Roll out the list of accolades and it’s a mystery why colleges were so skeptical.

Jamie Smith was three times named first-team all-state, a two-time Interscholastic League of Honolulu player of the year, and the reigning Gatorade high school player of the year.

So what was the problem?

"I was a post player coming out of Hawaii," she said. "I was barely 5 (feet) 11. It was hard for me to get much attention."

With signing day just 24 hours away, Smith had relegated herself to the fact that Northern Arizona and Hawaii were her only two real college options.

Sure, Division III schools, including Menlo College in California, were recruiting her, but Smith wanted to test herself.

She wanted to be a Division I athlete.

"I didn’t want to go to a D-III school," Smith said. "It was a tough time because it was the next four years of my life and I had no idea really where I wanted to go."

Out of nowhere came a call from Caitlin Collier, who at the time had been the only women’s basketball coach ever at Menlo. Collier had just decided to take an assistant’s job with new UNLV head coach Kathy Olivier, who was scrambling to find players.

It was the opportunity Smith had been waiting for, and it didn’t take long for her to pounce.

"It was just luck they happened to call me on that day," Smith said. "I was just stoked to have such an elite school recruit me and basically when I visited her, I knew this was it."

For such a late signee, Smith has turned into the crown jewel of Olivier’s first recruiting class at UNLV.

After three straight losing seasons, UNLV is in the midst of a stunning turnaround. The Lady Rebels have already won as many games this year (15) as in any of their previous three and are 3-1 in Mountain West Conference play after going 15-33 in Smith’s previous three seasons.

"It’s a different mentality just because we haven’t been so good in the past, so we’re going to make this year count," Smith said. "My past three years have just been a letdown."

After winning the MWC freshman of the year award in 2009, Smith’s scoring average has dropped each of the past two years.

Over the summer, she came home to work with Nani Cockett and play in the local D.One NCAA Summer League to help prepare for her senior season.

"We’d do workouts, whether it was surfing, kickboxing, insanity, whatever," she said. "My mentality was different this summer."

She’s improved both her rebounds and points-per-game averages, bettering her junior total by more than two points a game.

With brother Scott, a 2007 Saint Louis graduate who recently finished his collegiate football career at Texas Tech in the crowd, Smith became the second player in MWC history to reach 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career in a road win over TCU.

"People tell me it’s a great accomplishment, but my mind is so focused on winning and getting to that conference championship that it’s all I’m thinking about," she said. "I think maybe it will hit me later, but right now we’re on a roll."

UNLV’s three conference wins have all been on the road. It finishes with six of its final 10 at home before the MWC tournament begins March 7.

By then, Smith could be close to breaking the school’s all-time record for rebounds in a career.

Not bad for someone who was thought to be too small in high school.

"It’d be a great accomplishment, but I still have a lot of business to take care of," she said. "These are the most important two months of my season and I’m focused on getting those wins and reaching those teams goals we’ve set."