UCLA coach Cori Close wants better coverage of

As she spoke about her staff’s growth amid its first convention journey, Cori Close steered her feedback toward one thing else she would love to nurture: coverage of girls’s faculty basketball.

It was a matter that the UCLA coach had thrust into the national highlight three days earlier when she voiced her frustration with a lack of reporting on a top-20 showdown involving her No. 4 Bruins and No. 19 Ohio State.

Now, after her staff’s runaway 97-61 victory over Penn State on Wednesday inside Rec Hall, Close glanced at the ten reporters on a Zoom call and doubled down on her earlier remarks.

“The reality of what my comments were after Ohio State were, I have two really passionate agendas in regards to this, and that is, I want to be a pioneer of growing the game, period,” Close said. “I want to really be a part of the surge that’s happening and I want to be a part of telling these amazing stories that these players have, and they’re incredible young women as well as amazing basketball players.”

Her staff had made her level over the earlier two hours, walloping the Nittany Lions on the way in which to a seventh straight victory.

UCLA middle Lauren Betts was unstoppable with 25 factors and seven rebounds, dominating with energy strikes around the basket and an rising array of midrange jumpers. Shooting guard Gianna Kneepkens was a two-way drive with 17 factors on five-for-seven taking pictures from long vary to go with three steals. Point guard Charlisse Leger-Walker was a examine in precision passing with eight assists and no turnovers.

The consequence was never in doubt as the Bruins (13-1 general, 3-0 Big Ten) constructed a 23-point halftime lead over the Nittany Lions (7-7, 0-3) and then obtained some extra help from freshman ahead Sienna Betts, who scored all 10 of her factors in the second half after a pep speak from her sister.

“First half, she was feeling, you know, not as confident,” Lauren Betts said. “She’s like, ‘I just feel like I don’t know how to play basketball.’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, you do. You’ve been playing for 19 years. You got it, like, you’re fine.’ ”

Big sister was proper. Among her spectacular strikes, Sienna adopted an offensive rebound with a step-back fadeaway jumper, drove the baseline for a layup and also took a go over the top of the protection for a layup.

Another pleasing development got here after the sport, when the media contingent dwarfed the one from three days earlier.

According to a UCLA staff spokesperson, the Ohio State sport represented the first time this season that no media member spoke with Close in particular person afterward. The quantity of reporters was smaller than regular that day given that some who often cowl Ohio State have been en route to Dallas to cowl the Buckeyes soccer staff in the Cotton Bowl and others have been assigned to NFL video games.

A reporter with the Southern California News Group spoke with Close over the telephone, permitting her to voice her disappointment in the dearth of coverage.

“Honestly, if I’m being really blunt with you, the energy in the building was great, but having no media here at all from either team or either — no AP, no nothing, doesn’t say a lot,” Close said. “We’re the only double-ranked game out today, the only one in the country, and we had no media today, no media here. You’re the only one that’s asked to talk to me, and credit to you, but I don’t mind if you print that either. Like, for the only game that had two ranked opponents to not have more coverage over this particular game — disappointing, honestly.”

Typically, the staff spokesperson said, Close and gamers have been obtainable in an interview room after street and neutral-site video games, with a reporter from the Associated Press and the opposing staff current to ask questions. The Times travels to present coverage of every UCLA males’s basketball sport but has historically lined the ladies’s staff on the street only during the convention match and the NCAA match.

Close alluded to that discrepancy in additional feedback to Front Office Sports on Tuesday.

“We’re the No. 4 team in the country,” Close said, “so I’m not just talking about people in the building, I’m talking about our publications back home and anyone who wants to tell the story of our game, when I know some of these outlets cover every men’s road game in person, you know? I’m just asking for proportionate growth in coverage with the growth of our game, and I am happy to support non-traditional media that wants to tell the stories of our players in appropriate ways.”

On Wednesday, Close said her remarks didn’t intend to diminish coverage of males’s basketball, only to give the ladies the publicity they deserved. Asked for options to increase coverage in a shrinking media panorama with fewer reporters and assets for touring, Close prompt more postgame Zooms for retailers that couldn’t journey and elevated access for non-traditional media.

As an instance of the significance of sharing her gamers’ tales, Close relayed that a woman at the sport Wednesday told Lauren Betts that her having beforehand shared her mental health journey through function tales saved the woman’s life, filling Betts’ eyes with joyful tears in the locker room.

“Lauren was so deeply affected by that,” Close said, “and I’m so thankful that Lauren had the courage to tell her story and I’m so thankful that people in the media came alongside to help her tell that story — and that’s obviously an extreme example on that, but it’s important culturally, not just in the sports world of things and that’s just a real-time example about why the storytelling of these amazing women is so important.”