UCLA’s Cori Close exhausted and contemplating retirement, urges NCAA to help coaches with transfer rules, NIL

Cori Close has had a ton of success throughout her time in Southern California.

But as UCLA gets ready to take on Minnesota in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament this weekend, the Bruins head coach revealed something personal.

Advertisement

She’s exhausted.

“I think it’s harder for coaches 1774582143. I’ve never been as tired as I’ve been in the last two years, and it’s made me think how much longer I can do this,” Close said on Thursday. “And I’m just being transparent with you about that.”

To her credit, Close has been at UCLA for a long time. The 52-year-old took over ahead of the 2011-12 campaign, and is now wrapping up her 15th season with the program. But the past two seasons have been the best the Bruins have had on the women’s side of things in decades.

Close, while earning national Coach of the Year honors, led UCLA to the school’s first-ever Final Four last season. They’ve made it to at least the Sweet 16 now four straight seasons, and they’ve been there eight times under Close’s watch.

This season, the Bruins ran the table in the Big Ten and again earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Behind another dominant campaign from center Lauren Betts and guard Kiki Rice, many think the Bruins are capable of winning the national title. If it weren’t for undefeated UConn on the other side of the country, they would have been the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament.

Advertisement

If UCLA could pull off the national championship, it would mark the program’s first in the NCAA era. The Bruins won the AIAW national championship back in 1978 when it beat Maryland.

But it’s not just leading the Bruins that is starting to weigh on Close. It’s everything else that comes with college basketball now — like the expanded transfer portal; new name, image and likeness deals that have taken over the sport; and more. She is also a former Women’s Basketball Coaches Association president, and is very involved nationally.

While she doesn’t have the answers, she made it clear she wants to be part of the solution.

“How do we now figure out this transfer portal? Let’s not complain about it,” Close said. “Let’s have solutions about what’s right and what are adjustments that need to be made … I’m a huge advocate for NIL. It should have happened 20 years ago. And we need boundaries. We need infrastructure. We need competitive equity. We need transparency.”

UCLA will take on No. 4 Minnesota in the Sacramento 2 Region on Friday. The winner of that contest will advance to the Elite Eight to take on either No. 3 Duke or No. 2 LSU.

Advertisement

It’s unclear how long Close will continue to coach at UCLA. Her comments on Thursday make it seem like her retirement could come much sooner rather than later.

But if the NCAA doesn’t step in and help coaches like her soon, she said, others are going to follow suit — and women’s college basketball can’t handle that.

“If there’s one thing I would ask of our governing bodies and the NCAA and our administrations is please develop infrastructure and boundaries that create an opportunity to have sustained excellence and sustainable pace,” she said. “Otherwise, we are going to continue to lose some of our best coaches, and I do not think our game can afford to do that.”