Tag: Cori Close

Lauren Betts explodes for 24-point first half against Maryland

Click, clack. Lauren Betts played like a superstar against Maryland, dominating the Terps from start to finish with a 33-point masterpiece.

UCLA junior center Lauren Betts continues to make a case for National Player of the Year. Betts delivered a dominant first half of basketball against No. 8 Maryland on Sunday, carrying the Bruins to a 20-0 record.

The superstar junior scored 24 points over 18 minutes of action in the first half. The Bruins needed all of Betts’ scoring, as they led just 39-34 at halftime on Sunday. Betts went 11-12 from the field and put on a masterclass on how to establish positioning in the post in the first 20 minutes.

Betts totaled the 24 first-half points with only two free throw attempts; Maryland was unable to slow her down. The Terrapins didn’t send too many double-teams at Betts, which was a surprise due to the way she was out-muscling their defense. Maryland was able to force one turnover (of two in the first half) from Betts with a double-team, but the next double-team led to an easy bucket for Gabriela Jaquez. 

There are two reasons why Betts didn’t score even more in the first half. One was Bruin turnovers, ten in the first half. The other was Maryland’s zone defense, which made UCLA perimeter players hesitant to throw the ball to Betts in the post. The entry passes to Betts in the first half were mostly phenomenal. Betts gave her teammates clean passing lanes, and her teammates accurately delivered passes.

Betts was averaging 20.3 points per game entering Sunday. She needed only the first 20 minutes of action against Maryland to ensure that number would go up. 

UCLA completes 3-0 road trip with 82-67 win over Maryland

UCLA stayed on the East Coast for a full week and went 3-0, capped by a decisive win over Maryland. The Bruins are rolling.

The No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball team moved to 20-0 on Sunday with a 82-67 win over Maryland to wrap up the Bruins’ three-game Eastern road swing.

UCLA leaned on the ultra-efficient Lauren Betts, who went 14-15 from the field en route to scoring a career-high 33 points, with seven rebounds and four more blocks. Betts scored 24 points in the first half before the Maryland defense began to force the ball out of her hands, which led to Betts picking up four assists on Sunday.

Betts and junior guard Kiki Rice were the two main factors of UCLA’s offense, with Rice adding 19 points, seven assists and three steals. It was a homecoming for the Maryland native. Rice who certainly showed out in her return home, spending lots of time at the free throw line; she went 9-10 in the game. 

Rice and Betts were the only two Bruin scorers in double figures, but the entire team enjoyed a solid shooting performance, going 54.5% from the field and 36.8% from three. After 10 turnovers in the first half, UCLA took better care of the ball with just seven coming after halftime. 

Maryland kept it close in the first half, heading to halftime trailing by five, but UCLA took control in the second half. UCLA led by 25 with 3:08 to play in the fourth quarter before the Terrapins went on a 10-0 run after the Bruin starters left the game.

Maryland entered the game as the best rebounding team in Big Ten action, but the Bruins were able to win the battle of the boards, narrowly edging the Terrapins 33-32 on the glass. 

UCLA will have its first game at Pauley Pavillon since New Year’s Day next Sunday against Minnesota.

Charlisse Leger-Walker helps UCLA even while being out for the season

Charlisse Leger-Walker is being a great UCLA teammate even though she is unable to play due to injury.

After UCLA’s 84-66 win over Rutgers on Thursday, Bruins head coach Cori Close praised a Bruin who is not even playing in the 2024-2025 season. UCLA Guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, who transferred from Washington State this past offseason, is out for the entire season as she recovers from a torn ACL. Yet, that doesn’t mean she can’t make a difference for UCLA this season. 

“One of our players that’s actually sitting out this year, she made a great point in the locker room after the game,” Close said. “It was Charlisse Leger-Walker, about how when we find something that works, our next point of maturity is to just keep doing it.”

Close brought it up in the postgame press conference when asked about how UCLA handled the Scarlet Knights’ zone defense.

“I thought we were dribbling too quickly versus their zone in the first quarter and really challenging our guards to create ball movement and ball reversal versus their zone,” Close said. “I didn’t think we were as consistent with that in the second half.”

The Bruins outscored Rutgers by only two points in the second half, but it was still enough to push UCLA to 19-0 on the season.

Leger-Walker was named to the Wooden Award Watchlist this season. She averaged 16.6 points per game in 105 games over four seasons with Washington State. UCLA is already No. 1 in the country without Leger-Walker; if the Bruins can retain center Lauren Betts and guard Kiki Rice, there’s a chance UCLA will be just as loaded again next season.

UCLA women’s basketball players react to historic start to season

UCLA players are relishing the present moment but know they will be judged based on what they do in March.

The story is far from over for the 2024-2025 UCLA women’s basketball team. However, the opening chapters have been historic with the team setting a program record with consecutive wins to start the season. UCLA has spent eight weeks as the No. 1 team in the nation. 

“It’s awesome,” junior guard Kiki Rice said of the storybook start to the season. “The first time that a team has been 17-0 here and I think it’s a testament to the hard work of the players, the coaches of having us prepared and the entire staff.”

Rice is in her third season with UCLA, in her time as a Bruin she’s had a record of 71-10, winning over 87% of the games played.

“We know this is just a step in the right direction,” Rice said. “We didn’t set out to be 17-0 and break that record. Our goal is for the end of season.”

It’s been smooth sailing for the Bruins ever since escaping France with a narrow win over Louisville to begin their season but things will likely get tighter for UCLA as we head farther into conference play and eventually the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.

“We need to do anything we can to be prepared for when it hits March, when everyone’s best is coming out and that’s when the details are going to matter,” Junior guard Gabriela Jaquez said. “Me and Kiki both have fell short at the Sweet 16 and it was really painful. I think Coach Cori and our coaching staff saw how hurt we were obviously and we’re not satisfied.”

South Carolina’s Dawn Staley got paid — is Cori Close next?

Cori Close should certainly get a pay raise in light of everything else which is happening in the women’s basketball coaching industry.

UCLA Athletics might have to pony up some money for a potential contract extension for women’s basketball head coach Cori Close. South Carolina and head coach Dawn Staley agreed to an extension through the 2029-2030 season worth up to $25.25 million.

Staley’s deal has a base salary of $4 million per season, along with a $500,000 signing bonus with $250,000 coming in annual escalators. The deal is worlds away from Close’s contract, which was $774,722 in total pay in 2024. Close also received a $100,000 retention payment for remaining with the Bruins through June of 2024. 

Close is the only coach to beat Staley since the 2022-2023 season, with South Carolina having gone 55-1 over the past two seasons. UCLA beat the Gamecocks 77-62 in November. Staley has built an elite resume as the Gamecocks’ head coach, but with her new deal it’s not hard to fathom that Close is now underpaid. She has the Bruins at 17-0. UCLA has been the No. 1 team in the nation for the past eight weeks. 

In 2024, Close was the 28th-highest-paid women’s college basketball coach, with 18 coaches making seven figures. Close has outperformed her salary by record and by bringing in No. 2 prospect Kiki Rice in 2022 and No. 1-ranked transfer Lauren Betts in 2023. 

Close became the program’s all-time winningest coach this season and has accumulated a record of 304-140 since taking over the program in 2011.

UCLA women’s basketball prepares for “taxing” road trip

Cori Close talked about the challenge this upcoming 3-game road trip will pose to her UCLA women’s basketball team.

After moving to 17-0 earlier this week, the No. 1 UCLA Bruins will hit the road for a three-game roadstand coach Cori Close called “taxing” in her media availability on Friday. 

“It is going to be a taxing trip,” Close said to reporters. “We’ve been knowing this was going to happen for a long time and we’re prepared for it. It’s a choice. You have to pre-decide that we are lucky to compete, we’re ready and we’re going to make the most of every opportunity.”

The trip begins with a game against Baylor in New Jersey on Monday before a pair of Big Ten matchups against Rutgers and Maryland on Thursday and Sunday. Baylor’s 15-3 on the season. It’ll be a challenge for the Bruins after UCLA had to battle to hold off Penn State on Wednesday. 

“They’re a really good team and they’re playing really well,” Close said of Baylor. “We’re very attentive to what Baylor is doing and how well they’re playing right now.”

After a turbulent week in Los Angeles, the Bruins will be leaving town for a week before returning home on Groundhog Day to face Minnesota.   

“I’ve never obviously led through a catastrophe like this and the perspective it’s taken and the emotional toll that our players have had to carry,” Close said. “There is a part of that I think going on the road may be able to narrow our focus.”

UCLA will need their full focus to remain undefeated through next week’s trip to the East Coast. 

Cori Close and Lauren Betts have their eyes on the big picture at UCLA

Cori Close and Lauren Betts know that UCLA women’s basketball must rise to an elite standard. That standard wasn’t met versus Penn State.

You’d imagine that all is well for the No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball team after moving to 17-0 on the season Wednesday with an 83-67 win over Penn State. However, head coach Cori Close and Wooden Award candidate Lauren Betts both voiced their frustrations in the postgame press conference following the win.

“I didn’t think we played well enough collectively to win,” Close said after setting a program record for most wins to start a season. “Credit to Penn State, I thought they were the aggressors. I thought we were the aggressors in the second quarter and that was it.”

UCLA outscored the Nittany Lions 27-11 in the second quarter with the two teams tying 56-56 in the other three quarters. There’s been a lot for the team to deal with off the court, with the Los Angeles area fires, but Betts didn’t view that as a reason to excuse sloppy preparation and play.

“I just think we didn’t show up the way we needed to today,” Betts said. “I’m not trying to crap all over my team, I just think that in practice, preparing for this game, we could have done a little better and I thought it just showed a little bit today. I just know how capable we are as a team and I know what we’re trying to do.”

Betts certainly did her fair share with a 22-point, 12-rebound double-double and matching a program-record seven blocks. Betts led UCLA in each statistical category in the win. The Bruins also moved to 6-0 in the Big Ten, one of three teams still unbeaten alongside Ohio State and USC.

UCLA is 17-0, but the goal for this season is not to be 17-0. It is to make the Final Four. Cori Close and Lauren Betts are holding UCLA up to a Final Four standard, and they know that standard wasn’t reached against Penn State. Making sure the Bruins are ready to play elite basketball when it matters is the constant focus of a season which is overflowing with opportunity and potential, but also extreme pressure. Close and Betts know UCLA has to be prepared to deal with pressure when it really matters in March.

Lauren Betts’ superstardom is easy to appreciate at UCLA

Lauren Betts is elite as a shot-blocker, not just a scorer or rebounder. Elite in three ways. That’s why her superstar status is unquestioned.

The No. 1 UCLA Bruins set a program record on Wednesday, moving to 17-0 on the season with an 83-67 win over Penn State. In that game, junior center Lauren Betts matched another program record by recording seven blocks versus the Nittany Lions. 

Betts had a career-high seven blocks in 33 minutes against Penn State. She joins Corinne Costa as the only UCLA player to record seven blocks in a game, with Costa reaching the feat four times from 2011-2014. 

Even with the historic defensive performance by Betts, Bruins head coach Cori Close viewed the seven blocks as a result of porous on-ball defense from UCLA.

“I don’t want to be a wet blanket on that,” Close said. “I do congratulate Lauren, I think she covered for a lot of things.”

Regardless of how the Bruins’ team defense looked on Wednesday, Betts is quickly becoming one of the top shot blockers in UCLA history. In less than two seasons, Betts has recorded 95 blocks, sixth most in program history. The junior has averaged 2.2 blocks per game since transferring in from Stanford, Monique Billings currently holds the UCLA blocks per game record at 1.6, a figure that Betts will almost certainly top. 

Betts has also averaged 9.5 rebounds since becoming a Bruin, that total would put her third all-time in program history behind Natalie Williams and Necie Thompson.

“Obviously her blocks is a big deal,” Close said of Betts. “But I like even more when she switches out on those guards and they think they can take her to the rack and she never gets beat.”

Lauren Betts: elite scorer, elite rebounder, elite shot-blocker. When a player is at the top of the sport in three different statistical categories, it becomes that much easier to appreciate her superstar status for UCLA women’s basketball. The Bruins have her, no one else does. That is why UCLA is 17-0 and Numero Uno.

Purdue head coach links Lauren Betts to Boilermaker legend Zach Edey

Purdue women’s basketball coach Katie Gearlds effusively praised UCLA superstar Lauren Betts, comparing her to Purdue legend Zach Edey.

After the UCLA Bruins defeated Purdue 83-49 to match the best-ever start to a season in Bruins’ history, Boilermakers head coach Katie Gearlds had kind words for UCLA coach Cori Close and her team. During the postgame press conference, a reporter asked Gearlds about the Bruins’ center, Lauren Betts. The reporter referred to Betts as “one of the best” post players in the country, but Gearlds cut the reporter off. “Not one of,” Gearalds said. “The best post player in the country. Probably National Player of the Year, right? She’s that good.” Gearlds compared Betts to a Purdue great, Zach Edey, who won Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year last season and is now with the Memphis Grizzlies. 

“It’s like Zach Edey. You gameplan everything around her and the other kids come in and make shots,” Gearalds said of Betts. “We play a lot of good post players in the Big Ten, but not anyone like that.”

Betts led the Bruins with 17 points and seven rebounds in the win, despite playing just 22 minutes in the blowout win. Betts has also been able to take the brunt of the opponents’ defensive attention and still produce while making things significantly easier for her Bruin teammates. 

Gearlds also shared how Close would call and encourage the head coach, who’s in her fourth season as the Boilermakers head coach.

“I talk to Coach Cori all the time. She’s like ‘Kate’,” Gearlds said, while doing an impression of Close. “It took me nine years to get it turned around here. You got to stay with it, you got to trust your process.”

Now Close and UCLA will try to secure the best start in program history on Sunday at home against Northwestern. 

UCLA coach Cori Close was a mad scientist in a good way vs Purdue

UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close experimented with lineups in a blowout of Purdue. Let’s see what this does for the Bruins later in the year.

Coaches, in any sport, are usually control freaks who worry about everything. In basketball, a sign of a coach’s constant anxiety is the unwillingness to take starters out of a game when the outcome is virtually certain. An infamous example of this was when Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau kept star Derrick Rose in an NBA playoff game despite the fact that the Bulls led by 12 in the final minutes and were certain to win. Rose got hurt, the Bulls’ title hopes vanished, and the Chicago franchise really hasn’t been the same since. UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close showed against Purdue that she isn’t as anxious as other basketball coaches.

Against Purdue, Cori Close could see that UCLA was not going to be troubled. The Bruins were up 13-0 in the first three minutes. They had this game on lockdown. Close made a decision most basketball coaches don’t do: She rested her best player for several minutes in the first quarter. Lauren Betts got a long break in the opening quarter and played just 22 minutes. That’s a light night of work. Some fans might be puzzled, but here’s the thing: Why extend a starter in a game when that starter simply doesn’t need to play more minutes? UCLA maintained its lead without Betts. It extended the lead when Betts came back. Ultimately, UCLA won by 34 with Betts sitting for almost half the game. She plainly did not need to play a lot. Cori Close made the right calculation. She was a mad scientist, but in a smart and productive way.

Cori Close distributed minutes very evenly in this game, giving 105 minutes to her starting five and 95 minutes to her bench. No starter played more than 25 minutes (Londynn Jones), and six reserves played nine or more minutes. This is how UCLA women’s basketball will stay fresh for the long haul in the Big Ten, heading into March Madness.

Cori Close trusted that her reserves could hold the fort with Lauren Betts sitting. They did. This makes UCLA better, and it ensures Betts will be at full strength for the most important games of the season.