Desi-Rae Yvonne Young (born January 8, 2002) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player who is a free agent. Young attended the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

(UNLV), where she played

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

on the UNLV Lady Rebels basketball team and studies Social Work.

Personal and early life

Young, born in

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

is the daughter of Beverly Williams and has two siblings – older brother, Omar Paul, and younger sister, Rashida Young. At age 3, Young and her family moved from Inglewood to

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. At age 12, at the encouragement of her uncle, Young began playing basketball. As a child, Young and her AAU basketball team attended camps hosted by the UNLV Lady Rebels basketball program.

High school career

Young attended

Desert Oasis High School Desert Oasis High School is a public high school located in Enterprise, in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the United States. Opened in August 2008, the school is a part of the Clark County School District and was the first new public school to be opened i ...

(Diamondbacks), where she played on the girls basketball team, in Las Vegas. In 24 games as a sophomore on the 2017-2018 Diamondbacks girls basketball team, Young, a 6’0”, 131-lb

power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers. When on Of ...

and

, led the team in points (263), points per game (11), points per shot (1.6), rebounds per game (6.6 rebounds), field goals made (97), field goal percentage (60%), free throws attempted (132), and double doubles (6). Young led the 2017-2018 Diamondbacks to a 21-5 record, the #4 team ranking in Nevada, the championship game of the Nike Interstate Shootout in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, and to the semifinals of the Sunset Region tournament. Young’s sophomore performance earned her Nevada All-State Team Honorable Mention, All-Southwest League Second Team, and Athlete of the Week honors (January 8-13, 2018), per the

Las Vegas Review-Journal The ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' is a daily subscription newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1909. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada and one of two daily newspapers in the Las Vegas area. The ''Review-Journal'' ...

. Entering Young’s junior season, the

Las Vegas Sun The ''Las Vegas Sun'' is one of the Las Vegas Valley's two daily Subscription business model, subscription newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. The paper published afternoons on weekdays ...

selected Young to its preseason “Super Seven” Team, as one of the best girls basketball players in the Las Vegas area. Prior to the start of her junior season, Young had already received a scholarship offer from UNLV to play basketball. As a junior, Young led the 2018-2019 Diamondbacks in rebounds (89), rebounds per game (6.8), field goals made (58), field goal percentage (59%), free throws attempted (71), steals-to-turnover ratio (1.6), charges taken (4), and double doubles (3). Young led the Diamondbacks to a 20-6 record, Southwest League championship, the Diamondbacks program’s first-ever qualification for the 4A state tournament, a trip to the 4A semifinals (loss to Centennial High School), and another #4 Nevada state ranking. Young’s junior performance earned her All-Southwest League MVP honors. Entering Young’s senior season, the Las Vegas Sun again selected Young to its preseason “Super Seven” Team, describing Young as both a “once-in-a-generation player” and a “once-in-a-generation teammate”. As a senior, now 6’1” and 165lbs, Young led the 2019-2020 Diamondbacks in points (356), points per game (13.7), points per shot (tied, 1.5), field goals made (356), field goal percentage (64%), free throws made (56), free throws attempted (98), rebounds (186), rebounds per game (7.2), blocks (18), blocks per game (0.7), charges taken (7), and double doubles (tied, 4). As a senior, Young led the Diamondbacks to a 24-3 record, a Desert Region Championship, a runner up finish in Desert Oasis’ first-ever program trip to the 4A state finals (79-51 championship game loss to Centennial High School), #2 Nevada state ranking, and #219 national ranking. Following the state finals loss, in which Young spent significant time on the bench in foul trouble before ultimately fouling out with 7:31 left in the game, her Desert Oasis coach, Laurie Evans, said, “Desi-Rae is a powerhouse. There aren’t a lot of people who can guard her in the state. With her in foul trouble, it was just tough.” Young’s senior performance earned her First Team Nevada All-State Team and Southwest League Co-MVP honors. Young finished her Desert Oasis High School career with per game averages of 11.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.5 steals.

College career

As a high school prospect, Young was lightly recruited, only receiving two Division I college scholarship offers, from which she committed to UNLV over

Pepperdine Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and th ...

2020-2021

Entering Young's 2020-2021 freshman season at UNLV, the Lady Rebels were picked to finish 9th in the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

as they returned only one starter from the prior season’s 9-9 conference record campaign as well as a new coach,

Lindy La Rocque Lindy La Rocque (born December 15, 1989) is an American college basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the UNLV Lady Rebels basketball, women's basketball team at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Early life and education ...

. Despite these lowly expectations, the Lady Rebels, powered in part by Young’s freshman performance, finished the regular season 15-8 (13-5 in Conference), earning the 2nd seed in the Mountain West Conference tournament, one of only three top-2 Conference finishes in Lady Rebel program history. Young scored the game-winning basket against Fresno State on 2/27/21 to clinch second place in the Conference for the Lady Rebels. However, Young and the Lady Rebels’ season ended with a 72-56 upset loss to 7-seed

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament, despite Young’s team-leading 21 points and 70% field goal percentage, which earned her “Lady Rebel of the Game” honors. In 24 games (21 starts) as a freshman center for the Lady Rebels, Young, a previously unranked recruit coming out of high school, led all Mountain West Conference freshmen in scoring (12.7 points per game) (11th overall in Conference, first on team) and rebounding (6.9 per game) (8th overall in Conference, 2nd on team). In the Conference, Young tied for the most double doubles (5), finished 6th in scoring (304 points) (1st on team) and 7th in rebounding (158) (2nd on team). Young also led her team in field goal percentage (51.1%), field goals made (112), free throws made (80), free throws attempted (134), and offensive rebounds (61). Young’s freshman performance earned her Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year, Mountain West Conference All-Freshman Team, Mountain West All-Conference Team Honorable Mention, Week 14 NCAA.com “Starting Five” (top 5 players of the week in NCAA women’s basketball), and Mountain West Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week (February 15-21, 2021) honors. In the classroom, Young earned Spring 2021 Academic All-Mountain West Team honors with a 3.12 GPA in her Social Work studies (after changing her major from Journalism and Media).

2021-2022

Entering her sophomore season, Young was recognized as a preseason All-Mountain West Conference First Team selection. During the 2021-22 season, she was named the Mountain West Player of the Week three times - November 15; December 27; and January 24. She led UNLV to the program's first ever outright regular season Mountain West title, followed shortly thereafter by the Lady Rebels' first

Mountain West Conference women's basketball tournament The Mountain West Conference women's basketball tournament is the conference championship tournament in women's basketball for the Mountain West Conference. It is a single-elimination tournament involving all of the 11 league schools, and seeding ...

championship in program history with the help of Young's 14 points and seven rebounds in the Mountain West Championship against

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

. By winning the conference tournament, the Lady Rebels earned an automatic bid to the 2022 Women's NCAA tournament. In 13-seed UNLV's first round NCAA Tournament game against 4-seed

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, Young led the team in scoring and posted a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds as the underdog Lady Rebels' led after three quarters before ultimately losing 72-67 to the Wildcats. In 33 games as a sophomore, Young posted per game averages of 15.2 points (6th in Mountain West), 55.3% field goal percentage, 8.5 rebounds (5th in Mountain West), 1.8 assists, 0.5 blocks, and 0.9 steals, as well as twelve double-doubles and scored double-digits in all but one of the Lady Rebels' games. Her season performance earned her Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and All-Mountain West First Team honors, and her Mountain West tournament performance earned her All-Tournament Team recognition, along with teammates Essence Booker (Tournament MVP) and Nneka Obiazor. She became the first Lady Rebel to win Mountain West Player of the Year in 20 years (

Linda Fröhlich Linda Fröhlich (born June 23, 1979) is a German professional basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association, WNBA. European career *2006-2007: Fenerbahçe Women's Basketball, Fenerbahçe Istanbul *2005-2006: WBC Spartak Mos ...

, 2002).

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

, 24, , 21, , 22.4, , 51.1, , 0.0, , 59.7, , 6.6, , 0.7, , 0.8, , 0.3, , 2.3, , 12.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33, , 32, , 25.5, , 55.3, , 0.0, , 66.7, , 8.5, , 1.8, , 0.9, , 0.5, , 3.2, , 15.2 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 34, , 34, , 30.7, , 59.2, , 33.3, , 73.1, , 10.1, , 2.1, , 1.5, , 0.5, , 2.5, , 17.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33, , 33, , 28.8, , 56.8, , 29.4, , 68.4, , 9.1, , 2.2, , 1.3, , 0.4, , 2.3, , 18.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 124, , 120, , 27.2, , 56.2, , 28.9, , 67.3, , 8.7, , 1.8, , 1.2, , 0.4, , 2.6, , 16.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="14", Statistics retrieved from

Sports-Reference Sports Reference, LLC, is an American company which operates several sports-related websites, including Sports-Reference.com, Baseball-Reference.com for baseball, Basketball-Reference.com for basketball, Hockey-Reference.com for ice hockey, Pro- ...

References

External links

UNLV Lady Rebels Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Desi-Rae 2002 births Living people American women's basketball players Basketball players from Las Vegas Basketball players from Inglewood, California African-American sportswomen Centers (basketball) UNLV Lady Rebels basketball players