LOS ANGELES — Last week was a big one for Lauren Betts. The UCLA senior finished finals, published a vulnerable, heartfelt first-person narrative and won two NCAA tournament games. She capped it off with a career high in her final outing at Pauley Pavilion, a second-round win over Oklahoma State.
The feeling in the building was one of subtle triumph, both for UCLA and for Betts individually. She left the court with about one minute left to a standing ovation from 6,000 fans — including her mother, celebrity couple Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union, and a family who traveled from Betts’ home state Colorado so their daughters could watch Lauren and her sister Sienna play together in person.
Betts shot 15-for-19 from the floor for 35 points, an efficient and dominant performance that’s become her signature. She added nine rebounds, five assists, a steal and a block in the 87-68 win over the Cowgirls.
Four days before the game against Oklahoma State, Betts had another milestone moment: she published a first-person narrative in the Players’ Tribune detailing the struggles she’s faced with her mental health, titled “I want to be here.” In the piece, she discusses what many fans may remember as a four-game absence from the team in 2024. In a story published by ESPN last year, Betts first shared that the missed games in her sophomore season were due to her hospitalization, after feeling she was in the “lowest state I’ve ever felt in my entire life.”
In her piece, she discussed being bullied for her looks as a young girl, which she notes was the likely start of her struggle with depression. From there, she notes the major pressure she’s consistently faced, starting with her time on USA Basketball as a high schooler. “It was kind of jarring, if I’m being honest,” she wrote. “Looking back on it now, that changed everything. That’s when the pressure hit. That’s when I felt like I had to constantly prove to everyone that I deserved to be in that position. That’s when I was like, ‘I made a name for myself. Now, I have to live up to it.’”
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That pressure followed her through her first season at Stanford, where she was recruited as the No. 1 overall recruit in her class, beating out future teammates Kiki Rice (2), Janiah Barker (3), and Timea Gardiner (6) all in the top ten. She notes that she struggled to find her worth at Stanford, playing behind players like Cameron Brink and Kiki Iriafen, and noting that while she loved her teammates, she was locked in the mindset of “if you’re not producing, you’re not worthy.” She averaged 5.9 points and 3.5 rebounds in 9.7 minutes per game, contributing, but not being the same central point of a team she was used to — and capable of being.
At the end of the season, she transferred to UCLA, with head coach Cori Close famously jumping in a swimming pool fully clothed when Betts verbally committed in person on her visit. Betts brought a post presence the Bruins were lacking — a missing piece that took them from good, to great. She became the centerpiece of the team, both on offense and defense. She’s averaged 17.4 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in three seasons at UCLA, and shot a whopping 62% from the floor.
While Betts’ presence is dominating and she’s the center of UCLA’s rotations, she’s not a one-woman show. Years of double teams have made her into a strong post passer — she responded on Monday with efficient passing out of the high post, resulting in five assists on the game. She’s averaging 3.2 on the season, the highest of her career as part of the multidimensional UCLA offense.
“I was working really hard today getting seals,” Betts said following the game, forever humble about her own performance. “I was really proud of how we moved the ball.”
She went on to say, “I feel like the points, they really don’t mean anything to me. I really just want to win games with this team. The fact that we won today is what matters most to me. And now we’re moving on to the Sweet 16. … This program is everything to me, and to have my mom in the stands and her friends, that was really special. But yeah, again, I can’t thank this program enough, like, it’s genuinely changed my life coming here, and I’m just forever grateful for UCLA.”
“Her impact has been incredible,” teammate Gianna Kneepkens told reporters. “She makes everyone better. Not just because of the basketball players she is, but the leader she is. … She’s a big reason why I came here.”
While Monday’s game won’t be the last that Betts plays in a Bruins uniform, it was her last in front of the hometown fans that she says have welcomed her from her first day on campus.
“The minute that I transferred over here, I was just welcomed with open arms,” she told reporters after the game. “The fans have been so supportive of me through my entire journey — through my mental challenges, through basketball and everything. … Just to see all the people waving at us at the end of the game was really special.”
Coach Close, who expressed a lot of emotion following Monday’s game speaking about her six graduating players, said she wasn’t aware of Betts’ article until it was published. She said her star player is playing with a new sense of freedom after telling her story.
“She’s found a really deep purpose. And when you can use your pain for great purpose and other centeredness to have an incredible legacy in the lives of others, that’s an incredible gift — but it’s a gift that she’s worked really, really hard for,” Coach Close said.
Close went on to share that after Betts first shared her story last year, she felt an impact almost immediately, with a young girl telling Betts that the article had saved her life.
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Betts wrote that she once thought the end of college couldn’t come soon enough, but is now hoping that time will slow down. She thanks her teammates and coaches for being there through her challenging times, and notes that her coaches always valued her as a person first — a sentiment repeatedly echoed by Coach Close.
Speaking with reporters Friday before the first-round matchups, Betts told reporters “I’ve healed so much since my sophomore year.” She went on to say that it was an “amazing opportunity to continue to speak on what I stand for, and why I play basketball, and for me — this is so much bigger than myself. The people I’ve been able to impact really means a lot to me.”
Betts told Coach Close that telling her story this week was an opportunity to “tell the story of her healing,” a freeing celebration of how far she’s come. The 35-point career high was certainly a punctuation mark on that chapter.
