SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the UCLA lineup was introduced, one by one taking their spot on the floor, the urgency of the moment became more apparent. “Senior Lauren Betts. Senior Kiki Rice. Graduate student Charlisse Leger-Walker. Graduate student Gianna Kneepkens. Senior Gabriela Jaquez.”
What Cori Close has been building at UCLA since Jordin Canada and Monique Billings arrived, through Michaela Onyenwere and Charisma Osborne to the team she has on the floor now, it has all led to this. The Bruins best chance so far to deliver a national championship.
Getting to the Final Four last year was a huge breakthrough. Losing by 34 points to Connecticut was an equally huge disappointment, a real-time demonstration about how much further there was to go.
Close brought her team together in the summer and they talked about it. It was time to dissect it, and to name the goals for the next season.
“We said, ‘We want to learn from what happened and have a chance to compete for a national championship and to go back to the Final Four,’” Close said. “In order to make that happen, we had to ask ourselves, ‘What are the standards? How do we reverse engineer the habits, the standards and the commitments that you are willing to make?’ And we literally never talked about it again. We really don’t. It’s inconsequential.”
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At least it was until Sunday afternoon, after the Bruins cut down the nets, celebrated the accomplishment of beating Duke 70-58 after a slow start, and then turned to the Phoenix chapter of this story.
Another chance, as the Bruins keep saying, to go 1-0.
“What we’ve done in the past, even today, this is all great and I cannot emphasize how happy and elated I am,” said senior forward Angela Dugalic. “Tomorrow is going to be a new day and we are going to have a new opponent. Not the next game after that – the next game is who we’re going to be most focused on.”
Down at halftime (39-31) for just the second time all season — their only other halftime deficit came at Texas, which also turned out to be the Bruins only loss of the season — UCLA righted itself. Close walked into a veteran locker room and the first thing she asked was what her team had already discussed. No need for fire and brimstone. They had this.
They came out aggressive on defense, cleaned up their turnovers, worked to get the ball inside to Betts, who looked tentative at the start. It was the right formula against Duke. It could be the right formula for two more games.
That and the right frame of mind.
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Angela Dugalic, who earned a spot on the All-Regional team after a critical 15-point, six-rebound, four-assist performance, talked about the business of it all.
“Last year (the Final Four) was a new scene for us, you know, the flashing lights and all that,” Dugalic said. “This year, we have the approach of, this is a job. This is a business trip at the end of the day, and we have a job to do, and that’s to win a national championship.”
It’s why Dugalic came back for a sixth season and was willing to come off the bench.
Why Leger-Walker and Gianna Kneepens transferred in for their final collegiate seasons. It is the ending that Betts and Jaquez and Rice are here for.
It is more than a goal, it is an expectation. So much so that the shirts the Bruins donned after their Elite Eight win read, “We’re not done.”
So whether UCLA has talked about it since July or not, it’s there in the atmosphere. They are supposed to be here again. And there can be a lot of pressure in “supposed to.”
“I don’t think there’s any pressure,” Betts said. “We talk a lot about keeping our circle small. We’re not worried about what the media has to say about us, what other people have to say about us. We’re so focused on our progression throughout the season and just trying to get better every single day.
“We came into this game like, ‘All right, we’re going to compete to the highest level we can and win this game.’ We’re really thankful to be in this position. But we’re just going to keep moving forward. And all that matters is the people in this circle.”
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Close, who expressed earlier in the regional that she has “never been as tired as I have been the last two years”, doesn’t have that luxury.
She knows better than anyone how many players are taking their last shot at this. Her eyes well up thinking about it.
“I want to be there for them for whatever they need from me,” Close said. “This is about serving them and I want to serve them well. This is a calling, not a job. This is about trying to teach and mentor and equip young women for life beyond UCLA and I just want to be the right leader for them for this next step.”
“Mostly, I just don’t want to let them down.”