EAST LANSING — We’ll have to wait and see the effect Wednesday’s loss to UCLA has on MSU’s women’s basketball team.
It’s one of those games that I imagine stays with you — an 86-63 defeat that was over quickly and decisively, the sort of defeat that can be motivating or discouraging and is definitely humbling.
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“I think it’s all of the above,” MSU coach Robyn Fralick said.
It’s the sort of defeat that puts a team in its place and tells a program in the unkindest of ways: There are levels to this and you’re not there yet. It’s the sort of defeat that Fralick might look back on years from now — if the shoe is one day on the other foot — and point to as a reminder of all the progress that’s been made. For now, it’s a reminder of all the work still to do.
And …
“It’s a good reminder, playing this level of team, you’ve got to bring your A-game,” Fralick said. “There’s no margin for error, there’s no margin for mistakes. And the level, the sharpness, it really challenges that.
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“(UCLA is) this unique combination of incredibly experienced, big, skilled, inside-out, everything they do makes sense. … They’re a really hard matchup in every way.”
The size especially. That’s a challenge for MSU against opponents who don’t have 6-foot-7 All-American center Lauren Betts, who had 22 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots Wednesday. She didn’t play in the Spartans’ near-upset of the Bruins last season in Los Angeles.
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What UCLA has on its roster should be the goal for every rising program, like MSU. The Bruins — now 24-1 overall and 14-0 in Big Ten play — are also an example of the gap between the very top of women’s college basketball and the next couple of tiers, which the Spartans are now in. UCLA is one of the top four teams in the sport this season, one of a few legitimate national title contenders. Entering this week, somehow they were just nine spots ahead of MSU in the NET rankings, 2 vs. 11. It felt like so much more than that Wednesday night.
Michigan State’s Kennedy Blair, top, jumps up while defending UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez during the third quarter on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
There also is no shame in a 23-point loss to UCLA, in a game that was 44-20 at the half. UCLA beat Duke by 30, Tennessee by 22, USC by 34, Nebraska by 22, Maryland by 30, and Iowa by 23. Those are all top 25 teams.
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And yet, this was not a good showing by MSU (20-5 overall, 9-5 Big Ten). The Spartans looked out of sorts out of the gate, beyond the impossible matchup — played in front of a relatively small Breslin Center crowd in a game that was unfortunately scheduled for 8 p.m. on a Wednesday, limiting family attendance. Perhaps, in hindsight, the Spartans are glad 12,000 fans weren’t there for this one, like they were 10 days earlier against Michigan.
“I don’t think the way (Fralick’s) team was tonight is reflective of how they’ve been playing,” UCLA coach Cori Close said.
Close was detailed in explaining why things unfolded as they did Wednesday, including the Bruins making life miserable for MSU star Grace VanSlooten in the paint and taking away the right-hand drives of MSU’s guards.
“We switched (defensively on) all the ball screens except with Lauren and Grace, so that we could keep that matchup the best we could,” Close said.
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“We’re sort of big across the whole lineup, and so we went to switching everything and I just didn’t think they had, there wasn’t a huge mismatch.”
In other words, even when UCLA switched forwards and bigger players onto MSU’s guards, the Spartans didn’t have a matchup they could exploit. For MSU to take the next step as a program, they’ll need a player or two who are a matchup problem for everyone, even the UCLAs of the world.
Michigan State’s Jalyn Brown, left, is blocked by UCLA’s Lauren Betts during the third quarter on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
Close admitted that her roster — its experience, WNBA talent and mental makeup — is “an advantage that I have that few do.”
Fralick has been in Close’s shoes before — at Division-II Ashland, where Fralick went 104-3 over three seasons as the head coach and won a national title. She knows what it’s like to have a team that can overwhelm good opponents.
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Fralick has made steady progress at MSU — with an NCAA tournament appearance in Year 1, an NCAA tournament win in Year 2, and being on track to be a top 4 seed in the NCAA tournament this season, which would mean hosting the first two rounds at Breslin Center.
Close said she saw UCLA’s road games with MSU and Michigan these last few days as Elite Eight- and Sweet 16-type matchups. That’s where MSU is. Just not yet realistically beyond that.
UCLA, which looks unstoppable right now, has taken a good while to get to this place in the sport’s exclusive tier. Before going 34-3 last season and reaching the Final Four, UCLA had been to one Elite Eight, five Sweet 16s, two NCAA tournament second rounds, two WNITs and missed the postseason entirely twice in Close’s first 13 seasons as the Bruins’ head coach.
On night’s like Wednesday, it can feel like there’s an insurmountable gap between MSU and UCLA. But for UCLA, it’s really been one outstanding recruiting class that’s grown up together and, along the way, added Betts as a transfer a couple years ago.
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“They’ve had a lot of kids who’ve played a lot of meaningful basketball, and you can tell they’re very connected on both sides of the ball,” Fralick said. “And obviously their size, for us, we knew going in would be a challenge. And it was. That was hard.”
Catching up to programs like UCLA is a challenge for MSU’s program. For this MSU team, which still has a lot to achieve, the key is not to let this humbling evening mess with its mojo. The Spartans don’t have time be dispirited. They have a rematch with Michigan on Sunday in Ann Arbor.
“For games like this (against UCLA), you lose or you learn, and there are just things to learn,” Fralick said. “And the reality is, in our league, there’s no time to blink, there’s no time to worry, there’s no time to feel sorry for yourself, because there’s another really good team coming.”
UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez, center, is pressured by Michigan State’s, from left, Kennedy Blair, Amy Terrian and Emma Shumate during the second quarter on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU women’s basketball reminded of work to do in humbling loss to UCLA
