UCLA Basketball Roundup: Bruin Seniors Have No Regrets

Heading into their last game ever at Pauley, the seniors on the UCLA women's basketball team wouldn't change anything.

Kiki Rice drives hard to the basket during Saturday’s game against CBU. (Photo Credit: Joe Piechowski)

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Unfortunately, the men’s season came to an end last night when the team lost to UConn, but that doesn’t mean basketball season in Westwood is over quite yet.

Tonight, the UCLA women host Oklahoma State in the Second Round of the NCAA Women’s Tournament. This will be the final time to see Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Charlisse Leger-Walker, Gianna Kneepkens and Angela Dugalic in Pauley Pavilion. The good news is that tickets start at just $12 for kids and $25 for adults and they are still available. So, help pack Pauley one more time tonight!

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One of the cool things about the NCAA Women’s Tournament compared to the men’s tourney is the fact that the first two rounds of the tournament are played at the home venues of the top seed in each quad.

That’s meant that, for each of the last four season, the Bruins have had an opportunity to play two more games at Pauley Pavilion in front of their home fans. While those games are never guaranteed, that means that, after tonight’s game against Oklahoma State, both Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez will have gotten the chance to play eight extra home games during their time in Westwood.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to ask them and a few other players to reflect on their time as Bruins. Specifically, I asked them what advice they would give their younger selves and what they would have done differently. Amazingly, while none of the players were able to hear their teammates’ answers, they were all pretty similar.

Much to my surprise, none of them were able to identify anything they would have done differently. They didn’t even say they would have preferred last year’s game against UConn turn out differently, which is what I was expecting at least one of them to say.

In yesterday’s pre-Round Two press conference, Kiki said she would tell herself to “just to enjoy every moment with your teammates, to stay confident and recognize that like there's obviously going to be a learning curve and there's going to be a lot of growth that you're going to experience throughout the four years that you're here, but that's what's going to make this so special.”

Gabriela Jaquez said she would offer herself this advice:

“Just continue to have fun, and stack days. I think you'll see the improvement. Every day you put in the work like you'll see the improvement. You might not see it tomorrow, but you'll see it.”

Meanwhile, Angela Dugalić was a bit more introspective. She noted, “I wouldn’t do anything differently, just because I am a very firm believer that everything happens for a reason.”

“I would tell myself to just truly enjoy and savor every moment with my team,” she added.

Like Kiki, Jaquez also wouldn’t do anything differently. She explained, “I’m just really proud of my four years here, and excited to have one more game in Pauley.” To that she added, “And a couple more games with her team.”

Speaking for every Bruin fan, we all want four more games with this team after tonight.

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Of course, the flip side of playing a final NCAA Tournament game at Pauley Pavilion is playing the first one. On Saturday night, head coach Cori Close played all three UCLA freshmen a little more than she did during the regular season. Sienna Betts played 22 minutes, just one short of Lauren. Meanwhile, the rest of “Slizzy”, the team’s acronym for the freshmen (Sienna Betts, Lena Bilić, and Krizzy Karamouzi), also saw significant time than they usually saw during most of the regular season. Bilić played 13 minutes and Karamouzi played five.

After the game on Saturday, Coach Close spoke about the importance of getting their feet wet early in the tournament.

“I think every tournament, you have an unpredictable person step up in one game or another. I remember for us, it was when Lauren got in foul trouble. I think it was against LSU or against Ole Miss. I can't remember…last year, but there was just a critical time when she had two fouls in the early in the second quarter, and other people had to be ready to step up, and they were. And I think if you don't have some of those moments to draw on, it's a lot harder to do that. And so that was one of the best parts about the game is that everybody got a chance to contribute.”

Yesterday, Sienna Betts spoke about that contribution. She said:

“I’m just really, really happy that we all were able to go in and leave some kind of splash. We’re just such a great team, and we understand our roles, and we understand what the team needs from everyone. We’re just happy to be a part of it in any way that they ask and that the game asks.”

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At yesterday’s press conference, after the players were done, head coach Cori Close also addressed the media. Coach Close addressed quite a few different topics including what she sees from Oklahoma State to the way her and her staff are prepping for the Cowgirls compared to how Oklahoma State’s staff is to the joy that Sienna Betts has brought to the program.

On the topic of what she sees from Oklahoma State, Close said:

“I think that what stands out is their ability to shoot the 3, their versatility, their work down the tunnel with the high ball screen. They’re extremely good in transition. It’s going to be so important for us to make them play later into the shot clock, which is going to be easier said than done.”

“But I guess with the exception they don’t have like a really tall big, but they actually remind me in terms of their style and some of the actions that they run of Oklahoma. Their guard play. And one of the big things that we talk a lot about is trying to make them play later in the clock than they’re comfortable with.”

“Now we go through all the analytics, and the later you have them play in the shot clock, the less efficient they become. They’re 13th in the country in offensive efficiency. They’re really, really good. Defensively I think that we obviously need to really hunt the paint. We’ve got some advantages with our size there.”

“But they’re a really good team. I think that they play really hard, and they play -- I was so impressed with how connected they played yesterday against Princeton.”

Following the conclusion of the Oklahoma State-Princeton game on Saturday, Oklahoma State head coach Jacie Holt was watching the Bruin game courtside. Coach Close was asked about whether she prefers to watch a game from the floor or if she learns more from watching tape. Close explained:

“I think it’s a combination. I chose to watch it in the locker room the first game, the Princeton-Oklahoma State game, only because this is our home stadium. So it’s harder for me to sit there and not have somebody come up and say hello -- which of course I love.”

“But to protect myself let alone having other people have to put up with me, I wanted to be so I could really focus. But I think it was the circumstances. If we were on the road, I would probably have been out next to the people who’s responsible for the scout.”

“By the time we get to a game like that, we’ve already broken down ten games, and we’re now just maybe checking for signal calls. We’re making sure they didn’t put anything new in. We’re really tweaking at that point. We’re not game planning at that point. That has pretty much been derived.”

“So I think it’s just a supplemental thing and it’s a comfort thing. I could not thank our video team and our assistant coaches more. I think they are so good at their jobs. There’s a pair that work on each game. Yesterday was Madison Blevins and Soh, our assistant coach, Soh Matsuura. Today is Tony Newnan and Michaela Onyenwere. They’re the pair, the scouting pair.”

“I just, the work they put in, it just sets me up to sort of show up and go, okay, what are we thinking here? How are we going to go about this? As an offensive, co-offensive coordinator, what kind of reads and actions are we preparing for? That’s sort of how I approach it.”

When the players were talking with the media yesterday, there was a bit of a funny situation where Sienna Betts wanted to answer a question about Oklahoma State honestly. At the same time, she didn’t want to say too much. So, she actually asked Kiki if she was allowed to say something, apologizing and quipping that she “never had a question about another team before.” It generated a bit of a laugh from Coach Close who was seated off to the side.

That got Close asked, in contrast to the fact she as so many veteran players on the team, what it’s like to have someone who’s still kind of new.

“That’s pretty much every day with Sienna Betts is new and fun. She is hilarious. I think that I knew some of our additions and what they were going to bring, especially on the court, but I had no idea Sienna and Gianna Kneepkens are so funny. They are hilarious.”

“Sienna, every day it’s something new. Even we were announcing in film she was going to be here with Kiki. All of a sudden, she puts her head on Kiki’s shoulder. It’s just sort of -- I don’t know, she’s just silly in all things Sienna. That’s actually one of the things I love the most about coaching her.”

“I think actually she is so hard on herself and she’s so driven, I think her humor is actually a saving grace for her. It’s sort of a breathe moment. It’s laughter. Because when she’s not smiling and bringing joy, she’s usually beating herself up for a mistake. As she continues to grow in that, I hope it doesn’t have to be her escape, but I just have absolutely enjoyed Sienna so much.”

“I’m really enjoying watching her grow, and it is so fun to see -- this is my 33rd year in Division I coaching. I haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament every one of those, but I’ve been to a lot of them. Moments like that when you get to see how new and fresh and fun this experience is, it keeps me young as well.”

The full video of yesterday’s press conference is courtesy of UCLA Athletics on YouTube.

Go Bruins!!!

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