Cori Close’s relentless pursuit of improvement drives UCLA

Cori Close’s team had just won its NCAA Tournament opener by 53 points.

One might not have known it by listening afterward to the UCLA Bruins women’s basketball coach. Her talking points included her team’s slow start and failure to execute the scouting report.

Two days later, her team got off to a fast start, allowing it to persevere after a second half that was a push.

The postgame topics included defensive lulls and playing tight.

It’s all part of Close’s bid to have her team playing its best basketball when it’s needed in trying to win the program’s first NCAA championship.

Close doesn’t demand perfection from her players, only constant improvement in an attempt to unleash the best version of themselves.

“Every game,” Close said last week, “presents some different learning points and challenges.”

This pursuit adds another dimension to an already dangerous team, making the top-seeded Bruins as hard to stop as a Lauren Betts spin move in the lane or a Gianna Kneepkens 3-pointer.

They looked unbeatable in the early going Monday against Oklahoma State at Pauley Pavilion. Scoring with ease and making so much as a clean pass difficult on defense, UCLA tallied the game’s first nine points and raced to an early double-digit lead in the second-round game.

After her team couldn’t build on a 20-point halftime cushion during an eventual 87–68 victory over the eighth-seeded Cowgirls, Close didn’t hold back in her assessment.

Of course, there was also plenty to praise from a coach who is savoring every moment of this journey.

Close choked up while discussing her senior class and the way it’s grown and connected with a community that has fully embraced this team. Fans lingered inside Pauley Pavilion to say goodbye to Betts, Kneepkens, Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, Charlisse Leger-Walker and Angela Dugalic after their final game on their home court.

“I got emotional with them,” Close said of her players, “just realizing how much they have committed. Just having a vision and wanting to execute that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have incredible, courageous young women willing to make uncommon choices. Our hopes are yielding uncommon results. It just is a great joy.”

It’s also a great challenge knowing what’s ahead, starting with a Sweet 16 showdown against fourth-seeded Minnesota on Friday at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

That’s why Close was so focused on what her team needed to do better after it logged its 27th consecutive victory, a program record.

She said the Bruins’ inability to get stops consistently against Oklahoma State was among her biggest concerns.

“We couldn’t make adjustments,” Close said, “to stop what they were doing.”

Another issue was getting caught up in the frustration of a missed call or a miscommunication with a teammate, allowing it to impact the next play.

“It affects you,” Close said. “It’s really quick, but all of a sudden you’re not the tougher, more together team, and all of a sudden it’s a 6–0 run or it’s something that happens in the game where they get a little momentum going.”

Close said she told her players after the game that they needed to treat NCAA Tournament games like every other one — just let things go and keep playing, understanding they have to do things better the next time.

“I think we just can’t get tired of doing it right and learning from every single game,” Close said. “So I did think we didn’t have as good of next-play speed as we have had earlier and we need to address that.”

There was also the matter of the weight of this moment. Being widely hailed as the best UCLA team in program history comes with its own pressure.

Close acknowledged sensing some of that in the second half in the way her players tightened up.

“We started to play not to make a mistake,” Close said. “I didn’t think we dictated the same way we started. And I do think we’ve got to be aware that that’s outside, and we have to be very insular in terms of how we define what this experience is.”

As part of her efforts to increase players’ resilience, Close and her staff use visualization techniques and mental conditioning to bring out their best this time of year.

“It has to do with moments like that where games might get tight, teams might go on runs, it’s March, it’s going to happen,” Betts said of the weekly mental preparation sessions, “and we as a unit just need to come together and be connected and just communicate through it and hold each other accountable.

“I think that’s what makes this team so special is because we’re just a very mature group of people who just know how to get the job done and that’s just how basketball is. People are going to go on runs, but we just have to lock in and focus on what we need to do.”

With their coach demanding nothing less, the Bruins could be primed to make history.

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