SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One of the first matchups in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament features two teams that already have some familiarity with each other. The UCLA Bruins and the Minnesota Gophers have met twice in the past two seasons during Big Ten Conference play. UCLA won both of those meetings, both by double-digits.
UCLA’s versatility powers tournament run
Coming into the Sweet 16, the UCLA Bruins feel like they’re better equipped for March Madness as opposed to last season. Some of that feeling comes from the belief that Bruins are more versatile and can hurt opponents in different ways.
Take senior Gabriela Jaquez for example. She arrived at UCLA as a bit of an undersized post player back in 2022. This season, she’s evolved into someone who can play point guard, handle the ball, make plays, shoot from 3-point range —whatever the team needs. So much so that Bruins head coach Cori Close refuses to put a label on her as far as what position she plays.
For Jaquez, it boils down to identifying what she needed to work on, and putting in the required work.
“I think coming in freshman year, I personally knew I had a lot to improve on, and that made me excited because I knew I had a lot to get better at,” Jaquez said during a pre-Sweet 16 press conference. “My coaches continuing to push me every year, especially in the offseason, I think that’s where most of my growth came from.”
“Just really focusing in on what I do I need to improve on, and that really started with bettering my 3-point shot. I just appreciate my coaches for believing in me and working with me every day to get better and just have more confidence.”
This season, Jaquez is shooting a career-best 40.2% from 3-point range, per Sports Reference, while taking a career-high 3.3 attempts per game.
Another player that contributes to UCLA’s versatility is fifth-year forward Angela Dugalic. Dugalic arrived at UCLA wanting to be a stretch-four, which she’s been able to do, only now she’s become much more well-rounded with her post game. That was something UCLA head coach Cori Close stressed with Dugalic’s development on both ends of the court.
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“I think she’s established that she’s a really good stretch-four, but her willingness to use all the skills in her bag are at a different level this year. That’s why I said at the beginning of the tournament that she is our X-factor. She’s usually a major mismatch for whoever we face,” Close explained. “Specifically against a team like Minnesota, that plays four guards 90% of the time … she can guard on the perimeter so that is not a mismatch defensively.”
“When people talk about mismatches, usually they’re talking about offense. But really, to the extent that you use someone’s versatility is to the extent that they can be versatile defensively. Angela has proven that.”
Minnesota building off WBIT championship
The Gophers missed out on the NCAA Tournament last season, but they were invited to the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament (WBIT), an event that they went on to win. As they’ve advanced to the Sweet 16 this year, they’re drawing on that postseason experience to help propel them forward, per Minnesota head coach Dawn Plitzuweit.
”I believe that our young ladies got better during that time. I thought our quality of basketball got better at that time. We got to continue playing and practicing those type of things,” Plitzuweit said during her pre-Sweet 16 press conference. “The tournament experience is something that you reflect back on and you really believe it does help grown your team’s ability to understand what that all looks like.”
”Yes, it’s the play and it’s all those kinds of things, but it’s also the travel and the preparation and different types of things in the postseason.”
That sentiment was echoed by junior forward Grace Grocholski, who has been Minnesota’s second leading scorer this season at 12.1 points per game. Grocholski recalled how the team felt last season when they failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
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”I think it just gives you more experience in a tournament type atmosphere. Kind of having that win or go home feel, and I think that was a big step for us,” Grocholski said during a pre-Sweet 16 press conference. “Obviously our goal was to make it to March Madness last year, and we didn’t reach that. So we went into the WBIT saying, ‘we’re here, we’re going to win this thing.’ So it was a great way to just learn how it feels to be in the tournament.”
And as far as their familiarity with UCLA, while the Bruins pose a tough challenge, the Bruins’ star center Lauren Betts plays exactly the way her Minnesota counterpart, center Sophie Hart, relishes.
“She’s a phenomenal player, great scorer, great offensive rebounder, can run the floor phenomenally as well. So I got my hands full definitely,” Hart said during a pre-Sweet 16 press conference. “But I think it will be more fun because you get to be a little bit more physical. Not quite touch fouls, if that makes sense. Sometimes you can see that when you have smaller defenders. So it lets you play a little bit more. And I’m a true back-to-basket post player so I prefer that.”
