UCLA Bruins dancing their way to Women’s Final Four title game

The official Women’s Final Four program contains profiles of all four teams, complete with a team photo.

South Carolina, Texas and UConn team photos feature players in two rows, smiling politely for the photographer.

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UCLA’s photo is different. Every player is striking some kind of pose. Showing some attitude. Having some fun with the required team pic.

“It’s truly a really good representation of how we interact, how we are as a team,” guard Kiki Rice said of the team photo. “We’re a really close team. We play with a ton of joy. We have a lot of joy in everything that we do, and I think that allows us to be more loose and to have fun together throughout the entire year, because it’s a long season. But just finding those moments to smile, to have fun, and to not be too serious definitely helps us play better out there on the court.”

That’s not to say the Bruins, who face South Carolina on Sunday, April 5, for the NCAA women’s basketball national championship, have way more fun than any other team or group of athletes. But it’s clear that UCLA is just as much about the joy of being together as the Bruins are about winning games.

Cases in point: Head coach Cori Close is in on the fun. She’s been seen laughing during Final Four press conferences, with her players beside her. She gets the inside jokes.

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Close was, well, up close when three of her players, Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez and Charlisse Leger-Walker, appeared with the UCLA cheer squad at a men’s basketball game at Pauley Pavilion last month and performed a routine they clearly were ready for.

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Close and the other players were at center court, cheering and filming all of it as the trio of Bruins displayed their moves.

“Wow, that was such a highlight of my whole college career,” Jaquez said, smiling when asked about how she and her teammates crushed the routine. “So much fun. It was pretty iconic. There’s shirts now out of that last pose. That just shows how much fun we have together. Some people didn’t see, but our whole team was there courtside, our whole staff, support staff, coaches… that just shows how much we love each other and how much support we’re always going to show each other.”

Betts wore the shirt on Saturday during her interview session with reporters at the Final Four.

The three performed again — more of an impromptu situation — after UCLA won the Big Ten Tournament.

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And for good measure, not only did Betts, Jaquez and Leger-Walker dance at the UCLA open practice on Saturday, April 5, at Mortgage Matchup Center, the entire team performed a choreographed line dance of sorts on the court to the delight of the crowd.