PHOENIX — The UCLA women’s basketball team went into the Final Four last year celebrating a historic season: making the national semifinals for the first time in the NCAA era. But the Bruins left in a funk after a deflating 85-51 loss to UConn. It wasn’t just the defeat, but the fact that the Bruins didn’t even show what kind of team they were.
“I was sad, and it took me a while to recover from my sadness. … The way we ended it was really hard for me,” UCLA senior Gabriela Jaquez said Thursday on the eve of the Bruins’ return to the Final Four.
UCLA coach Cori Close reflected on the experience and said she learned something.
“Talking transparently, I did a crappy job as a leader,” Close said. “The moment we touched down [after the Final Four], I was in transfer portal [mode]. Not a great situation. One of my biggest regrets of last spring is I didn’t celebrate them enough. I didn’t find ways to go, ‘This team was the most successful [UCLA] team since 1978-79.’
“Good news is they’re very mature and they have a really good sense of what our culture is, what we expect. When the dust settled and we got back together, we were able to self-reflect and realize that we were building off of something really good. We [could] actually use that as such a great teacher for where we [wanted] to go this year.”
The Bruins have lost just one game this season: 76-65 to Texas on Nov. 26 in the Players Era Championship tournament in Las Vegas. UCLA has won 29 in a row since, including having a perfect season in the Big Ten.
Now, the Bruins have a chance to avenge that loss to the Longhorns and the subpar performance in the Final Four last year. They face fellow No. 1 seed Texas in a semifinal here Friday (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Jaquez said having a senior-dominated team, most of whom played in the Final Four last season, makes a difference.
“Now, we know what to expect, and for the ones who haven’t been here, we could tell them what’s going to happen,” Jaquez said.
For decades, UCLA had the unfortunate tag of being one of the best programs in women’s basketball never to play in the NCAA Final Four. The NCAA era began in 1982. In the previous AIAW era, the Bruins won the national championship in 1978 and made the semifinals in 1979. Last season’s long-awaited Final Four trip came in Close’s 14th year with the program.
The Bruins have thrived since their move to the Big Ten in 2024, winning the conference tournament the past two seasons. UCLA’s next step is making it to the NCAA championship game.
UCLA beat Minnesota and Duke in the Sacramento Regional 2, led by senior Lauren Betts‘ combined 39 points and 10 blocks. The 6-foot-7 Betts, who is expected to be a first-round pick in the WNBA draft April 13, was the lone Bruin who played well last year in the Final Four with 26 points against the Huskies.
In the matchup against Texas in November, though, Betts was limited to eight points, part of a slower start to the season for her. She was held to single-digit scoring in three of her first eight games this season, all against SEC foes. She knows that can’t happen Friday if UCLA hopes to advance.
“For me, [it’s about] coming out with a certain level of aggression that I’m going to get the ball regardless of how teams are playing us,” said Betts, who was the Big Ten Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-American.
“Throughout the season, I’ve just worked harder and harder on that. The scout team has done a really good job of not taking it easy on me. They make it hard for me to create catches. I have to do it anyway.”
