Tag: Janiah Barker

A brief history of UCLA superstar Lauren Betts

Lauren Betts has a younger sister who is committed to UCLA. Lauren is helping UCLA now and in the future.

People who haven’t studied UCLA women’s basketball the past two seasons might not be familiar with the dominant presence known as Lauren Betts.

Betts stands out in every game, in part because of how tall she is standing. At 6’7”, Betts is almost always the tallest player on the court. Her height has helped her cement herself as one of the top shot blockers in UCLA basketball history.

Betts’ collegiate career didn’t start out in Westwood. She spent her freshman season at Stanford but didn’t get much action on the court. She played in 33 games but only 9.6 minutes per game. She was playing behind Cameron Brink, who logged most of the minutes at the center position for Stanford.

Betts was the No. 1 recruit in the 2022 prospect class, ahead of current teammates (No. 2) Kiki Rice and (No. 3) Janiah Barker, along with current UCLA players Timea Gardiner, Gabriela Jaquez and Londynn Jones, who were all top-25 prospects in 2022.

With Brink remaining at Stanford, Betts opted to transfer out and head south to UCLA. It didn’t take long for Betts to adjust to the heavier workload, being named an All-Pac-12 player and making the conference’s All-Defensive team. Betts averaged 13.7 points, 8.6 rebounds with 2.13 blocks.

All of those numbers have grown this season, at 21 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3 blocks while helping the Bruins get off to the best start of a season in program history at 20-0. 

There’s more bad news for non-UCLA women’s college basketball fans: Lauren has a younger sister, Sienna Betts, the No. 2 2025 recruit who has verbally committed to UCLA. Sienna Betts is currently playing her senior season of high school ball in Aurora, Colorado, where she has averages of 23.5 points, 16.7 rebounds and 3.8 blocks.

Texas A&M Aggie forward Janiah Barker has found a new home

After spending some time in the transfer portal Aggie forward Janiah Barker with be headed to the west coast

It’s official: Texas A&M star forward Janiah Barker has committed to play for Coach Cori Close at UCLA. When Barker entered the portal with a do-not-contact declaration, there was some hope that she might withdraw her name. Her relationship with Coach Joni Taylor was a strong one, and she even changed her commitment from Georgia to A&M when Coach Taylor took the job.

However, after a few injuries over the last two seasons, including a concussion, followed by an early exit from the NCAA tournament, Barker decided to get a new start on the West Coast. She is a strong scorer with a solid defense who will bring some experience to a UCLA team that lost a lot of talent this year.

We never like to see talent leave Aggieland, but we appreciate the time she was here representing the Maroon & White.

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UCLA women’s hoops lands Texas A&M transfer

A big get for Cori Close’s team!

Cori Close and the UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team has landed a big addition in the transfer portal. On Tuesday, Texas A&M’s Janiah Barker announced her decision to come to Westwood with a post on her Instagram page.

Barker is a big boost for the Bruins as she averaged 12.2 PPG and 7.6 rebounds with the Aggies this past season.

Barker was one of four Aggies players who entered the portal around the same time in April, and now she comes to the Bruins.

UCLA has been active in the portal, adding players such as Charlisse Leger-Walker from Washington State as well as Timea Gardner from Oregon State.

As such, after a Sweet 16 loss to LSU, the Bruins are comfortably ranked in the top 10 of the way-too-early projections for the 2024-2025 season.

With teams like USC loading up, the Bruins are doing their best to challenge the Trojans.

 

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Janiah Barker & Aicha Coulibaly speak to media before Texas A&M plays Nebraska in March Madness

“I think we’re all really excited to be here. Honestly, all respect to Nebraska but we’re ready to do what we need to do… which is win.”

Prior to the Texas A&M women’s basketball team playing Nebraska in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night, senior guard Aicha Coulibaly and sophomore forward Janiah Barker spoke to the media on Thursday.

“I was super excited because this is the first time that I’ve made it to the NCAA Tournament. I’m a senior and it was just a lot of excitement, I didn’t know what to say and it feels great,” Coulibaly explained. “They called our name really fast and I was just sitting in my chair, screaming and jumping all over the place and full of emotions. It’s exciting to see how far we came this season. We had some lows, ups and downs, but we kept fighting and this is where we’re at now, it feels great.”

Barker is grateful to be competing in March Madness as an underclassman.

“First, it’s a blessing to be here,” Barker said. “It was really cool and fun to be apart of the (selection process). It was all very genuine, we had an off day and then we came in ready to work. After the selection show, we saw the coaches and they left to go scout. They came to us and told us that we have a really good chance to do this and they believe in us. I think we’re all really excited to be here.

“Honestly, all respect to Nebraska and everyone here but we’re ready to do what we need to do… which is win.”

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Head coach Joni Taylor gets Texas A&M women’s basketball back to the NCAA Tournament in year two

The Texas A&M women’s team makes the NCAA Tournament for the first time in since 2021

The SEC is a challenging gauntlet in all of Women’s NCAA basketball, with eight teams making the NCAA Tournament and three making the WBIT Tournament, with a total of 11 teams making it to the postseason. For the first time since 2021, the Texas A&M Aggie women’s basketball team will be back in the NCAA tournament.

The Aggies ended the season at 19-12, doubling their win total from last season and earning a No. 22 seed where they will face No. 6 seed Nebraska in the Albany 1 region on March 22. This talented and determined A&M team in the big dance marks the first time since 2018 that the women’s and men’s teams will be in the postseason.

Unsurprisingly, with views being the primary objective for the NCAA, they match both teams against Nebraska just a few days after Texas A&M hires Trev Alberts away from Nebraska.

Texas A&M will face Nebraska on Friday, March 22 at 9;30 p.m. in Corvallis, Oregon. The game time and watch options will be announced later this week.

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Texas A&M’s women’s basketball team defeats Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament

The Aggie ladies have defeated Mississippi State in the second round of the SEC Tournament and will now face No. 1-seed South Carolina

The SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament is underway. Texas A&M, which ended the regular season on a disappointing three-game losing streak, entered the tournament as a 9-seed. On Thursday morning, the Aggies thoroughly defeated the 8-seed Mississippi State Bulldogs 72-56 to move on to the quarterfinal round.

According to multiple analysts, the Aggies were on the cusp of earning an NCAA Tournament bid, so winning at least one game in this week’s event was absolutely vital. Coming off her 15-point performance in Sunday’s loss to Alabama, senior guard Aicha Coulibaly was determined to will the Aggies toward a victory.

With an eye on exposing the Bulldogs in the paint, Texas A&M outscored Mississippi State 36-22 inside, led by Coulibaly’s 17 points. Sophomore forward Janiah Barker provided 15 points and nine rebounds as the Aggies out-rebounded the Bulldogs 40-32.

Off the bench, veteran guard Endyia Rogers netter 12 points, including a perfect 2-2 from beyond the arc, as Roger’s second three on the day added to A&M’s 20-point lead with 8 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

With the win, the Aggies are now gifted a meeting with the best team in the country, the South Carolina Gamecocks. With a win, expect this team to earn an at-large seed.

Texas A&M will face South Carolina at 12:00 EST on Friday, March 8. The game will air on the SEC Network.

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Watch: Highlights from the Texas A&M Womens lost to Vanderbilt

Watch the best plays from the Aggies’ game against Vanderbilt on Thursday night

Texas A&M battled back to take a lead late in the fourth quarter but ultimately fell 49-45 to Vanderbilt at home. In a game where points were hard to come by in the absence of the leading scorer Endyia Rogers was sorely missed.

Both teams are hovering around the .500 mark in SEC play, and both needed this win to improve their seeding in the NCAA tournament at the end of the season. The game turned out to be a defensive battle, but they once again fell victim to numerous turnovers late in the game.

“They were unforced, rushed. We’ve got to manage the game better at that point. We didn’t connect on some fast break opportunities. We also have to know when to pull it out and make them guard us. We had done a good job of taking the lead and we were running some stuff that they had struggled in the fourth quarter to defend and then we just turned it over. Then they went on a 10-0 run to finish the game.”

Going forward they will need to find some offense with Rogers out and the turnovers will need to drop drastically in key situations. Below you can see some of the best plays from the game.

Watch: Highlights from the Texas A&M win over Kentucky

Watch the best plays from the Aggies’ game against Kentucky on Sunday afternoon

Texas A&M is looking to make a push to make a run in the SEC tournament en route to a NCAA tournament bid. Sunday was another step toward that goal as the Aggies passed another test given to them. Coach Joni Taylor always preaches that they will keep getting the same test until they pass it.

This is the first time this season that A&M won back-to-back road games in SEC play. After beating Ole Miss in Oxford, the Aggies had a chance to double up on the road and they proved to be the better team when they stepped off the court in Lexington. They went to Kentucky and beat up the Wildcats for a 61-44 win.

The Aggies are now 17-6 overall and one game away from doubling up on their win total from last season and 5-5 in SEC play with six games left before the SEC tournament starts. They will get a chance to go north of .500 for the first time in conference play.

Below are some of the best plays from the game on Sunday.

Everything Rogers and Ware had to say after the loss to Mississippi State

Here’s what Texas A&M players Endyia Rogers & Lauren Ware had to say after the Aggies’ frustrating lost to Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon.

The Texas A&M Aggies (15-6, 3-5 SEC) fell to the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs (19-5, 6-3 SEC) at Reed Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Turnovers and fouls were the downfall of the Aggies in their 74-63 loss to the visitors. After a blazing fast start jumping out to an 11-2 lead A&M cooled off drastically and started getting extremely sloppy with the ball. They literally threw away the game to the tune of 22 turnovers and a majority of those were unforced.

The message at halftime was to slow down to eliminate the turnovers and get the ball into the paint.

“She just said we’re fine and we need to stop turning the ball over. We saw what we got when we stopped turning the ball over.”

– Rogers

“They switched up zone and man throughout the game. When we went into zone, Joni said we took a lot of threes in the second quarter. I think we took eight which is a lot for us. The guards did a good job of slowing the game down, penetrating, and finding the inside.”

– Ware

Below, you can watch the full post-game presser Q&A with Endyia Rogers & Lauren Ware.

Texas A&M will be back on the road to face Ole Miss in Oxford on February 8 at 6:30 PM CT.

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Everything Joni Taylor had to say after loss to Mississippi State

Here’s what Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor had to say after the Aggies’ frustrating lost to Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon.

The Texas A&M Aggies (15-6, 3-5 SEC) fell to the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs (19-5, 6-3 SEC) at Reed Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Turnovers and fouls were the downfall of the Aggies in their 74-63 loss to the visitors. After a blazing fast start jumping out to an 11-2 lead A&M cooled off drastically and started getting extremely sloppy with the ball. They literally threw away the game to the tune of 22 turnovers and a majority of those were unforced.

The second issue was the fouls. It seemed, especially late, that the Aggies didn’t see a foul they didn’t like. If was frustrating for the fans to watch, then I can only imagine how Coach Joni Taylor felt watching it in real time. She pointed out in the post-game that those two issues are just things that can’t happen against good teams and expect to win.

“When you’re playing a team that’s that good, you can’t give them the basketball, and I just think because of our turnovers in that stretch where we needed to be settled, and we needed to be in time and score, it never felt that way, and so we’ve got to take better care of the basketball now some of the fouls obviously were us at the end fouling but we sent them to the line way too many times.”

Below, you can watch the full post-game presser Q&A with Coach Taylor

Texas A&M will be back on the road to face Ole Miss in Oxford on February 8 at 6:30 PM CT.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1.