient. I want to be extremely prepared for our young women and not waste their time. So practice planning, yeah, someone said once, it's like it takes twice as long to make a practice plan for however long the practice is. So practice is an hour.

It takes you two hours to make the plan. I mean, there's at least two hours of thought over it between film and analyzing what yesterday was and what we need for the next day. So, yeah, for sure. Is practice easier or harder after a win or a loss? Like, what's easier? Ooh, that's a tough question. You know, sometimes after a loss, obviously you have some glaring things that you need to work on. Sure.

So practice can almost be easier because it's like, well, clear his day. Well, if we've done this, maybe. We weren't very good at this. So we're going to need to work on that. Right. And then obviously when you're playing really well or you have a great game. And you guys are playing really well. Yeah, we're doing, we're doing okay, you know.

So then sometimes it's, you've got to continue to motivate them. Even when, you know, maybe they think they're riding high a little bit. We've got to keep getting better. Yeah. Was basketball the first sport you played? Um, yes, yes. I kind of grew up in the gym with my father who was a high school coach here in town. So, um, never forced it upon us, but we were there. And then my sister and I, we played soccer and some t-ball and did some other little sports kind of growing up. And that's kind of the thing when

you're growing up. You're exposed to so many different sports. And whether you're playing them with a team or not, like you're exposed to just shooting hoops or playing catch. What was it about basketball that really drew you to it? I don't know. I mean, obviously, as a kid, you're, like, fascinated by a ball that bounces and, you know, you throw it, it comes back to you and different kind of things like that. I think for me, just growing up in the gym, being exposed, I mean, I think that's the biggest thing you touched on it of, I was exposed to it so much at a young age that I felt like I kind of found some of the little intricacies that. were like cool and then, you know, tricks and you just kind of find your love, your passion for it. So I don't know if it was one thing that really draw me to it, except probably the exposure to it at different levels. Men, women, high school, pro, college. You know, I was blessed to be able

to see a lot of that at a young age. I also feel like there's a moment in the lives of most little kids where you're trying to shoot a basketball and you're not strong enough to shoot it on the full-sized net. But then eventually you do get old enough and strong enough and big enough. And like, you can actually get it up into the hoop and through the hoop. And like that moment when you're a kid, you're like, oh, my gosh, I can do what like, you know, the adults can do. Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, there's probably one of those tall people around that lifts you up at one point. And that really, that really, you know, keeps the motivation going. And then you can see kind of that growth too. So was basketball the main sport that you watched growing up? probably again just from the in-person exposure you know i don't i don't totally remember as a kid watching a lot on tv um but you know we kind of had a sports family so you know when we had soccer games and basketball games we we kind of just whatever was on and around and a ball that was in the garage we were playing with it and making up sports half the time sure did you

think it might be a possibility that you could actually do this at a professional level one day? There was, you know, there's a distinct moment kind of in, in my life that I remember, like that light bulb clicking for sure. And so, you know, again, the exposure, I was a ball girl, actually for UNLV here, which is that's so cool circle. Very full circle. Yeah. And how old were you? Let's see, I was, I think 12 at the time, 10 maybe. You know, still pretty young, and we had done that. My sister and I had been ball girls for a few years, and mainly it was so we could get out of school early. But in, I guess, 2002, so I guess I was probably 12.

Becky Hammond was playing UNLV. She was playing for Colorado State, you know, when she was small, and I was a little small kid. And I remember just watching her, and I was, you know, had the best seat in the house on the baseline, right underneath the hoop. and her making shots and just really tearing them apart. I mean, I remember what shoes she was wearing. I've met her a few times, so it's kind of like, then like, oh, yeah, you know, you don't remember any of this,

but I remember this moment in your life so vividly. Yeah. So we've kind of shared that, but I remember just watching her and being like, oh, like, this is something that I could do. If she can do it, I could do it. You know, work hard, small. It doesn't matter.

Yeah. So that's, you know, a clear. memory of mine where it's like when did you think you could play basketball in college that that is that and then it's you know obviously involved it into more for me for my personal journey well so many people think you need to be like a height that begins with a six probably a height that begins six and a half you know like to play basketball that's not necessarily the case but i guess you just have to work that much harder if you don't have the size there's a lot of things involve a size of speed, athleticism, skill.

You know, and I think, especially watching Becky as a young girl, you know, she didn't have the size of even the other players, but she could shoot that ball. Yeah. And I mean, from deep and you just watch it go in, I was like, you know. And so I think I took that. I kind of adopted that. I was a shooter myself and, you know, kind of wasn't the most athletic. so and didn't have the height always.

So I think just the skill and really kind of trying to perfect that and be as good as you can, working hard at it. And I think part of working hard on it is, look, it's easy to do the things that you're good at. It's not easy to do the things that take more work or like to hone the skills that you don't have. What was that for you? What did you really need to work on? Probably my defense first. I mean, any coach that I've had out there will know that that wasn't my expertise or was I very interested in it.

But, you know, the offensive side, I loved, you know, everyone loves scoring, love shooting. So, like you said, the shooting, I practiced it so much. It came probably natural to me. But then just the other skills of ball handling and passing and all that. but I think the hardest thing was for sure defensively, probably just having, being as excited for that as I was playing on the other side of the ball. Right. And then you started playing at like a pretty high level.

What were you learning, what were you learning about yourself when you started to play at a bigger, better level? Well, you go through different phases of, you know, you're the best on your team. you go to the next level and there's more competition. So then you try to find where you fit, you know, and maybe take a different role. But don't lose any of your confidence that got you there. You know, so I think that is what I learned as, you know, you go from high school to college especially.

There's a lot of different roles to be played on a team. And what you've always done, it might have got you the opportunity, but then the new opportunity might present a totally different role or avenue to where you can still be successful. And if you really identify it, buy into it, it can still be great. And so I think just evolving with that and, you know, keeping an open mind to, you know, I just wanted to win.

You know, the team, the team, it's a team game. So whatever the team needed, I was like, well, I'll put the personal sacrifice, you know, and make that happen for us to win some ball games. I'm so curious. Do you think there's more pressure on you now as a coach or when you were playing? Oh, for sure now as a coach. I mean, it's like, you know, I try to help prepare our young women as best I can. but ultimately, you know, they're the ones out there and execute and play hard. And, you know, as a player, you have more control because the ball's in your hands. As a coach, it's not in my hands. And it's about all of the things that I can do beforehand to try to help prepare them

and put them in a successful situation. So it's definitely more nerve-wracking, I think, as a coach for sure. Did you find yourself doing coach-like things when you were playing? were you definitely a player coach? Yeah, you know, teammates and my old coaches, they would always, you know, joke around that, you know, I was the coach, Coach LaRock on the floor, even when I was like the player or, you know,

oh, we forgot a drill, don't worry, you know, Lundy will remember it. It was from two months ago. So, you know, I, because I had a knack for kind of wanting to do this to coach even when my, playing career was done. I knew that would come to an end. I knew I would want to try this coaching thing. And so I kind of loved it. They teased me about it and I loved it. And really just kind of bought into it. So it was good. Well, the thing, because when you're growing up,

the coach is like someone's parent, right? Yeah. And then as you start to get a little bit older, you're getting coaches who have been there and done that. And that's exactly what you've done. You've been there and you've done that. How does the transition start to be made from player to going, all right, I'm going to start to do some coaching now. And my playing career might be done. Yeah. You know, everyone has their own kind of unique path and perspective. I had such a great playing career.

I didn't play past college. You went to like, was it four final fours? Yeah. So, you know, I won a lot of games, had a lot of great teammates. You want to talk about pressure. Yeah. So, you know, I think when it, when the light is kind of coming, you can see it there at the end of the tunnel and you hit this crossroads of, do I keep playing? Do I try to go overseas, you know, play professionally? Or if you have an idea of what you wanted to do for me and that was coaching, do I kind of commit to that? And for me, it's all just having fulfillment and being content. And so when my playing chapter was coming to a close, I was really fulfilled with the effort that I gave,

the outcomes that we had, the relationships, and wasn't going to regret not trying to go play professionally. You know, just because I was really happy, I was in a great, you know, at peace with like, yeah, I'm never going to play on a team ever again. And it's great. I'm good with it. So let me start the next.

the next thing that I want to do. How does that start? It's a million different ways. Yeah, how to start for you? I actually, I wanted to kind of step away from basketball. So after playing, graduating, I worked for a financial software company right in the area. Wow. And I knew, you know, everyone knew I wanted to coach, all my coaches, all my friends.

they're like, we know you want to coach. But I also felt like I had kind of had to give myself a gap to take off my playing hat, to, you know, really close that chapter, have the closure, and then start a new one. So I worked at a financial software company for about eight months until it was like, you know, right around this time, Christmas time, hoops season, you know, football's done with. And, you know, I was in that cubicle. And I was like, yeah, I think I'm ready now. So, you know, but it was perfect for me.

So in a lot of ways I kind of had maybe a gap year. And then, you know, you just try to dive back in head first to getting your foot in the door with coaching and using your network and the relationships and the coaches that you've had. So, and that can take a number of different, different directions. With that gap year, I feel like it must have been really important as an identity shift for you. it's the identity shift from going from being a player, being on the court, to now being a coach and being on the sidelines. Oh, 100%. Absolutely. I mean, and that's a great way to describe it. And I think it was huge. Just for me, emotionally, mentally, there's a physical toll. I mean, I had been playing high-level basketball for, you know, 15 years. How are your knees and your ankles? I'm very much retired.

So I do not play anymore. Still hoop it up a little? No? Well, you know, every once in a while, they really challenge me. And then I can't back down from that. But, yeah, I, you know, I don't play anymore. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens, which is a super important part of my morning routine.

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slash insight. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash insight to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Athletic Greens. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. soccer podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by, I'm my co-host, Megan Clarenberg.

And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claim. And they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are.

The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Hencoe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Does anything on you hurt now from your years of playing? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What a silly question. Question of course. Yeah.

Yeah. All of the joints, you know, my hips. Yeah. Luckily, you know, I didn't have any major injuries as a player. You know, you mentioned the knees. Unfortunately, those are, you know, some of those injuries are running rampant. So I'm fortunate, but, so I don't have the scars, but I still think I have the joint inflammation and, you know, wearing of the bones and in a lot of different places on the body. But it's all right.

I know. What does it mean now being at UNLV, like this full circle thing that we're talking about earlier? Yeah, in my career, I've kind of had a couple of full circle opportunities. You know, I played at Stanford and then prior to coming back here, coaching there. And I was like, wow, it doesn't get much better than this. This is a full circle opportunity. Yeah. And then this UNLV opportunity comes about.

And we talked about how I started as a ball girl. Obviously, I was born and raised here. And so just another full circle opportunity to have both of those experiences, obviously just like a huge blessing, you know, and the world working in mysterious ways to put you right where you need to be, you know, at the right time. So being back here at you and LV, I would have never have guessed it, to be honest, but I couldn't be more happy and excited and thrilled to represent our university. but I think even more importantly for me personally, my hometown, the community that raised me, you know, just really getting back in touch. I hadn't been here, frankly, since I was in high school. I hadn't lived here. So I kind of took a 12-year gap from Vegas, but they've opened their arms back up to me and it's been really special. What do you think is the best piece of advice

you've been given about coaching? Whether you were a player, you got this advice, but what do you think is the best advice you were given. About coaching? Yeah. And then we can expand this to just, you know, the game itself. Yeah. I think for coaching, there's so many layers to it, but if I'm not having fun doing it, showing up every day, creating fun environment, you know, how can I expect anyone to have fun around me and to enjoy doing it? You know, I, obviously as the coach are kind of the leader and you set the tone for those things. And so, you know, the day that you don't have fun doing it, then there's, you know, a big red flag that you should think about,

think long and hard about what you're doing. Right. Is it still fun after a loss? It is. It is. It is. You know, there's just new challenges. It's such a evolving challenge, really. And I love that, you know, because, you know, basketball is a game of mistakes. And, you know, it's kind of like who can be most imperfectly perfect. And how cool is that? Like, there's never two games exactly the same.

And so it's a fun puzzle to constantly try to rearrange and put together. Yeah, I'm like, now I'm thinking about that. Basketball is so much a game of missed opportunities, as much as it's a game about the opportunities that you actually, you know, like where the ball goes in. Right. And missed opportunities with like getting a rebound. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Wow. What about just life advice? What's the best life advice that's been handed to you? A couple of things. You know, I have two like mentors in my coaching career that really stand out. the two coaches that I worked for and played for. The first one kind of relays back to just being, having fun, is, you know, nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.

You know, Tara Vandervere, my coach at Stanford, who I had the pleasure to work alongside, she just preached it. You know, it's, you're not excited about it. If you're not passionate about it, A, nothing good will probably come sustained. You know, you can have some intermittent success, but if you're, you've got to be excited and you've got to bring the energy every single day. So that definitely from her is kind of a mantra that I live by. And then Sherry Cole, I had the pleasure working underneath her and for her at Oklahoma. And something that she said, you know, my team probably hates it because I almost say it every day, is how you do anything is how you do everything.

Oh, I love that quote. It just, it, it just rings true in so many, and every facet of life, you know, schoolwork, translating to basketball, you know, making your bed to starting your day off right. So it's just, you know, I say that at nauseam. And it's so true because if you're willing to take shortcuts on this thing, what else are you taking shortcuts on in your life? Right. Probably a lot of things.

Yep. And, oh, that's such a good one. Who, whose quote is that even? Oh. Tony Robbins says it, but I don't think it's his quote. No, I know it's been kind of repeated by a lot of people. I know the enthusiasm one, I believe, is Emerson. Oh, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Yes. I quote him all the time. And then I'm not exactly sure the other one, but. How involved are you in the recruiting process? Oh, I mean, that's like our life. That's our, it's the blood that keeps us beating. So what is it that you look for in an athlete? obviously there's, you know, the basketball side of, you know, bigger, stronger, faster, and size, athleticism.

But there's always the intangibles. Like, you know, it always comes back to Tom Brady, who, you know, didn't have any of the qualities anyone was looking for and now he's the greatest of all time. So what are some, how can you even measure some of those intangibles? Well, our staff and kind of our recruiting philosophy is really looking at the full picture, you know, there's the basketball component. Academically, it comes back to literally the quote that we just said. Yeah. If you, if you, you know, don't take your academic serious, then there's a piece of you missing. And, you know, how you study for your math test is going to tell me a lot about how you're going to study my scouting report.

You know, so there's a total academic emphasis for us of, you know, you've got to really be committed to doing your work in the classroom because that'll give us the confidence. that you're going to do the extra work on the court when you needed it. And then, like you said, the intangible. There's personality things. There's body language, being vocal, you know, the teammate side of the game that can really make or break teams. I feel like, you know, so when we're watching them, talking to their families, you know, what are the things are they interested in? Are they good communicators with their coaches, you know, do they give high five?

Are they really vocal? Do they give high fives? So, I mean, our staff kind of laughs at me, but I rather watch warm-ups than a game half the time because I can see a lot more about, you know, where their focus is and what's important to them in warm-ups, even more than whatever happens during a game. How much can you tell about an athlete based on how their parents are? obviously like we're all a product of kind of our environment and you know our support systems in a lot of ways so there's a lot of cues there and relationships that I think are important in the development of

young people so we have to like really kind of surround you know obviously we talk with their coaches but talking with their parents and you know oh like grandma's your best friend all right I want to talk to grandma too, you know, or who is your best friend? Susie, okay, let's get Susie on FaceTime, see what she's up to. Yeah. You know, and you can see then how they interact with those people and, you know, what those people have to say about them. Oh.

What advice do you have for a young athlete, male or female, that wants to get a scholarship somewhere? That obviously there's a work component to it, just a work ethic of being really driven. And I think what is lost a lot of times is there's a lot of sacrifice. If you really want this, what are you willing to sacrifice? Saturdays at the beach, you know, time. There's a monetary sacrifice from families, from parents. I mean, everything is costing more these days.

Yeah. A lot of traveling. Traveling. Especially if you live in a small city and the best team is an hour or away, all of a sudden practices are an hour there and an hour back. Right. So there's a lot of sacrifice involved. And so probably my advice would be, you know, if you really, really want this, what are you willing to sacrifice so that you can make sure that all your hard work really pays off? It's kind of the idea of how bad do you want it? Right. You say you want it bad,

but you're maybe not doing all of the things that you need to be doing to really make this a career one day. Yeah. Yeah. You seem so like calm and mellow here, which is not the way, you know, you are on a game. Yeah. How do you calm down after a game? Oh, well, my husband's here. Maybe you should ask him. He's like, it doesn't happen.

Yeah. You know, I think that's kind of been, especially as a young coach, that's been, I think, one of my biggest challenges or just things that I have to continue to learn about myself. You know, I'm lucky that I live 20 minutes away. So, you know, I try to live close to campus wherever I'm working or whatever I'm doing, but then also not so close to where you can just like walk. Because I think sometimes the commute is really, you know, the time that I can build myself up and really prepare for the day. And then on the way back, decompressed. Right.

Yeah. You know, and get a phone call out of the way if I need to talk to someone. one for, you know, whatever happened that day that can, you know, help level me out. You know, it's, it's a roller coaster ride constantly every day. So that's probably one of the hardest things, but calming down, you know, I think it really, I rely on my support system. I know we joked about it, but like my husband's probably like almost the opposite of me in a lot of ways. And I can see him and he's like so calm and I can be like, okay, I can breathe. So, you know, just and my parents and just the people that are around me,

I think I rely on to, you know, keep me grounded, perspective clear and see full picture of things. But I think really the time, you know, right after practice, you know, have a drive home, listen to whatever music I need, you know, or just be silent. That's nice too. Yeah. So then I can have kind of the same, you know, energy for the other areas of my life that deserve it as well. Man, I don't know how you do it. Because it's like from the highest of highs sometimes to the lowest of lows.

Wow. How many hours a week do you think your job is during the season? Oh. There's, you know, in office hours. There's in practice hours. And then there's just mental hours of, you know, I've got to like figure out. out ways to fall asleep so that I stop thinking about our opponent

or strategy or game playing or practice plan. So the hours, yeah, especially in season, it's a lot. So it's like every waking moment? Really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Is it more during the season than it is in the off season? Absolutely.

Okay. Yeah. So there you go. Balances out. Right. Kind of? Yeah. Well, that's a 40 hours a week in the off season. Yeah. I think that's where you try to make up and balance and find, you know, make sure you take that time. Yeah. In the offseason.

Do you think that one day will ever see a female NBA coach? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, I'm not sure. No, I mean, I'd never say never. Yeah. Absolutely. I think that that could be a great challenge.

There's been female NFL coaches. Yep. Yep. I mean, we mentioned Becky Hammond earlier. I mean, she's. She's on her way. And if I had to guess who would be, I would pick her. I think she'd do a great job.

I know she's been interviewing and she's got a great mentor in Popovich. So I think she's ready and she's really put herself in a great position for whatever job she wants. I think she'll be able to get. This could be a possibility for you or you could just be the head coach at UNLV for the rest of your career if you want. Yeah. Well, I try to, you know, be wherever my two feet are. And, you know, that's kind of how I feel like I've had these other doors open for me. It was not always looking for him or working for that, but just being where I am, doing the very best job that I can,

and then see where things lead and opportunities. So never say never, but I'm really happy where I am right now. But there's a big lesson in that. It's that if you're working really hard, people start to notice. it doesn't go unnoticed when you are doing the best possible work because like we mentioned earlier, not everybody is, or not everybody is all the time. Yeah, well, and that's attractive, right?

Someone that, you know, is really committed to their job is the most important thing. Yeah. And working like that every day. So that's just kind of what I try to do. I mean, I have to be the very best that I can be every minute, every hour of every day, mainly for these young women and the people that, you know, I'm in charge to lead and be around every day. How do you show up every day? Because you're probably not a 10 out of 10 excited every single day. How do you show up every day? It's, it, there's different

days where it's tough. It's tough. We talked about the drive. You know, I think those are my times where I've got to really like get the music going and pump myself up because, you know, I'm human just like anyone else and got your good days, your bad days, personal life things hit. And, you know, sometimes the compartmentalization of it is healthy and unhealthy. But there's a little bit of that that goes into it. And, you know, I just try to constantly remind myself of why I do it, who I do it for. and what those people deserve from me. Yeah.

And, you know, if you can kind of ask those things of yourself every day or when you're not quite in the mood, typically that can get you pumped up and fired up enough to get right back, you know, where you need to be. Brendan Meshard, he's like a podcaster and like motivational speaker. He talks about triggers. So like getting in the car is the trigger to, I need to start feeling this way. I'm guessing for you getting in the building, perhaps seeing the court, like, that's a trigger for you of like, all right, it's time to put on that game phase.

Yeah, absolutely, you know, pulling up to the gym or, you know, getting in my parking spot, whatever it is. And it's like, yep, we're on. Yeah. But how do you balance all of this? Because coach wears a lot of hats, right? And like sometimes your coach, sometimes you're, you know, like therapist, sometimes. sometimes your best friend, sometimes your motivational speaker,

all of these things. How do you balance it? How do you know when to put on a different hat with a different player? Right. Staff is hugely important. I just think the people that you surround yourself, A, you have to trust them with your life

and the program and whatever business you're in and really relying on them when you need them too. Because, you know, while it's maybe my face on this podcast, I'm nothing with the people that hold me up every day, that build me up when I need that, and that I rely on to help, you know, just steer the ship. And so I think the staff is huge. But then, you know, I just have this weird,

it's all about like what I'm feeling in my heart. I just, that's kind of my style is, if you don't lead from the heart, then what's guiding you. And so, and I think when you do that and you ask people to kind of,

you know, if you can be a little bit vulnerable, they'll be vulnerable and authentic with you. And then you can really see what they need. You need a hug. You need me to give you some, tough love right now and throw some reality down or you know do we need to go for a walk and like just smell the fresh air and reset and get get back you know to wherever our true north is so i think

a combination of a staff and just you know just trying to do the very best that i can in the moment and always trying to operate with some understanding and a lot of love kind of you know, most of the time your heart doesn't steer you wrong. Right. I love that. Listen to your heart. The thing that's so fascinating to me about collegiate sports is you only get these young women for four years max. Like in the pros, you could have them for 10, 15, 20 years. Right. How different is that knowing that you only have them for just this short little chunk?

Well, you know, maybe different than the pros. It's at a time in their life when they're most like able to be find themselves yeah very formidable years right you know and and so i think it's like you know a blessing and a powerful thing to be a part of you know so yes it's only four years but those might be some of the most impactful years of their life and living until 60 70 like if they remember any four years, it might be these four years. Yeah. And then at the end of it, you're kind of like sending the baby bird out of the nest. Yeah.

So, you know, I think it's just, you know, having a good feel of, you know, investing as much as you can because, yes, I'm with them for four years. But, you know, the idea is that, you know, you have a connection, you have a relationship that is lifelong, you know, for not just when they need a letter of recommendation two years later, but, you know, when they want to come back and, you know, meet up in a random city and grab dinner, you know, it's about kind of that connection and relationship and helping, you know, like you said, send them out into the world and seeing them grow and create their own families and have their own careers and jobs and continuing to be their biggest fan through those things as well. Yeah. Pretend I'm one of your players for a moment, okay?

And we're down by like 15 and it's halftime. What does it sound like when we go back to the locker room? What does your speech sound like? Well, if we're down 15, there's probably some glaring things that we need to fix. We've got the second half to turn it around. Right. Well, and I think that, to me, that's the message of like you've got 20 minutes here to rewrite this story. If we don't make any changes, I'm sure the outcome.

come won't change. What if we can fix this, clean this up, get a little bit more connected, play hard, really together. You know, anything can happen. You're not saying it in this tone. You're obviously, are you upset at this? I mean, I'd probably be a little bit like more like, you're better than this. Yeah. You're better than this. You practice harder than this. I've seen you make a million shots. You know, let's like change what's going on right now. And we have, it's, it's in our hands to make the choice, to do something different. I'm getting motivated here. Yeah. Let's turn this thing around. Yeah.

Is there, you've said a couple of phrases that I absolutely love and their words to live by. Is there one that's painted on the wall, the locker room? No. No. Um, because I think it's constantly a, The one that we've been preaching to our team, you know, the last few weeks is the pain of discipline is far less than the pain of regret, mainly because one of our challenges and every team is unique. You know, so I don't totally believe in like painting the core values or our mission statement or one singular quote on a wall because what this team needs, next year's team, while it may have the same of the, majority of the same players will probably need something completely different. So nothing painting on the walls other than just, you know, lady rebels. I love it.

I've loved this conversation and I've learned so much here. Thank you so much for coming by. No, this has been great. I end every conversation with the same question. And I'm all about gratitude. So I start and end every day saying out loud three things that I'm grateful for. Okay. So what are for you, Lindy, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now?

Honestly, I'm grateful for just my health, you know, with everything that's been going on. You talked about being a player and injuries, but ultimately I'm healthy and the ones around me that I love are healthy as well. Yeah. So grateful for my health and my family's health. I'm really grateful to be in this position. It's such a privilege. It's such an honor, again, with so many different things tied to it, my hometown of Las Vegas. But ultimately, you know, there's parents and moms and dads and sisters that are trusting me to care for their daughter, sister, you know, granddaughter, friend. And that's a huge responsibility that I'm extremely grateful for.

Yeah. And at a great school too, like at a school, like a legendary school. Yeah. You know, some good basketball. Yeah. Yeah. So I probably put two or three in with each one of those. But a third would be, man.

I mean, there's so many things. Yeah. It's hard to narrow it down to just. three, I know. That's kind of the point of this exercise. You can be as grateful for as many things as you want. Yeah. I am extremely grateful for my husband. We are newly married. We got married. Congratulations. When did you get married? In August? What's, what's today? December. Yeah. So, five months? September, October, November, it's four months. Four months. Four months. Well, when did you get married in August? August 7th. Okay, so almost four and a half months.

Four and a half months. Did you get married in Vegas? Yes, we did. At a chapel? Yeah, actually at the church that I grew up going to. No way. I was joking. Not the Little White Chapel, you know. No, Elvis. No, he didn't appear. But, yeah, so just kind of for him and, you know, as we continue to, you know, start on a new journey.

Yeah. Seeing where life takes us. And I saw that you said something that team is not family. And I want to ask you about that. What specifically do you mean? Because you always hear a lot of athletes being like, these are my brothers, these are my sisters, this is my family. Well, I just think family has kind of been thrown around and lost some of its really

meaning in a lot of ways in a sports setting. We're a family. They're a family. Well, we say we're a family. How's our family different than your family? And so I like to say that, you know, our team isn't a family. That are, we're a sisterhood, you know, because ultimately, you know, we're sisters, their sisters out on the court, you know, the teams that I played with, those are like my sisters for life. And that's what I want them to feel. And now our sister's family, absolutely, you know, and, you know, we have some of those same characteristics, but other than just kind of using the same cliche term of, you know, one, two, three, family, you know, we don't say sisterhood, but. What do you say on one, two, three? Is it different

every game? No. We should say rebels. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That makes perfect sense. Yeah. Yeah.

But, you know, I want them to feel the sisterhood of being a lady rebel, of taking that into their life. Especially if you're a freshman. Right. And then the other piece to me is, you know, as a coach, again, as someone that's like in their care, I'm never trying to replace someone else's family. Yeah. You know, because that's not, A, my job.

Now, we want to open. up our doors, our Lady Rebel family to other people. But it's not in replace of, it's almost to add to the army of and the sisterhood that we have with our team. That's a fantastic answer. And I meant to ask it earlier. And I'm like, oh, but we definitely need to talk about this. But Lindy, thank you so much. Congratulations on everything. And good luck on the rest of the season. No, this is awesome. I really appreciate you having me and, you know, maybe get you out to a game when you've got to sign me up. An off day and I'll even let you in the locker room and really hear that halftime speech.

Okay. I'm in. Yeah. Thank you. All right. I appreciate it. There you go. Big thank you to Lindy for joining us for such an insightful conversation.

Yes, pun intended. And thank you to you for being with us in the beautiful Blue Wire Studios at the Wind Las Vegas. give her a follow in social media. It's her name. It's at Lindy LaRoc. And if you're not following me, you can find me at Chris Vanfleet. And I'll leave you with this quote, which I love so much. And this is the way I think that everyone should live their life. How you do anything is how you do everything.

If you're lazy about the little things, chances are you might be lazy about the big things too. How you do anything is how you do everything. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley?

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