UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close replaced her starting lineup one by one in the final minutes of her team’s national championship game Sunday.
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Point guard Kiki Rice is a senior.
All-American center Lauren Betts, fourth year;
Gabriella Jaquez, Sr.
Janna Neepkens, graduate student.
No college basketball team this season, men’s or women’s, has designed its roster to rely on veterans as much as UCLA. UCLA’s 12-man roster included eight seniors or graduate students. During the NCAA Tournament, the Crows’ minutes rotation featured almost exclusively the oldest players. Those choices put pressure on Sunday’s national title showdown with South Carolina. Because if the Bruins don’t take advantage of this opportunity to win a title now before virtually their entire rotation leaves for the WNBA, there may not be a better chance in the future.
Instead, UCLA defeated South Carolina 79-51 and won the program’s first NCAA title in a way that may never happen again. Bruins players scored all 130 of the team’s final four points in their final year of eligibility, giving them a total of 170 consecutive points from the start of the tournament.
The registration age for women’s college basketball players is older than for men’s players, in part because of WNBA rules. Under the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, only players who have graduated from college, been at least four years out of high school, or are 22 years old in their draft year can be eligible for the WNBA Draft. Still, teams haven’t committed to a single class the way UCLA did in building its championship roster. Since 2000, a senior has won the Women’s Final Four Most Valuable Player award only nine times.
But the blueprint for an unconventional, top-heavy roster worked well for UCLA, which finished the season with 31 straight wins and became the first national champion from the Big Ten Conference since 1999.
“I really can’t express it in words,” Close said of the senior in a postgame interview on ABC. “The loyalty, unwavering spirit and character they choose every day. I am so humbled by the commitment they have chosen to take on our mission.”
Initially, the mission wasn’t to win a title at UCLA.
Of the six seniors or graduate students who were UCLA’s leading scorers this season, only two, Rice and Jaquez, started their careers at UCLA Westwood.
Betts, the Big Ten Player of the Year, was a transfer from Stanford University. In 2021, 6-foot-4 star Angela Dugalich, who was off the bench this season, transferred after one season at Oregon. Charlisse Ledger Walker transferred from Washington State two years ago. And Gianna Neepkens arrived a year ago after transferring from Utah State.
UCLA is no different by using the transfer portal to build its roster. South Carolina also took advantage of the portal, adding two of its top players this season in Tanya Latson and Madina Okot. But relaxed NCAA rules that allow for quick transfers and instant eligibility don’t necessarily translate to instant chemistry.
“It doesn’t magically happen,” University of South Carolina coach Dawn Staley told reporters this weekend.
It didn’t happen right away for the Bruins, either. Last season, UCLA reached the Final Four for the first time in program history, but lost to UConn in the national semifinals, 85-51, the largest margin of victory in history.
In March, Jaquez told ESPN that the blowout became a rallying cry during weight room sessions last summer and throughout the following offseason until practice resumed in Westwood this fall. UCLA has found players who can make a difference this season in New Zealander Reger Walker. He committed to UCLA in 2024, but missed last season with an injury. Leger Walker scored 10 points in 26 minutes against South Carolina, but Close told reporters Saturday that her impact on UCLA began while she was injured.
“Probably one of the greatest collaborators on our team is Charliss Ledger Walker,” Close said. “She’s only been here two years. If you ask all the players who’s been one of the biggest people in leading us not only individually but as a whole, they’ll say she’s the one.”
Neepkens, who transferred from Utah State last offseason, also provides a different element for the Bruins, shooting 42 percent from 3-point range this season, the 14th best in the country. No other teammate shot above 38%.
Rice set career bests this season in points, field goal accuracy, rebounds and steals. Jaquez had one of the best games of his career in the title game, bursting out with 21 points, including a dagger 3-pointer in the second half that extended the Bruins’ lead to more than 30 points.
“We felt like this was our year, this was our year,” Rice said after the game. “We came there all weekend, and we were never turned away.”
But long before the blowout, Betts had built an impressive 11-point lead at the end of the first quarter, and South Carolina was facing its second-largest point differential of the season after the first quarter.
“She’s improved more than last year and she’s more patient. I mean, she had four seniors around her, right?” South Carolina’s Raven Johnson said after the game. “She is a senior herself, so her experience will be of great help.”
On the eve of Sunday’s championship game, Betts said, “I really wish we could be together for another thousand years” with the seniors and graduate students he calls his best friends. Next season’s team will be drastically different. In his biggest understatement yet, Close said UCLA will be busy recruiting transfer players during the offseason.
“There’s no better way to do it than this,” Rice said. “I hope it ends my career.”
