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Cori Close relishes 15-year journey to national championship with UCLA
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- Cori Close relishes 15-year journey to national championship with UCLA
PHOENIX ― UCLA coach Cori Close walked into the Bruins ' postgame presser drenched, wearing ski goggles and a hat on her head, with a basketball net still around her neck. After 15 years, Close was a champion.
As Lauren Betts , Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez sat next to Close, answering questions about how UCLA defeated South Carolina 79-51 in the national championship game , she looked on with pride. Still, there were moments she looked down at the table, reading the stats and shaking her head in amazement.
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The 51 points the Gamecocks scored were the seventh fewest in a championship game. South Carolina's 29% shooting percentage from the field was the third-lowest in a title bout. The Bruins allowed only 95 points combined in their final two games of the season, the second-fewest ever by a national championship team in the Final Four. UCLA is also the first team (men's or women's) to hold its opponent under 30.0% shooting from the field and less than 15% from 3-point range in a national title game.
Still, Close didn't want credit for the coaching masterclass she displayed in Mortgage Matchup Center Sunday, April 5.
"It's not about me. It's about watching these incredible young women be dream chasers, to watch them grow in ways that they will remember, and it will stick with them for the rest of their lives," Close said.
"It's about their work and their habits yielding. We say this, we want to recruit courageous – gets me choked up. There were a lot of times we wondered if it could be true. I said I wanted to find uncommon, courageous women that were willing to make uncommon choices that maybe possibly could yield an uncommon result, and today it did."
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Close's voice trembled as she talked about a dream realized. The Bruins head coach had spent the last year working to get back to the Final Four stage, but not just win – walk away with an elusive trophy she'd actually been chasing since she arrived at UCLA in 2011.
During the 2024-2025 season, UCLA was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament after a 30-2 regular season record and a Big Ten conference championship. However, the Bruins' season ended in heartbreak in the Final Four semifinal game. By halftime, UConn had a 20-point lead and eventually won 85-51.
Close told USA TODAY Sports in February that she felt like she had failed as a leader, but that loss changed her leadership style. Close confirmed her evolution as a leader again Sunday when she was asked to evaluate herself now that she was a champion. She said she hoped she chose to grow as a leader. She also talked about what she and her players learned over the last year.
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"Being able to turn the pain of regret into the pain of discipline, to then see the chosen pain of discipline pay off in having championship habits today, that's really rewarding," Close said.
"I just think that's the best part, right? When you ask Lauren (Betts) about what she's most proud of, it's about what she was able to overcome. Even for me as a leader, I think I'm most proud of the ways in which I had truth tellers around me that told me the hard things, and that hopefully I had a humble heart to go, 'OK, I receive that, and these are the changes I have to be responsible to make.'"
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Her players also noticed a difference in Close as they marched towards their first title. Over the last few months, the UCLA coach started their film sessions with "I will" declarations. Each player was asked to write five to seven statements each day. The positive affirmations intensified over the last three to four days of the last week. Players were asked to write things that were going to be important in their preparation for South Carolina.
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The players all agreed that "sacrifice" was crucial at this stage in the season. Close also says that it was "rewarding" to see so many of those statements being lived out in Phoenix. She lauded her players for staying at UCLA to see their vision through to the program's first championship in the NCAA era. However, Close's players couldn't help but gush about how much their coach has helped them.
"Coach Cori (Close), I'm super proud of her as well, the way she responded as a leader last year. We responded well. Obviously, we're here now. I think it started with Coach Cori and the way she wanted to make a change in our program and get us back here, get this result," Jaquez said.
"Coach Cori really stayed patient with me. She wanted to see me accomplish everything that I'd ever dreamed of. They just continued to remind me (that) they want me to see myself the way they all see me. I feel like now, at this point, I can finally truly do that. I think that's what I'm most proud of," Betts said of Close.
With her belief in herself and the belief from her players on full display at Sunday's press conference, Close was asked if she ever paid attention to what people who didn't believe in her thought or the narratives about her being unable to show up in momentous games. In true Close fashion, she gave herself little of the credit and highlighted those who have been around her through her coaching journey.
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More: Close learned from unforgettable lessons in John Wooden's den
She also confirmed she never paid attention to what anyone said and only cared about how her players thought she showed up for them and how consistent she was through their mission to win a title. Close wanted to win her way, and on Sunday, it paid off.
"This really is a by-product, and it really is only meaningful because of the people I get to share it with. I wondered how it would feel. I really did expect us to win today. I thought about it several times. I'm like, 'We're going to win.' I felt very peaceful all day," Close said.
"It wasn't about whether or not we got the 'W' or not. I wanted us to be able to play our best when our best was needed. We delivered on that. It just is so much for me not about a national championship, but it's the validation that it can be done differently."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: UCLA coach Cori Close wins NCAA championship after long Bruins journey
