By Morris Phillips
SAN FRANCISCO–Coach Cori Close is greatly loved by her players, the young women she recruited to assume the quest of returning the Bruins to national prominence. Those players are likely well aware that Close hasn’t taken UCLA to the Final Four in her 13 years as head coach.
When you love your coach, and you want her to have the very best storylines, trailing an inferior opponent at halftime of a second round NCAA Tournament game is a nerve wracking situation. Compounding the scene for Kiki Rice, Angela Dugalic and the rest of the Bruins was a downcast Pauley Pavilion crowd that had experienced disappointment before.
The team’s play appeared tense, and their defense slipped. Creighton kept pushing, trying to put as many made baskets in their cookie jar as possible before the hosts snapped to. The Bluejays led 38-28 in the second quarter, and we’re still leading 44-34 in the third when Rice settled in.
“I just knew that I needed to do whatever I had to do to help my team win, whether that was feeding the ball to Lauren (Betts), scoring, doing whatever, and I think I was just focused on that,” Rice said.
Close’s tough love speech was all focus, and very little to do with her Final Four aspirations.
“At halftime, I really laid into them about the choices,” she said. “We don’t give up that many points in a half to anybody. So, we needed to just get back to doing things with our defense. I knew if we could get enough stops, we would score enough points.”
Sure enough, UCLA’s defensive intensity prevailed as Creighton scored just 21 points after the break while experiencing three lengthy droughts. The Bruins’ crowd exhaled, and the team advanced to the Sweet 16.
But they went no further, suffering a late game defeat to LSU in Albany the following week, and Close’s streak continued for another year.
“We didn’t get the shots that we wanted,” she said. “We did not execute the way that we needed to, and that’s one that’s going to sting for a really long time for me.”
A really long time wasn’t long at all for the hyper-motivated Close. Along with associate head coach Shannon LeBeauf and assistant Tony Newnan, who have been with Close since her beginning in Westwood, they hit the transfer portal with a mandate to add more of everything to put around Rice and Betts. Adding Janiah Barker from Alabama, Timea Gardiner from Oregon State, and Charlisse Leger-Walker from Washington State along with a group of highly-regarded freshman accomplished that. UCLA’s reload was simply loaded.
The Bruins opened the season running and took down reigning National Champion South Carolina in the process. A more diversified offense and relentless defense fueled an 11-0 start to the season and the Bruins ascent to No. 1 in the polls. Creighton was next on Friday at Chase Center, and the Bluejays immediately saw their opponent’s relentless ways.
“Seventy or 80 percent of it was them, but I thought we were tight and sped up offensively,” Creighton coach Jim Flanery said of UCLA’s flawless first quarter that ended with the Bruins leading 28-4.
Flanery acknowledged that the Bruins probably weren’t in the mindset of having another close call in the rematch, even if they had to play without Betts, who was out with a leg injury.
“The first quarter, I thought they played really fast and had us on our heels.”
The Bruins went on to win easily, 70-41. Their 12-0 start to the season includes just one win by fewer than 11 points. And now their first season in the Big Ten has arrived, along with two huge dates with crosstown irritant USC. A team this deep that wins with ease frequently needs an edge. Close has that covered as well.
“Nobody’s going to play perfect every single night. And bottom line is we have to have a selflessness that if it’s not my night, I’m going to celebrate it being someone else’s night,” she said.
What of the pressure of being the best team in the polls now but needing to break through in March?
“We have not arrived. And I think our ability to be relentlessly focused on being present and having a growth mindset. It is urgent that we improve today. It is urgent that I make a teammate better today.”
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