Indiana Women's Basketball Recruit Jules LaMendola Interview: Texas Roots to Hoosier Hoops
COPPELL, Texas — Julianna LaMendola also known as Jules went from being a zero-star basketball guard with no power five college offers her sophomore year of high school to becoming a four-star Texas Gatorade Player of the Year and a future Indiana Hoosier in just two seasons.
The 6-foot-1 inch guard out of the Dallas, Texas area, who’s now ranked No. 52 on the 2023 HoopGurlz espnW top 100, started all four years on varsity and eventually led the Coppell High School Cowgirls to their best finish in program history.
Julianna LaMendola hoists up the University Interscholastic League regional champions trophy for 6A high school girls' basketball.
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“She’s a matchup nightmare, especially at our level,” Coppell girls’ basketball coach Ryan Murphy said. “Game planning for her, you almost have to decide what you’re willing to give up, because you can’t take everything away from her.”
This season, the Cowgirls finished with a 38-4 season record after advancing to the 6A state semifinals at the Alamodome, a feat Murphy didn’t expect to happen so quickly when he took the job four years ago. However, with LaMendola’s 17.4 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game, you can imagine she made everyone around her better.
“Our legacy was we wanted to be the best team to walk through those halls, so it was definitely something special,” LaMendola said. “I’m lucky to be here.”
That mission was achieved. Although the Cowgirls fell short of the state title off a buzzer-beater shot from Clark High School, it still didn’t diminish the leaps and bounds Coppell made just to appear in the playoffs as one of the top contenders.
“Having your season end on a shot a girl’s going to make maybe once or twice in 100 shots is crazy, but I’m really proud of my team, and I’m really proud of the work we put in to even get us there,” LaMendola said.
Julianna LaMendola greets her teammate during a Coppell High School basketball game.
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However, this program wasn’t always like this. Not even close. Murphy said he took the job as the girls’ basketball head coach after three seasons as the boys’ basketball assistant coach. He said it wasn’t that hard of a job to get because nobody wanted it. The program wasn't good, and it hadn't seen a winning season in more than a decade. At the same time, LaMendola was entering the scene as a freshman on varsity.
Soon adversity struck as she was training one day and landed funny on another player’s foot, tearing ligaments in her right foot that required surgery. LaMendola sat from November to February and only played the last couple games of the season when she was cleared. No playoffs run. No history-making season.
“A lot of people’s freshman years, they’re trial by fire,” LaMendola said. “They get to make a lot of these mistakes, learn the ins and outs of varsity. I felt like I didn’t get that, and so the time that I did have left was more valuable, and so I had to work a little bit harder just to get my confidence back.”
LaMendola added she didn’t have as much time to be an immature basketball player, but this setback gave her even more motivation to amp up her gym visits in her sophomore and junior seasons.
By the time she was a junior, LaMendola and the Cowgirls went 37-2, an accomplishment the program was not used to celebrating.
“We at that point were the most successful team that had ever played at Coppell,” Murphy said.
Once the Cowgirls got a taste of what it was like to win, it was all about making it to state and improving as players with senior vocal leader LaMendola leading the charge.
Murphy said at halftime of every game, the girls would usually run ahead to the locker room while the coaches hung back and chatted for a bit. When he got to his team, LaMendola was always talking and getting things rolling for the halftime speech.
“Having someone have the mindset that she did about ‘we’re going to state, anything less is an unsuccessful season’ — I mean that really got contagious throughout the rest of the team,” Murphy said.
Coppell High School's Julianna LaMendola looks for passing options.
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LaMendola always says what she feels, and everybody knows her thoughts about a situation. Plus, she has the skills and the determination to back it up.
“They were breaking out every huddle on ‘state on three’,” Murphy said. “They were driven. They played with a chip on their shoulder, which kind of speaks to Jules and her leadership because you get a team that’s 37-2, they might be feeling themselves a little bit next year, and that was not the case.”
Murphy said LaMendola was a defensive anchor for the team as she took charges and grabbed plenty of rebounds each contest. She also has a phenomenal pull-up game and can shoot from the perimeter. The Jules spin move is her favorite though as she’s been working on improving her footwork since freshman season when Murphy said she used to just travel by taking the ball and running.
Now, she’s just good.
“We run our offense through Jules,” Murphy said. “She gets about 90, 95 percent of possessions. She’s going to get a touch.”
Because of this, LaMendola was catching the eyes of power five teams along with other universities wanting to snag her. In a big state like Texas, the best way to get noticed is when the whole team has success and starts playing and beating ranked teams full of power five recruits.
“I look at our conference alone, and there’s only one team without a Division I player out of the eight,” Murphy said. “The fact that she gets to night in and night out play against the best players and shows that she’s the best player on the floor and that she’s winning 38 games throughout her senior year — that really helps her jump out.”
LaMendola got her first college offer as a freshman, but started to see Big Ten offers, including Indiana, roll around before her senior season. She said it’s the little things like knowing her role and paying attention to details that got the attention of recruiters.
“I feel like I’m not the most flashy player out there,” LaMendola said. “I’m not going to go out there and drop 20 every game.”
Hence, the details mattered as the guard stood her ground at the Boo Williams Nike Invitational with her AAU team the summer before her senior year where college scouts watched her play.
“I think I took eight charges over the tournament, and every time I got a call, that was the first thing they asked is ‘do you know how many charges you took?’”
That same year, Indiana called and gave her an offer. LaMendola said she immediately clicked with the coaching staff. She stayed with guard Grace Berger and forward Mackenzie Holmes on her official visit and hung out with the rest of the team the remainder of the time. She committed in May 2022.
Julianna LaMendola poses with the Indiana women's basketball staff.
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“I really just fell in love with their culture and their program, their coaches,” LaMendola said. “They’re just oriented around winning, doing things right and having a good mentality towards it. I feel like everybody’s there for the same reason — to win.”
LaMendola said she’d try to watch the Hoosiers whenever she wasn’t training and noticed one big thing about them:
“It’s not selfish basketball,” LaMendola said. “When you watch Indiana, you don’t really think of one person doing it all. Everybody’s a part of that team, and everybody works hard to win.”
LaMendola sat at home watching her future team in the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Indiana had earned the program’s first one-seed but fell just two points short to Miami at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. on March 20.
“The last game, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and I was screaming at my TV and running around the house,” LaMendola said.
She said she is so proud of her future team and the great season they had. It ended in a similar fashion to Coppell oddly enough. It’s a loss that will sting but can be used for greatness down the road.
“Life kind of goes on, but it’s definitely something I’m going to remember forever,” LaMendola said of her own loss at state.
Since the rise of LaMendola’s talent, the community has joined in on the fun supporting LaMendola on her journey to Indiana. Lots of little girls are wanting to play basketball too, something LaMendola once pondered when she was their age when deciding between basketball or volleyball, the sport her twin sister Skye plays.
“Originally that was the sport I wanted to play...and she was a lot better, and I was not good at all,” LaMendola said. “Then I tried out for the basketball team and turned out to be pretty good and just went from there and fell in love with the game and never looked back.”
Because LaMendola never looked back, summer girls’ basketball camp K-9 jumped from 36 participants LaMendola's freshman season to 250 her senior year, Murphy said. Plus the crowds at the high school games this season were overwhelming in the best kind of way.
“Our crowd her freshman and sophomore year was parents and the occasional boyfriend, and that was about it,” Murphy said. “Then, as the last two years have gone on and the team’s had a lot more success and Jules is starting to become a household name, it’s been incredible. We’re getting packed games.”
Now, LaMendola’s high school basketball chapter is closed as she prepares to play for a fiery Hoosiers team 870 miles from home.
Julianna LaMendola stands with fellow Indiana women's basketball recruit Lenée Beaumont.
IU Athletics
“It is far, but I’m not super scared about it,” LaMendola said. “I’m just excited to move out of Texas and start my own experience.”
Murphy said he’s not positive, but he doesn’t think Coppell has ever had a power five conference recruit, at least not in a long time. With LaMendola as the first one, he’s not convinced she’s even the best she can be yet.
“The thing that makes her potential scary is that she’s still very raw,” Murphy said. “She still hasn’t scratched the surface of her potential.”
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