Jack Murphy torn between Wildcats, 'little sister' and her UNLV team in NCAA Tournament

Jack Murphy has a dilemma.

Who should he cheer for on Saturday night, when No. 13 seed UNLV (26-6) takes on No. 4 seed Arizona in the first round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament at McKale Center?

Murphy, the UA men’s basketball team’s associate head coach, has known UNLV women’s coach Lindy La Rocque since she was 6 years old. Her dad, Al, who was the basketball coach at Durango High School in Las Vegas, helped Murphy get his student manager position at UA. (Al La Rocque played for a young Lute Olson at Long Beach City Junior College.)

Of course, Murphy has known Arizona coach Adia Barnes for decades, too. Her office is just down the hall.

“It’s definitely going to be difficult,” Murphy said this week. “I love Coach Barnes and her program, and obviously I am a Wildcat through and through. But Lindy is like family to me. She is like my little sister.

“I obviously want both teams to do well, play well — pulling for a Wildcat victory. But for Lindy’s team to compete and do as well as they can do without taking the Wildcats out, if that makes sense. …

“It’s funny, as someone who grew up in Las Vegas, it’s kind of fun to see UNLV and Arizona meet in the NCAA Tournament, even though it’s not on the men’s side like it was you know, 30 years ago. But it could still be a fun rivalry out West on the women’s side.”

La Rocque is in her second year at UNLV. Before heading back to her hometown for her first head coaching role, La Rocque was an assistant for her college coach, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer. La Rocque played for the Cardinal from 2008-12, winning four Pac-12 regular-season titles and four Pac-12 tournament titles while playing in four Final Fours and one national championship game.

She was a grad assistant at Oklahoma and was an assistant at Belmont for two seasons before heading back to Stanford.

Murphy has had a front row seat watching La Rocque’s rise in the basketball world. It all started when he coached her at one of the summer camps Al La Rocque’s put on.

“At 9 or 10, she was one of the best players there, boy or girl,” Murphy said. “Lindy has always been really special when it comes to basketball — her athletic ability. Obviously, playing in four Final Fours at Stanford, brought all of us — not only myself, but the entire Las Vegas community, everybody in Durango High School’s — just extreme pride. Then, for her to be doing what she’s doing as a head coach … I’ve always been so proud of Lindy. (I) have never been surprised by anything that she’s been able to do or accomplish because first and foremost, she has an amazing family. She has an unbelievable mother and father and a great older sister that kept her on the straight and narrow. It’s hard for me to express my pride in what Lindy has accomplished.”

Murphy, 42, would know. He started at Arizona as a student manager before taking on roles as a recruiting coordinator, video analyst and director of operations. He scouted for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and served as an an assistant at Memphis before being named head coach at NAU, a position he held for seven years. Murphy returned to the UA as an assistant under Sean Miller, and stayed when Tommy Lloyd took over.

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Murphy said La Rocque “has a great head about her; stays calm in tough situations. Tactically makes adjustments on the fly.”

“I think the best attribute that she has, and most successful coaches have, is she has the full trust of her team and her student athletes,” Murphy said. “It really appears to me that the women on her team love her, and she loves them. I think that that’s a wonderful trait and when you have a talented group and they love each other special things can happen.”

La Rocque is always learning. After UNLV won the Mountain West Conference Tournament championship on an inbounds, the Rebels’ coach credited Barnes.

La Roque had seen the play in one of the Wildcats’ games and decided to use it later in the season.

It’s anybody’s guess whether La Rocque will use any of Barnes’ plays against the Wildcats.

Murphy said it might not matter.

“(Barnes) won a lot of games as a head coach, so she knows what she has to do to get her girls ready for the game on Saturday,” Murphy said. “As coaches we all watch film on our opponents. I think that Coach Barnes and the Wildcats just have to go out and play their game and play with confidence. And probably take a little bit of energy from the home crowd and take advantage of that opportunity.”

Rim shots

Murphy said he hopes to watch Saturday’s women’s game from San Diego, where the Wildcats — assuming they win Friday — will be preparing for their second-round matchup.

“I know Coach (Tommy Lloyd) would want to (watch) because he’s such a big supporter as we all are in Coach Barnes and her team,” he said.

Murphy’s scouting report on UNLV? “They have a guard in Essence Booker who can really score the basketball. She’s a dynamic player in the backcourt and they have a reserve forward off the bench (Nneka Obiazor) who’s got a ton of energy and just enthusiasm. You can tell the team gets energized whenever she scores or grabs a rebound. They play really hard. They have good defenders it should be a fun game.”