Three to go

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2001 | 11:35 a.m.

TOP SCORERS

The top career scorers in the history of the Lady Rebels' program:

Misty Thomas has held UNLV women's basketball career scoring record for more than 15 years. But shortly after 2 p.m. on Sunday at Nevada-Reno, senior forward Linda Frohlich, who currently has 1,890 points, should eclipse that long-standing mark of 1,892 points.

And that's fine with Thomas ... on one condition.

"I told her she can have them all," Thomas said of her scoring records. "But the deal is you have to win a championship."

Thomas, now an athletic services manager for the Pacific Sports National Sports Center in Vancouver, spoke to Frohlich and the Lady Rebels following this year's season-opening 93-55 victory over Cal State Fullerton at the Cox Pavilion. But she made her deal with Frohlich three years earlier in Canada when Frohlich was a member of the German National team playing against the Canadian National squad.

"After the game I went over and introduced myself," Thomas, who helped broadcast the game, said. "She said, 'Oh, you're the one who holds all the records.' And I said, 'And you're the one who is going to break all the records.' "

"It was very exciting," Frohlich said. "That was a big thing for her to say without showing any hatred or anything. She truly meant what she said and seemed to be happy for me."

Still, that conversation took place after Frohlich's freshman season. Now just seven games into her senior campaign, Frohlich is about to make Thomas' prediction a reality.

"She is such a super nice person," Frohlich said. "When she came down to our locker room this year, everybody was so excited. It was like, 'That is the girl from the poster!' You walk by it all the time."

A framed picture of Thomas from her Lady Rebel playing days (1982-86) is mounted on the wall in a hallway near the Lady Rebel basketball offices at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Nowadays, Thomas works at what she says is the equivalent of the U.S. Olympic Training Complex in Colorado Springs with prospective Canadian Olympians.

"I help arrange everything from their medical services to their career planning and education," she said.

She also started a program called "Night Hoops" in the Vancouver area, a basketball league for what are called "high risk" kids that has about 500 members.

Thomas, who played on three Big West Conference championship teams as well as the 1984 Canadian Olympic team, still has a strong interest in the fortunes of the Lady Rebel basketball program.

"The Internet is great," she said. "It keeps you on top of everything that is going on down there. I check out the school's web site (unlvrebels.com) and read the two papers down there to keep on top of things. And my younger brother, Brett, recently moved to Las Vegas."

Still, her trip to Las Vegas last month was her first in three years. It also was the first time she actually got to watch Frohlich, who sat out the game in Canada, play in person.

"After the game I was on the floor talking with some friends when Coach Miller invited myself and some of my old teammates, Chris Stiver and Donya Monroe, to meet with the team," Thomas said. "It was a great evening. That unfortunately was the first time I had ever seen Linda play. I had heard so many great things about her ... and nobody was lying. Coach Miller has put together a great team. I'm expecting a championship from them."

Thomas said she doesn't dwell on her career scoring record or the fact Frohlich is going to break it.

"Honestly, I don't really think about it," she said. "There's been a lot of really outstanding players there since I left. Having played with such great teammates plays a big part in accomplishing something like that. You can't be a great player unless you have great teammates around you. I'm sure Linda's focus isn't so much on breaking the record as it is trying to win a championship there."

"I'm finally starting to think a little about it now because it is so close," Frohlich said. "I'm going to be excited once I get those three points. Still, the main thing is that we have to beat Reno because last time we went to their place we did lose. I want to leave this state with the pride that we won at their house as well as ours."

And about what getting that Mountain West championship that Thomas says was part of the deal?

"I have one more year, so I've got to make it happen this year," Frohlich said. "Sure I'd trade the record for a championship. That's why we're all in a team sport. It's not like we're in gymnastics or something where you score your own points. The NCAA Tournament is what you play for in college basketball. Who doesn't want to go? I want to feel that experience."