UCLA womens basketball begins NCAA Tournament…
In a nod to the challenges forward, UCLA girls’s basketball gamers wore “MARCH MODE” T-shirts as they watched the NCAA Tournament choice show.
What they noticed had a very March 2024 and March 2025 really feel as a lot as it did the current month.
UCLA Bruins middle Lauren Betts and UCLA Bruins guard Kiki Rice high-five UCLA Bruins guard Gianna Kneepkens during the Big Ten Tournament Championship recreation. Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
For the third consecutive yr, UCLA might need to beat LSU to get to the Final Four.
Also included in the Bruins’ Sacramento 2 bracket are Richmond and Ole Miss — groups they confronted in the NCAA Tournament last yr.
Their opening recreation against Cal Baptist at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night is a rematch of their NCAA Tournament opening recreation from 2024 in the same enviornment.
Fortunately for the top-seeded Bruins, they don’t care who they’re taking part in practically as a lot as how they’re taking part in.
“This actually played out most of the way we thought it was going to,” UCLA coach Cori Close told followers and boosters gathered inside the staff’s observe facility. “We’re excited for the matchups now we have.
“Obviously, we have tremendous respect for everybody in that bracket, but this is about us. This is about us being the best version of ourselves, us playing our best basketball, us being aggressive.”
Forward Angela Dugalic said the “MARCH MODE” T-shirts mirrored the staff’s locked-in method since beating Iowa by a report 51 factors in the Big Ten Tournament championship.
UCLA Bruins ahead Gabriela Jaquez shoots the ball against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the second half. Robert Goddin-Imagn Images
“We had the mindset of, ‘This is gonna be a Final Four game’ during practice,” Dugalic said of a staff searching for a second consecutive Final Four look and first NCAA championship to go with the AIAW title the Bruins gained in 1978.
That meant that the boys’s observe gamers who helped put together the staff had been pressuring the Bruins full court to problem them and unlock the best model of themselves.
It’s all half of Close’s efforts to search continuous enchancment and focus only on the next recreation.
“Bottom line for us,” Close said, “is that I just really want us to keep a present mindset. What’s the challenge in front of us? How do we play our best basketball for that and earn another day?”
What may appear scary to anybody who faces a staff that has gained a program-record 25 consecutive video games since dropping to Texas in late November is that the Bruins (31–1) say they’ll get better.
“I like the fact that we don’t think we have a ceiling,” Dugalic said. “I don’t think that we do have a ceiling, and that’s just a really cool fact about us is we’ve got so much potential and we haven’t even scratched the surface.”
Making this the best UCLA staff of Close’s 15 seasons has been its capability to encompass level guard Kiki Rice with so many sharpshooters. Gianna Kneepkens has made 44.2 p.c of her 3-pointers and Gabriela Jaquez has shot 41.1 p.c from long vary.
Having a number of shooters of that caliber has prevented groups from clogging the inside, opening driving lanes for Rice in a means that didn’t occur a yr in the past.
“It’s a night and day difference, and that makes Kiki a better player,” Close said. “I think that has changed everything for our offense.”
If historical past repeats itself, the first two rounds don’t determine to be packed with drama. UCLA has gained the six NCAA Tournament video games that it’s hosted at Pauley Pavilion over the past three years by an average of 19 factors, though there was a close call against Creighton in the second spherical in 2024.
UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens drives on Iowa middle Layla Hays. AP
Things might start to get spicy in Sacramento.
In the Sweet 16, the Bruins might face fourth-seeded Minnesota — a Big Ten rival they defeated by 18 factors in January in Minneapolis — before taking part in second-seeded LSU or third-seeded Duke in the Elite Eight.
Facing the Tigers this time of yr has change into an annual custom. Two years in the past, LSU beat UCLA in the Sweet 16. A yr in the past, the Bruins returned the favor in the Elite Eight.
Waiting in the Final Four may very well be fellow top seeds Texas, South Carolina and UConn, the defending champion and top total No. 1 seed that beat UCLA by 22 factors on the same stage a yr in the past.
Benefiting the Bruins is a route that would come with going from Los Angeles to Sacramento to Phoenix, preserving them in the Pacific Time Zone from the first spherical to the Final Four.
“I’ve never in my 33 years of Division I coaching been able to stay in the exact same time zone, it’s never happened,” Close said, “and I do think it’s a tremendous advantage, especially for our players — who are in final exams right now — to be able to not have that added stress of traveling across the country is a tremendous thing, so really excited about having that opportunity that we’ve earned.”
It may very well be a key distinction for a staff attempting to forge a new end amid so a lot familiarity.
Download The California Post App, comply with us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters
California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn
California Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X
California Post Opinion
California Post Newsletters: Sign up right here!
California Post App: Download right here!
Home supply: Sign up right here!
Page Six Hollywood: Sign up right here!
Stay up to date with the latest trending topics! Visit our web site daily for the freshest Sports news and content, fastidiously curated to keep you informed.
