Jan. 9, 2001
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STORYLINE: The UNLV Lady Rebels (10-2, 0-0) open the 2001 Mountain West Conference season when they host Utah (12-2, 1-0) on Thursday, Jan. 11 at the Thomas & Mack Center ... The Rebels' last MWC loss came at the hands of the Utes, 56-52 last Feb. 12 in Salt Lake City ... In fact, Utah handed UNLV its final two losses last season, the other coming in the Rebels' season finale in the seminfinal game of the Mountain West Conference Championships ... UNLV comes into the contest riding a four-game winning streak with victories over Pacific, Nevada, Reno, Prairie View A&M and UC Irvine ... Utah comes into the game ranked 26th in the Jan. 8 Associated Press poll, one vote behind No. 25 Auburn ... UNLV is off to its best record since starting the 1993-94 season with a 10-2 mark ... Kids will be admitted free with every paying adult as part of a national "Take A Kid To The Game" promotion ... Following Thursday's game, fans will be allowed to take pictures with the team as part of a Picture Night special promotion by UNLV.
LADY REBELS ON THE AIR: Thursday's game will be shown on tape delay in Las Vegas on KTUD UPN Cable 14/Channel 25 on Sunday, Jan. 14 at 2:00 p.m. Tim Neverett and Trip Mitchell will call the action. And, all Lady Rebel games are broadcast in Las Vegas on KENO 1460 AM and throughout the world on unlvrebels.com. Returning for his 14th season as the Voice of the Lady Rebels, Bob Blum, the dean of West Coast broadcasters, will deliver the play-by-play. Joining him courside will be former Lady Rebel Cheryl Kosewicz, who handles the color commentary for all home games.
THE LADY REBELS: UNLV (10-2, 0-0) returns 11 letterwinners and four starters from last season's 17-12 team that finished fifth in the inaugural season of the Mountain West Conference ... The Rebels are on a four-game winning streak which includes their largest win of the year, a 37-point victory over Prairie View A&M ... Head coach Regina Miller is in her third season with the Lady Rebels and has a record of 44-25 (.637) ... Miller collected her 100th career victory as a head coach in the win over Eastern Washington ... UNLV is led by Linda Fr?hlich, who leads the Mountain West Conference in scoring with 19.7 ppg and in rebounding with 8.1 rpg.
ABOUT UTAH: Utah (12-2, 1-0) enters Saturday's game atop the Mountain West Conference with a 1-0 record ... The Utes defeated New Mexico, 76-73, last Sunday at The Pit in Albuquerque to open MWC play ... Utah received 93 votes in this week's AP poll, ranking them 26th ... The Utes return 11 letterwinners and four starters from last season's 23-8 team that finished first in the Mountain West Conference with a 11-3 mark ... They are coached by Elaine Elliott, who has a 358-150 (.705) record in her 18th season at U of U ... Senior forward Kristina Andersen leads the Utes in scoring at 10.4 ppg and junior center Lauren Beckman leads them in rebounding with 7.1 rpg.
SERIES NOTES: Utah took a 9-8 lead in the all-time series between the schools with three victories last season ... The Utes dealt the Rebels their final two losses of the 1999-00 campaign, including a 67-65 defeat in the semifinal of the Mountain West Conference Championships that ended UNLV's season ... The series began in 1974-75, the Rebels' first season of competition, with Utah taking a 70-64 victory ... UNLV then won the next five games and six of the next eight as the schools played at least once annually until 1980-81 ... The teams played twice in 1997-98, with Utah winning the only meetings as members of the Western Athletic Conference ... Those two wins propelled the Utes to a five-game winning streak against UNLV.
WITH THE BALL: Through 12 games, UNLV is averaging 72.1 points per game which ranks second in the MWC ... The Rebels lead the league in field goal percentage, shooting .465 (318-684) from the field and rank second in three-point shooting perecentage at .395 (51-129) ... Six Rebels (Davis, Fr?hlich, Gambill, Gl?ser, Johansson and Jinks) are shooting 75 percent or better from the line ... UNLV's victory over UC Irvine on Jan. 6 was the 10th of the season and marked the earliest in a season that UNLV had won its 10th game since defeating Pacific, 64-54, on Jan. 2, 1991 to improve to 10-0 ... The Rebels' 37-point win over Prairie View A&M was the team's largest margin of victory since the Rebels posted a 92-49 win at UC Irvine in the 1993-94 season ... Against Pacific, junior forward Linda Fr?hlich broke the school record for single-game shooting percentage, connecting on 16-of-17 (.941) field goals for a season-high 37 points. In just 30 minutes, Fr?hlich was three points shy of a career high and seven points shy of the school record ... Point guard Dayna Gambill dished a then-career-high 10 assists against Pacific, just four short of the school record of 14. Five days later, she broke her career high again, handing out 11 scoring chances against Nevada, Reno while turning the ball over only three times. Not only does she again lead the team in assists with 61(5.5 apg), but has increased her scoring output to 8.5 ppg, up from a 5.6 ppg average last season ... UNLV shot a season-best .870 (20-23) from the line against Cal State Northridge ... Constance Jinks has scored in double figures in each of the last four games, including a 22-point output against UC Irvine.
DEFENDING THE POST: The Lady Rebels are doing it with defense this season. They have allowed only two opponents to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor in a game and have lost both games, while only five of their 12 foes have topped the 40 percent shooting mark. The UC Irvine game marked the third straight game that UNLV held its opponent under 40-percent shooting ... The Rebels are forcing almost 22 turnovers per game and rank second in the MWC in turnover margin (+2.58) ... UNLV also ranks third in the MWC with 9.50 steals per game ... Linda Fr?hlich ranks atop the MWC in rebounding with 8.1 rpg and averages 6.0 defensive boards each game ... Senior forward Brooke Ingalls has emerged as one of the MWC's top rebounders. Despite only standing 6-1, Ingalls is second on the team and 14th in the league with 5.2 rpg. She pulled down a career-high 11 boards against Cal State Northridge to record her first-ever double-double ... The Rebels stole the ball a season-high 16 times from Pacific ... The addition of some front line height has also caused a swell in the Rebels' block totals. UNLV has 33 blocked shots in 12 games and didn't record its 33rd block until the 16th game of last year. Linda Fr?hlich leads the team and ranks fourth in the MWC with 13 blocks, followed by Petra Gl?ser's six and Viveca L?f's four.
UNLV RECEIVES VOTES IN AP POLL: The Lady Rebels made their third appearance in the Associated Press poll, receiving one vote on Jan. 1. However, that vote was lost in the Jan. 8 poll despite UNLV's 70-56 victory over UC Irvine in its only appearance last week. UNLV received three votes in the 2000-01 Preseason poll, tying them with Stephen F. Austin for 45th. After losing the three votes without playing a game, the Rebels reclaimed two of the votes in the Dec. 4 poll and tied for 49th. Those votes were lost in the week following a loss at No. 27 Arizona. The Associated Press poll ranks only the top 25 teams, but includes all other teams that also received votes. UNLV has not been ranked among the top 25 since Jan. 18, 1994, when the Lady Rebels ranked 25th with a 10-2 overall record.
ON THE TUBE: Thursday's game will mark the second television appearance of the season for the Lady Rebels. Their game against Nevada, Reno, last Dec. 28 was shown throughout the Las Vegas valley on KTUD Channel 25/Cable 14 on tape delay. In addition to the Utah game, the local UPN affiliate plans to show at least two other UNLV home games this season: Jan. 13 vs. BYU and Feb. 1 vs. Colorado State.
GETTING STARTED: The Lady Rebels are 11-6 all-time in conference openers. They dropped last season's Mountain West Conference opener at home to BYU, 84-75, and have won just won of the last six league openers. However, prior to that, UNLV posted wins in 10 of 11 Big West openers.
LADY REBELS RETURN TO THE THOMAS & MACK: After rolling to a 10-5 record in its first full season at the Thomas & Mack Center, UNLV is happy to return to the venue in 2000-01. The Lady Rebels are 7-1 at home this season and own an all-time record of 92-30 (.754) in the Mack, in the arena's 18th season of basketball. This will be the last season that the Lady Rebels play in the Mack with the new 3,300-seat Cox Pavilion set to open next year.
PACKING THE MACK: The voters aren't the only ones who have noticed the improved play out of the Lady Rebels. In eight home games this season, UNLV is averaging 681 fans per game. That is up nearly 25 percent from last year, an average of almost 150 more fans per game. The Rebels have seven more games scheduled at home before hosting the Mountain West Conference Tournament in March.
MAKING THE PASS: One reason that UNLV's offense has been so successful this season is that players are making the extra pass when necessary. The Lady Rebels lead the Mountain West Conference in assists this season, averaging 18.0 dishes per game, and 68 percent of their buckets have come off of a pass (216 assists on 318 field goals). Individually, senior point guard Dayna Gambill ranks second in the MWC in total assists (61), assists per game (5.55) and assist/turnover ratio (1.79). Linda Fr?hlich also ranks among the league leaders, checking in at third with a 4.33 apg average and 12th with a 1.03 assist/turnover ratio.
FR?HLICH CLIMBS THE CHARTS: Linda Fr?hlich is steadily climbing the UNLV career lists for both scoring and rebounding. The junior forward entered the season with 1,261 career points and has added 177 this season for a total of 1,438 which ranks her seventh in school history. She needs just 67 points to surpass Gwynn Hobbs in sixth place. The All-American also has pulled down 650 rebounds in her career, which ranks 10th all-time. She needs just 39 more rebounds to surpass Merlelynn Lange in ninth place.
DAVIS NEARS MILESTONE: With 83 points this season, junior guard Kinesha Davis is closing in on 1,000 career points. She registered most of that total as a freshman at Western Illinois in 1997-98, breaking the Mid-Continent Conference freshman scoring record with 504 points. She tacked on another 372 points as a UNLV sophomore last season and needs just 41 more points to achieve the coveted milestone. She would become the second active Lady Rebel with 1,000 career points, as Linda Fr?hlich reached that mark last season.
AWARDS ABUNDANT AT TOURNAMENTS: Not only did the Lady Rebels win their home tournament for the first time since the 1993-94 season, but they managed to walk away with all the hardware, too. Sophomore Constance Jinks was honored as the tourney's most valuable player after scoring 18 and 17 points in respective games. Freshman Petra Gl?ser and junior Kinesha Davis both earned all-tournament nods for their role in helping UNLV to the title. One week later, UNLV repeated by winning the Roger L. White Invitational in Evanston, Ill., and Jinks repeated by claiming MVP kudos after scoring a career-high 33 in the championship game. Junior Linda Fr?hlich was chosen as an all-tournament honoree.
TEAM OF THE WEEK?: Seven times this season the Mountain West Conference has honored the league's top player for each week, and THREE of those times a Rebel has captured the award. After Constance Jinks captured back-to-back tournament MVPs, the 5-7 guard from Chicago was selected as the MWC Player of the Week on Dec. 4, becoming only the second Lady Rebel to earn the honor. One week later, freshman Petra Gl?ser added her name to the list, claiming the honor on Dec. 11. Gl?ser scored a career-high 21 against Arizona and followed that performance with a 8-for-9 shooting night from the floor against Eastern Washington. A scheduling break which allowed the Lady Rebels 10 days off to concentrate in final exams prevented a three-peat as UNLV did not play over that span. However, when the next award was announced on Jan. 3, it went to Linda Fr?hlich for her school-record setting performance against Pacific. It was the fourth time in her career she had been so honored.
MILLER REACHES CENTURY MARK IN WINS: UNLV head coach Regina Miller achieved a coveted career milestone in the Rebels' victory over Eastern Washington -- her 100th victory. Miller now has an overall coaching record of 103-125 in her ninth season as a head coach, including a 60-100 mark compiled in six seasons at Western Illinois, and is 43-25 in her third season at UNLV.
UCSB GAME CANCELED: The Lady Rebels' Jan. 3 game at UC Santa Barbara was canceled due to a scheduling error by the Gauchos and will not be played. UNLV will play 26 regular season games.
ALL-UMLAUT TEAM: One statistic that the Lady Rebels are almost guaranteed to lead the country in this season is umlauts. An umlaut is a vowel sound caused by partial assimilation occurring in the following syllable and is indicated with a pair of dots over the vowel. After having just one umlaut in both of the last two seasons, the Lady Rebels are up to three on this year's roster: senior Viveca L?f, junior Linda Fr?hlich and freshman Petra Gl?ser.
IN THE TREES: Speaking of L?f and Gl?ser, the two overseas additions have helped UNLV to become the tallest team in the MWC. At 6-3 and 6-6 respectively, both are taller than any player on UNLV's 1999-00 roster. Throw in freshman Padra Strong, who stands 6-4, and the Rebels are no longer looking up at the rest of the league. UNLV boasts three of the MWC's 11 players that check in at 6-3 or taller, while only Gl?ser, Strong, Caroline Matthews of Utah and Morgan Vargas of San Diego State can reach the 6-4 mark.
AYE, AYE, CAP'N: Head coach Regina Miller has named senior Brooke Ingalls and junior Linda Fr?hlich as co-captains for the 2000-01 season. They rank first and second respectively in games played among active players.
FR?HLICH RETURNS FROM GERMANY: As one of the top players in her home country of Germany, Linda Fr?hlich was selected to the German National team and competed with the squad for 12 days in mid-November. Although she missed UNLV's first three games of the season, the Lady Rebels managed to escape unscathed. Meanwhile, Fr?hlich helped Germany to a 1-1 record at the qualifications for the European Championships. Germany defeated Romania by 28 points in Freiburg, Germany, and lost to Lithuania in Vilnius, Lithuania, by 12 points. To qualify, Germany needs Lithuania to defeat Romania, which would send Fr?hlich back to Europe to play for Germany at the European Championships in France in September of 2001.
FR?HLICH EARNS PRESEASON HONORS: Honors are nothing new to junior standout Linda Fr?hlich, but the 6-2 forward from Oldendorf, Germany, has a couple more honors for her trophy case. She was chosen as a preseason All-American by Street & Smith's magazine after earning honorable mention All-America honors last season by both the WBCA and the Associated Press. She was also selected as the preseason Mountain West Conference Player of the Year by the league's coaches at its annual media day for the second straight year.
MILLER HONORED IN THE OFF SEASON: Head coach Regina Miller collected some honors of her own this summer. In addition to a contract extension that will keep her on the Lady Rebels' bench through at least the 2002-03 season, Miller was chosen as a court coach at the 2000 USA Basketball Women's Summer Development Camp, which is the trials for the Jones Cup team. She spent a week in Colorado Springs, Colo., working with many of the nation's elite players who were trying out for the national team.
