TAMPA — One by one, they filed off the bus up the walkway. Their police escort encased them as they packed in for a player-only team photo framed by their brightly colored “UCLA and “Final Four” wrapped transportation.
Inside the Embarc Collective near the burgeoning Water Street district of downtown Tampa, the blue and gold crew took up most of the room on Wednesday afternoon. At every utterance of those four letters, the team built into a crescendo of cheers, booming the loudest when its own player and coach won two of the three Naismith women’s Honors on Wednesday afternoon.
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There was Naismith Coach of the Year winner Cori Close, the self-described “uncommon coach” who praised her group of “uncommon women willing to make uncommon choices and eventually yielding an uncommon result.”
Then Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts, also a finalist for player of the year who credited teammates for boosting her confidence to perform at her career best.
And collectively, the Bruins, the No. 1 overall seed bubbling under the surface of attention bestowed on giants South Carolina and Connecticut, the national title clash many surmised when the bracket came out on Selection Sunday.
“We are expectant,” Close said on Thursday at Amalie Arena. “This is not a surprise for us to be here. We expected and believed that we would be in Tampa.”
Lauren Betts and the UCLA Bruins are the closest they’ve ever been to a college basketball title. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
(Steph Chambers via Getty Images)
The “uncommon” claim dates back to Close’s first season at UCLA in 2011-12 and has her 14th UCLA roster in the uncommon position of an NCAA Final Four. The Bruins reached the Elite Eight twice, including Close’s 2018 squad, but never reached the final weekend in the NCAA era. The school won the AIAW national title in 1978.
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“What else is uncommon of this group … I’ve never had a roster this star-studded,” Close said. “And it’s uncommon to have this many stars be willing to give up individual things for a more powerful collective thing.”
The “top to bottom” level this group works at is also the most uncommon of Close’s tenure, she said. And it starts with junior point guard Kiki Rice, who later on Wednesday was named the NCAA Elite 90 award winner for highest cumulative GPA of any player at the 2025 Final Four.
“She has set the cultural standard of work that is contagious and pervasive,” Close said. “She deserves so much credit in that.”
Rice always led that standard by example. But when UCLA lost to rival USC at home a month ago, her approach had to change. The day after the “embarrassment” of being “punked in our own gym in front of 15,000 fans,” Rice said she, junior Gabriela Jaquez and graduate student Charlisse Leger-Walker held a players-only meeting before their 7 a.m. practice. They all felt as though Close and the coaches prepared them with the right tools, Rice said, but they couldn’t get it done. It was their second loss to USC; the first two weeks prior snapped the Bruins’ 23-game undefeated start. With at-best four weeks left in the season, the players spoke of how they could make the best of it.
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“Our shift from that moment, to from our coach-led team to a player-led team that happened after was probably the biggest thing that we needed to then go on to win the conference championship and to be where we are right now,” Rice said.
UCLA (34-2) steamrolled through the Big Ten tournament to set up a third meeting with USC and this time delivered with a title in its inaugural season in the conference. They’ve taken care of business in the NCAA tournament, averaging a 19-point winning margin knocking out No. 16 Southern, No. 8 Richmond, No. 5 Ole Miss and No. 3 LSU. Though their seven-point Elite Eight margin against the Tigers was their closest, it was also their most impressive. The rest of the roster stood up around Rice when Betts, their 6-foot-7 leading scorer, sat the bench with foul trouble most of the game.
“I’m really proud of [Rice] because I know it’s not easy at times to hold people accountable and be the mean one, but at this point, it’s taken us so far,” Betts said.
The quiet seven points on 50% shooting by Betts ended her back-to-back 30-point double-double streak. Rice said she noticed a different confidence about Betts in the preseason that blossomed into the POY finalist honor.
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“I think I’ve even seen another step in that [confidence] over the past few weeks towards the end of the season,” Rice said.
UCLA’s Final Four opponent is not uncommon or unfamiliar to the setting. UConn is an 11-time national champion making its 24th Final Four appearance, and its fourth led by former national player of the year Paige Bueckers. She’s chasing her lone national title before entering the WNBA, and the program’s first since winning four consecutive from 2013-16.
The season prior to that streak, Close sat on the outside looking in when her first UCLA roster missed the NCAA tournament field. She knew she didn’t want to be like everyone else in the field, and so she did the uncommon and asked championship coaches Muffet McGraw of Notre Dame and Auriemma if she could come watch their postseason practices.
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The first round, she watched how Notre Dame prepped. In a full-circle moment, she accepted her Naismith award on Wednesday in front of McGraw, who was honored with the outstanding contributor award by the Atlanta Tip-Off club.
The second round, she went to Connecticut and spent four “tremendous” days watching how the Huskies practiced and prepared. The following October, she brought her entire staff to watch a coach she calls a “master teacher.”
They’ll meet on Friday with a historic national title-game berth on the line.
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