UCLA was trounced by UConn, but can the Bruins get back to the Final Four next season?

TAMPA — As the UCLA starters congregated before tip-off against UConn, joy radiated from the Bruins. The players had emphasized in the days leading up to the national semifinal that they expected to be at the Final Four – they were the No. 1 overall seed, after all – but they couldn’t hide their smiles when the moment arrived.

On the other side of the court, the Huskies were all business. No one on UConn’s roster would be satisfied, let alone happy, if the season were to end Friday.

The difference between a program experiencing its first Final Four in the NCAA Tournament era and one in its 24th, seeking its 12th national title, could not have been more stark. And the disparity bore out during the contest, as the Huskies decisively took down the newcomers, 85-51, the largest margin of victory ever in a Final Four game.

For all of the success the Bruins achieved in a historic season in Los Angeles, they didn’t come close to matching the level of UConn. They couldn’t complete passes in the half court and turned the ball over on multiple dribble hand-offs. They rushed what open shots they could create. They seemed lost on their defensive execution, miscommunicating on how to handle the Huskies’ screening actions inside the arc.

UConn played what its coach Geno Auriemma called a mistake-free game. UCLA was uncharacteristically sloppy. The Bruins lost the game with 14 turnovers in the first half, leading to 19 points for the Huskies; UCLA only had 22 points total at intermission.

“We got exposed,” coach Cori Close said. “We got our butts kicked today. And it stings right now.”

The Bruins had been in big games throughout the season. A showdown against the then-undefeated defending champions in November. Two matchups against USC with Big Ten regular-season title implications. The conference championship against those same Trojans. And the escalating scale of each game in the NCAA Tournament.

Those experiences weren’t enough to prepare them for what awaited against UConn. Something about the Final Four, with the eyes of the entire women’s basketball community on that singular game, caused UCLA to shrink in the limelight. Close acknowledged that she wasn’t a good enough leader in her first trip to this stage, saying, “The reality is you have to go experience it.”

“It’s hard when we haven’t been in this moment, but I still think that we’re obviously a much better team than what we showed today,” junior guard Kiki Rice said.

The Bruins won’t be able to back up that statement until next season, but they could return the entirety of their roster. Only Angela Dugalić is a senior, and she still has an additional year of eligibility due to medically redshirting the 2022-23 season. All of the continuity this team has built can be carried forward.

But there are no guarantees. Dugalić could go pro, as could Lauren Betts (though she has repeatedly rejected that possibility since she wants to play with her sister) and junior Janiah Barker. Anyone could enter the transfer portal. And what was mostly a healthy season in 2024-25 doesn’t have to be next year.

UCLA is poised for future success and has taken meaningful steps forward since this core arrived on campus as the No. 1 recruiting class in 2022. That doesn’t mean progress is linear.

Across town, USC was a title contender less than two weeks ago and is now entering the 2025-26 season with two rotation players from their Elite Eight team. Los Angeles Sparks coach Lynne Roberts, who was in attendance Friday supporting Close, coached a Utah team that came within two free throws of beating eventual champion LSU in the 2023 NCAA Tournament; the Utes brought back everyone who averaged more than 10 minutes the following year but suffered injuries and couldn’t recapture the same magic.

Opportunities have to be seized in the moment. To be two games away from a national championship and play their worst game of the season should haunt the Bruins.

“Our urgency and our competitiveness, I think we kind of lacked that a little bit today, just recognizing that this is the Final Four and our season is on the line,” Betts said. “We really need to recognize the moment that we’re in and play like it.”

This group at UCLA has bounced back from failures and disappointments. Blowing a fourth-quarter lead in the Sweet 16 to LSU motivated the entire team to improve its toughness in the offseason. Losing the Big Ten regular-season title led to a players-only meeting that resulted in a conference tournament title.

They know how to take the requisite lessons from defeat and get better in the process. When Betts said postgame she hoped the loss would fuel them and inspire some anger in her teammates, she has witnessed that first-hand.

Since 1995, when UConn won its first championship, only two teams have won it all in their first trip to the Final Four. Baylor defeated a fellow first-timer (Michigan State) in 2005, and Texas A&M beat a three-time semifinalist in Notre Dame. The experience gap for the Bruins and the Huskies was much larger than either of those situations. Regardless of their internal expectations, there isn’t much surprise in UCLA coming up short in this attempt.

This is the only time that the Bruins get to use this excuse, though. Now, they know the standard they need to live up to from the moment they begin offseason workouts and fall practices.

UConn has turned the Final Four into an annual rite of passage for its program. For UCLA, this has to be another stepping stone as the Bruins continue their pursuit of that standard.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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