UNLV women undefeated entering Lady Rebel Round-Up

There are a lot of things UNLV women's basketball coach Kathy Olivier has to do to get her team ready to play. But coaching effort has not been one of them.

The Lady Rebels are off to a 4-0 start, because of in a large part to the influx of talent Olivier and her staff have been able to recruit along with a lot of experience throughout the roster. But for Olivier, there's something that trumps the skilled team she has this year — hard work.

"This is by far the hardest-working team we've had," said Olivier, who is in her eighth season at her alma mater and whose team hosts George Mason at noon today in the first round of the Lady Rebel Round-Up at Cox Pavilion. "We're outworking people and by doing so, you can hide some things and disrupt the other team."

Olivier sounds like she's been hanging out at Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s gym off Spring Mountain Road. The mantra there is "Hard work … Dedication!" and it appears some of that has made its way into the Lady Rebels' program.

"You're an outcast on this team if you don't work hard," Olivier said. "Yes, we have a lot of talent. But unless you're willing to work and get better each day, it doesn't matter how talented you are."

Whether it's Nikki Wheatley getting on a scoring run, Brooke Johnson hitting from outside, the Gonzalez twins Dakota and Dylan bringing energy and enthusiasm to the floor or Aley Rohde scoring and rebounding while earning Mountain West Player of the Week honors Monday, Olivier has enough depth in her nine-player rotation to sit anyone who is unwilling to put in the time and effort at practice or not leave it all on the floor on game night.

"What's nice is as coaches we can focus on strategy and running our offense," she said. "We're not wasting time or energy getting them to play hard and it allows us to get better in the areas we need to improve at."

After thrashing Cal State San Marcos 62-43 Monday, UNLV takes a significant step up in class today against a George Mason team that has started its season 2-4 but played Utah tough on the road.

Also in the Round-Up field are Drake and Tulsa, which will meet at 2:30 p.m. Today's winners play for the championship at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

"We'll be tested for sure," Olivier said of her holiday tournament which the Lady Rebels are hosting and will have Dakota Gonzalez available after she sat out the San Marcos win with a sprained ankle. "We've played well but we're going to have to play better. I want to see us rebound better and share the ball more."

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj