So wonderful that a team, culture, and sisterhood based in joy rather than anger can triumph! That was competitive greatness defined! Congratulations Bruins - the journey in more ways than one is complete ❤
💯 Coach Close lives what Coach Wooden taught her... She is the embodiment of her beloved friend and mentor...
I have said this many times, but this is my most cherished, most treasured, most loved UCLA Team in any sport since I fell in love with UCLA the first time I stepped on campus.
I love Coach Close. I love this team. I love the staff. 💙💛💙💛
Competitive Greatness, the top of the Pyramid, was shining brightly with the greatest of joy, in every player who donned the Blue and Gold!
Our "Swiss Army Knife." I always wondered how opponents game planned for her— it had to be next to impossible because how do you gameplan for "hustle and desire?" How do you gameplan for a player who spends her time on the floor engaging in the dirty work of basketball, rebounding, defending, screening, diving, blocking shots, running in transition……tonight she had 21 points; usually, the work that she does won’t show up in the highlights, but she will break the opponents rhythm and eventually their will. She's going to make a great pro.
Nice to hear Dmitri get in a question at the postgame presser. I have to think the NCAA had a conversation with the referees about how they wanted the game called. The semifinals allowed way too much physicality and lack of movement. The results were not entertaining and it was not the product they want to be presenting. Today, a basketball game broke out and the Bruins were well prepared. Props to Coach Close. And, Gabriela was everywhere making plays. Outstanding.
I have noticed that UCLA's opponents were favored in both Final 4 games and in the final. I am glad the writers have favored our opponents so often -- including not considering UCLA for #1 in the polls. Putting UCLA as an underdog is a great way to motivate our team. I agree that Gabriela Jaquez should have been MVP after this game -- and her brother should have been brought out for a TV interview. Great season, great team, and terrific to find everything going well for our team this year. By the way, if Michigan had not stolen Aday Mara, our team this year could have ended up with another championship.
The MOP award is for the best player in the Final Four overall, not just the championship game. I assume they awarded it to Betts because she got a double-double in both games and recorded 5 total blocks between the games. What’s more unacceptable is that the ncaa did not have the MOP trophy ready during the trophy presentation. That would never happen on the men’s side!
I agree with both your comment/replies. I believe that Gabriela Jaquez has been under appreciated all season. Betts does deserve the awards for both player of the year and defensive player of the year -- for NCAA as well as Big 10 (or Big 157 the way it is growing).
Enough with the “stolen Mara” narrative, please. Nobody stole Mara. Mick didn’t play him. The reason Lauren Betts left Stanford and came to UCLA was because of how she was treated by Tara VanDerveer, a respected Hall of Fame coach. Mara left for similar reasons. He’s not said much, but he has said that he’s happy to be able to show what he’s capable of and that after 2 years at UCLA, he had lost his confidence. Betts had last her confidence and fought depression. Cori Close helped her as a person and as a player.
I would believe that narrative if he had entered the portal before renegotiating his NIL and agreeing to return. The timing of everything screams that there is more to it to me.
My theory is that things changed when he went home to Spain. I have read somewhere that the family wanted him to transfer after his freshman year. Perhaps he committed to return and then reconsidered. Do I think money mattered? Yes, but I think it was less about NIL and more about who would develop him for his professional basketball career. Had Mick played him the minutes many of us felt he deserve, I think he’d still be a Bruin.
His parents were instrumental in advising Mara. They looked out for his best interests, which was getting the biggest bag possible. He did not leave because of playing time; he left to get the biggest payout, and it's hard to blame him. Michigan had the most money to pay out to athletes this year, and it ended up giving them the natty. Sadly, this is the future of college basketball...
Aday tells a different story. Pick whichever you choose. Some of us suggested in the middle of last season that he could leave if he didn’t play more. Now he is a National Champion and his draft stock has risen greatly. So, good for him. He made the right choice.
Both sides have truth to it. Mara's family clearly wasn't happy with his playing time, and Michigan came along after Mara had agreed to a return with a bigger bag. If Cronin had a better relationship with Mara, then Michigan's money might not have mattered (apparently, it didn't when it came to Perry), but I don't think we'll ever know how much Mara improved his draft stock compared to staying at UCLA, considering the team was clearly built around the idea of having him in the middle.
Personally, I think I'll be happy once the draft happens and he's off to the NBA just so the stupidest UCLA Seeing Eye Test can finally be done with.
I think your comment with regard to Cronin’s relationship with Mara is spot on. If I was Mara, I wouldn’t have trusted Cronin to play me. Even good coaches screw up. I’m sure the Betts family isn’t real fond of Tara VanDerveer.
I do find it interesting that Mara is the only guy to leave the program that Cronin wanted to keep around - even this offseason, people were predicting a Trent Perry departure, stating that he hates playing for Cronin, and yet he's already been announced as returning and isn't even testing the portal like last year.
I'm also of the opinion these days that the ability to throw a bigger bag at someone can trump perceived coaching ability. It is the only way I can explain Washington over the past few years.
So happy for our lady Bruins and Coach Close! And goodness gracious, did Gaby Jaquez not have a career game today?? So many superlatives to describe this wonderful group of women. What an amazing run this year; so close to perfection you can taste it!! They definitely made the four letters proud :-)
Great day for our women’s basketball team and great day to be a Bruins. I love that the team and coaches have been getting praise from everyone for being high character people, exactly the type of team that would make Coach Wooden proud. Close even got high praise from Dawn Staley, who said that even though they lost, she can “swallow it because we lost to a really good human being, and a good team that represents women’s basketball well.”
Agree Chen about Staley and Close.......respecting your opponent? Selflessness instead of Selfishness? What groundbreaking concepts, right? Reaching the highest levels of accomplishment by subjugating yourself for the greater good of the whole? It seems that sports still teaches us things even when society forgets.
I thought HC Staley also demonstrated a lot of class when a reporter asked a question about HC Auriemma reaching out to her, and she responded by saying "I don’t want--this is UCLA’s day, right? Let’s keep it UCLA, them winning the national championship... We’re not going to damper UCLA’s day with it."
Happy that her team gave UConn some payback for last season's Finals blowout loss. Otherwise, the Lady Bruins would've done the honors and delivered payback for last season's Final Four blowout loss to the Huskies. And on the men's side, I'd rather see Michigan (a fellow Big Ten team) beat UConn for the national championship.
Congratulations to our amazing Women of Westwood on their dominant and emphatic championship performance, and to HC Close for embracing and promoting the Wooden Way to help her players achieve their goals, on and off the court. Hope to see next season's roster openings filled with more selfless talent.
And, another shout out to the Bruins #1-ranked men's baseball team for sweeping their 3-game series vs. #12 U$C and extending their current winning streak to a school record 23 games. What a perfect Easter weekend for UCLA Athletics!
Nothing official yet. We heard sometime later this week so they could get their ducks in a row (and because all the players have to start a condensed WNBA Draft cycle basically today).
Since the transfer portal opens tomorrow, pretty sure that Coach Close is looking at what she needs and who is available. You can't replace Lauren but I'm assuming Sienna will be taking a big chunk of her playing time. So we will need someone to backup Sienna. Muse and Bilic are PFs. They will probable fill Angela's role. We are losing 4 guards so I thinking we need at least 3 from the portal with at least one is a PG. Of course, this assumes we will have the 5 remaining players with eligibility still on the team. Timea says she is coming back and she can be Gianna type role.
One last thing. Any thoughts on Trinity Jones. She's a five star guard that just de-committed from Clemson.
I am convinced people just see the stats with Audi Crooks and don't watch her play, because she is so bad on defense that she gives up more points than she makes. You have to put four excellent defenders on the court just to barely cover for her.
It's a bad fit, and I'd much rather the Bruins continue to develop Sienna on the interior. We saw enough flashes this season to believe she has great two-way capability.
I 💙💛 how Coach Close is a desciple of Coach Wooden.
She said how she recruited courageous women who were willing to commit to the standard, the process and the mission, even when it was hard.
She always states that talent is the floor but character will determine how far you can go.
She shared that she told her team before the game that she had total confidence in them. That they were prepared for this moment, because they had made the hard, uncommon choices required to get here.
No focus on herself or first to ... wins. Just all credit given to others. No calling her players dumb or delusional or toddlers. No throwing players under the bus or out of games.
Just growth. Mastery of craft, both on offense and defense. Just love for each other. Playing with joy and playing for one another.
Did Cronin attend the Women's Basketball Championship game? There was no mention of him being there. Seems likely there would be a sighting if he did.
Coach Chesney attended and had great things to say about Coach Close. They are very similar in the way they teach and coach.
Cronin could learn a lot about coaching, teaching and character from Coach Close and the Lady Bruins. Seems he's not interested in even supprting them on the biggest stage, smdh.
It's interesting... Trent Perry and EDJ, his two best players that were high priorities for Cronin to keep, were both at the National Championship game.
If Chesney, who is in the midst of Spring Practice and hosting tons of recruits, can hop on a flight to support our amazing Lady Bruins, Cronin could have been present.
Unless Cronin was ill or had an emergency situation that would keep him from showing up, there is no excuse for his absence.
In my book, if he was able to go and chose not to, 'small' is taking on another layer of meaning...
The Skyy story is getting a lot of attention, with people 'close to the situation' saying stuff. But who really knows what is going on behind the scenes... just another weird happening.
It really doesn’t feel like the Skyy situation is that deep. He may or may not be eligible to play next year and based on all social media reports, Cronin isn’t waiting around to find out and is starting to recruit over him so makes sense for Skyy to enter the portal.
I doubt Cronin is jealous of the women’s success. He’s always spoken very complimentary of the players and Coach Close. But I do agree that his absence is conspicuous especially when it looks like Jarmond, Frenk, Chesney and the two players you mentioned made the trip. There were players like Megan Grant that flew in for like an hour too before flying home
Really good point about Skyy situation. I don't believe Cronin is jealous of the Women's Team either. But his absence was telling if he could have gone (even if difficult to do so) but didn't.
Skyy entering the portal made a ton of sense, especially since he still hasn't been granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA yet. The Bruins couldn't afford to wait to see if he was going to come back or not when other options are now on the market.
I thought the same thing. I would love to have Skyy back. But if his eligibility is up in the air, then that effort and money needs to go to someone like John Blackwell (finger crossed).
This take is interesting considering Cronin was able to hold onto everyone that had eligibility. Skyy is no longer eligible for next year and has to petition the ncaa for an extra year.
Meanwhile there are teams that have had much more success than us last season have their starters in the transfer portal.
I would think you would want Cronin to move on from Skyy given how long the ncaa is taking instead of waiting around for a decision that may or may not go our way while recruits are being taken off the board.
I'll hold off commenting on the men's team until their postmortem article is written, as I prefer to acknowledge and celebrate the Lady Bruins' outstanding championship season instead...
Hard to tell. Lakers network only showed a few seconds. I think it was between the 1st and 2nd quarters. They were standing at center court with a spotlight on them.
So wonderful that a team, culture, and sisterhood based in joy rather than anger can triumph! That was competitive greatness defined! Congratulations Bruins - the journey in more ways than one is complete ❤
💯 Coach Close lives what Coach Wooden taught her... She is the embodiment of her beloved friend and mentor...
I have said this many times, but this is my most cherished, most treasured, most loved UCLA Team in any sport since I fell in love with UCLA the first time I stepped on campus.
I love Coach Close. I love this team. I love the staff. 💙💛💙💛
Competitive Greatness, the top of the Pyramid, was shining brightly with the greatest of joy, in every player who donned the Blue and Gold!
National Champions!!!! 💙💛💙💛
Gabriela. 21-10-5. My goodness. Congrats to this Bruin team. Talk about a statement win.
Our "Swiss Army Knife." I always wondered how opponents game planned for her— it had to be next to impossible because how do you gameplan for "hustle and desire?" How do you gameplan for a player who spends her time on the floor engaging in the dirty work of basketball, rebounding, defending, screening, diving, blocking shots, running in transition……tonight she had 21 points; usually, the work that she does won’t show up in the highlights, but she will break the opponents rhythm and eventually their will. She's going to make a great pro.
Nice to hear Dmitri get in a question at the postgame presser. I have to think the NCAA had a conversation with the referees about how they wanted the game called. The semifinals allowed way too much physicality and lack of movement. The results were not entertaining and it was not the product they want to be presenting. Today, a basketball game broke out and the Bruins were well prepared. Props to Coach Close. And, Gabriela was everywhere making plays. Outstanding.
I have noticed that UCLA's opponents were favored in both Final 4 games and in the final. I am glad the writers have favored our opponents so often -- including not considering UCLA for #1 in the polls. Putting UCLA as an underdog is a great way to motivate our team. I agree that Gabriela Jaquez should have been MVP after this game -- and her brother should have been brought out for a TV interview. Great season, great team, and terrific to find everything going well for our team this year. By the way, if Michigan had not stolen Aday Mara, our team this year could have ended up with another championship.
The MOP award is for the best player in the Final Four overall, not just the championship game. I assume they awarded it to Betts because she got a double-double in both games and recorded 5 total blocks between the games. What’s more unacceptable is that the ncaa did not have the MOP trophy ready during the trophy presentation. That would never happen on the men’s side!
I agree with both your comment/replies. I believe that Gabriela Jaquez has been under appreciated all season. Betts does deserve the awards for both player of the year and defensive player of the year -- for NCAA as well as Big 10 (or Big 157 the way it is growing).
I did vote Gabriela for MOP, and think she had a case over the entirety of the FF, but Betts was absolutely very deserving recipient.
Enough with the “stolen Mara” narrative, please. Nobody stole Mara. Mick didn’t play him. The reason Lauren Betts left Stanford and came to UCLA was because of how she was treated by Tara VanDerveer, a respected Hall of Fame coach. Mara left for similar reasons. He’s not said much, but he has said that he’s happy to be able to show what he’s capable of and that after 2 years at UCLA, he had lost his confidence. Betts had last her confidence and fought depression. Cori Close helped her as a person and as a player.
I would believe that narrative if he had entered the portal before renegotiating his NIL and agreeing to return. The timing of everything screams that there is more to it to me.
My theory is that things changed when he went home to Spain. I have read somewhere that the family wanted him to transfer after his freshman year. Perhaps he committed to return and then reconsidered. Do I think money mattered? Yes, but I think it was less about NIL and more about who would develop him for his professional basketball career. Had Mick played him the minutes many of us felt he deserve, I think he’d still be a Bruin.
His parents were instrumental in advising Mara. They looked out for his best interests, which was getting the biggest bag possible. He did not leave because of playing time; he left to get the biggest payout, and it's hard to blame him. Michigan had the most money to pay out to athletes this year, and it ended up giving them the natty. Sadly, this is the future of college basketball...
Aday tells a different story. Pick whichever you choose. Some of us suggested in the middle of last season that he could leave if he didn’t play more. Now he is a National Champion and his draft stock has risen greatly. So, good for him. He made the right choice.
Both sides have truth to it. Mara's family clearly wasn't happy with his playing time, and Michigan came along after Mara had agreed to a return with a bigger bag. If Cronin had a better relationship with Mara, then Michigan's money might not have mattered (apparently, it didn't when it came to Perry), but I don't think we'll ever know how much Mara improved his draft stock compared to staying at UCLA, considering the team was clearly built around the idea of having him in the middle.
Personally, I think I'll be happy once the draft happens and he's off to the NBA just so the stupidest UCLA Seeing Eye Test can finally be done with.
I think your comment with regard to Cronin’s relationship with Mara is spot on. If I was Mara, I wouldn’t have trusted Cronin to play me. Even good coaches screw up. I’m sure the Betts family isn’t real fond of Tara VanDerveer.
I do find it interesting that Mara is the only guy to leave the program that Cronin wanted to keep around - even this offseason, people were predicting a Trent Perry departure, stating that he hates playing for Cronin, and yet he's already been announced as returning and isn't even testing the portal like last year.
I'm also of the opinion these days that the ability to throw a bigger bag at someone can trump perceived coaching ability. It is the only way I can explain Washington over the past few years.
A great thank you to Joe for doing a terrific job covering UCLA sports.
And Dimitri!! :-)
So happy for our lady Bruins and Coach Close! And goodness gracious, did Gaby Jaquez not have a career game today?? So many superlatives to describe this wonderful group of women. What an amazing run this year; so close to perfection you can taste it!! They definitely made the four letters proud :-)
Great day for our women’s basketball team and great day to be a Bruins. I love that the team and coaches have been getting praise from everyone for being high character people, exactly the type of team that would make Coach Wooden proud. Close even got high praise from Dawn Staley, who said that even though they lost, she can “swallow it because we lost to a really good human being, and a good team that represents women’s basketball well.”
Agree Chen about Staley and Close.......respecting your opponent? Selflessness instead of Selfishness? What groundbreaking concepts, right? Reaching the highest levels of accomplishment by subjugating yourself for the greater good of the whole? It seems that sports still teaches us things even when society forgets.
I thought HC Staley also demonstrated a lot of class when a reporter asked a question about HC Auriemma reaching out to her, and she responded by saying "I don’t want--this is UCLA’s day, right? Let’s keep it UCLA, them winning the national championship... We’re not going to damper UCLA’s day with it."
Happy that her team gave UConn some payback for last season's Finals blowout loss. Otherwise, the Lady Bruins would've done the honors and delivered payback for last season's Final Four blowout loss to the Huskies. And on the men's side, I'd rather see Michigan (a fellow Big Ten team) beat UConn for the national championship.
Go Bruins ! Thanks for the coverage.
Congratulations to our amazing Women of Westwood on their dominant and emphatic championship performance, and to HC Close for embracing and promoting the Wooden Way to help her players achieve their goals, on and off the court. Hope to see next season's roster openings filled with more selfless talent.
And, another shout out to the Bruins #1-ranked men's baseball team for sweeping their 3-game series vs. #12 U$C and extending their current winning streak to a school record 23 games. What a perfect Easter weekend for UCLA Athletics!
Go Bruins!
Another shout out to the gymnastics team who won their regional yesterday and headed to the finals.
Any word on a celebration for the fans to attend?
Nothing official yet. We heard sometime later this week so they could get their ducks in a row (and because all the players have to start a condensed WNBA Draft cycle basically today).
UCLABruins.com says this Wednesday 6PM at Pauley.
Since the transfer portal opens tomorrow, pretty sure that Coach Close is looking at what she needs and who is available. You can't replace Lauren but I'm assuming Sienna will be taking a big chunk of her playing time. So we will need someone to backup Sienna. Muse and Bilic are PFs. They will probable fill Angela's role. We are losing 4 guards so I thinking we need at least 3 from the portal with at least one is a PG. Of course, this assumes we will have the 5 remaining players with eligibility still on the team. Timea says she is coming back and she can be Gianna type role.
One last thing. Any thoughts on Trinity Jones. She's a five star guard that just de-committed from Clemson.
Get Audi Crooks! Closest thing to Lauren Betts.
Can definitely be an asset on offense.
I am convinced people just see the stats with Audi Crooks and don't watch her play, because she is so bad on defense that she gives up more points than she makes. You have to put four excellent defenders on the court just to barely cover for her.
It's a bad fit, and I'd much rather the Bruins continue to develop Sienna on the interior. We saw enough flashes this season to believe she has great two-way capability.
UCLA was a finalist for Jones, and there were a lot of people who are assuming UCLA is now the favorite for her.
I 💙💛 how Coach Close is a desciple of Coach Wooden.
She said how she recruited courageous women who were willing to commit to the standard, the process and the mission, even when it was hard.
She always states that talent is the floor but character will determine how far you can go.
She shared that she told her team before the game that she had total confidence in them. That they were prepared for this moment, because they had made the hard, uncommon choices required to get here.
No focus on herself or first to ... wins. Just all credit given to others. No calling her players dumb or delusional or toddlers. No throwing players under the bus or out of games.
Just growth. Mastery of craft, both on offense and defense. Just love for each other. Playing with joy and playing for one another.
The result?
National Champions!!! 💙💛💙💛
Crazy that Tennessee lost every single player and Iowa St lost most of its players.
They’re really letting Pat Summit’s program flounder over there
Did Cronin attend the Women's Basketball Championship game? There was no mention of him being there. Seems likely there would be a sighting if he did.
Coach Chesney attended and had great things to say about Coach Close. They are very similar in the way they teach and coach.
Cronin could learn a lot about coaching, teaching and character from Coach Close and the Lady Bruins. Seems he's not interested in even supprting them on the biggest stage, smdh.
I guess Cronin wasn't busy keeping current players from leaving. Skyy entered the transfer portal.
Hi Gen2,
It's interesting... Trent Perry and EDJ, his two best players that were high priorities for Cronin to keep, were both at the National Championship game.
If Chesney, who is in the midst of Spring Practice and hosting tons of recruits, can hop on a flight to support our amazing Lady Bruins, Cronin could have been present.
Unless Cronin was ill or had an emergency situation that would keep him from showing up, there is no excuse for his absence.
In my book, if he was able to go and chose not to, 'small' is taking on another layer of meaning...
The Skyy story is getting a lot of attention, with people 'close to the situation' saying stuff. But who really knows what is going on behind the scenes... just another weird happening.
It really doesn’t feel like the Skyy situation is that deep. He may or may not be eligible to play next year and based on all social media reports, Cronin isn’t waiting around to find out and is starting to recruit over him so makes sense for Skyy to enter the portal.
I doubt Cronin is jealous of the women’s success. He’s always spoken very complimentary of the players and Coach Close. But I do agree that his absence is conspicuous especially when it looks like Jarmond, Frenk, Chesney and the two players you mentioned made the trip. There were players like Megan Grant that flew in for like an hour too before flying home
Really good point about Skyy situation. I don't believe Cronin is jealous of the Women's Team either. But his absence was telling if he could have gone (even if difficult to do so) but didn't.
Megan Grant even forfeited in her final at-bat to join the basketball team.
That is so cool! Awesome celebration when she arrived in Phoenix 💙💛
Skyy entering the portal made a ton of sense, especially since he still hasn't been granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA yet. The Bruins couldn't afford to wait to see if he was going to come back or not when other options are now on the market.
I thought the same thing. I would love to have Skyy back. But if his eligibility is up in the air, then that effort and money needs to go to someone like John Blackwell (finger crossed).
Crap.....I loved Skyy....tough defender and great shooter when healthy...
This take is interesting considering Cronin was able to hold onto everyone that had eligibility. Skyy is no longer eligible for next year and has to petition the ncaa for an extra year.
Meanwhile there are teams that have had much more success than us last season have their starters in the transfer portal.
I would think you would want Cronin to move on from Skyy given how long the ncaa is taking instead of waiting around for a decision that may or may not go our way while recruits are being taken off the board.
Indeed, HC Close has successfully validated her coaching process just as she had described it in an interview with Rich Eisen last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Uz3FzXHMU
I'll hold off commenting on the men's team until their postmortem article is written, as I prefer to acknowledge and celebrate the Lady Bruins' outstanding championship season instead...
It's been great seeing how much fun the team is having. Yesterday, they appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and were honored at the Lakers game.
Did the Laker fans cheer for the lady Bruins? I didn't want to see OKC kick the Lakers butts again.
Hard to tell. Lakers network only showed a few seconds. I think it was between the 1st and 2nd quarters. They were standing at center court with a spotlight on them.
Do the Bruins or any school have a chance to acquire Amari Bailey?