Charlotte GibsonMar 26, 2026, 06:42 AM ET
THE SIX GRADUATING members of the UCLA women's basketball team stood at center court, arms wrapped around one another while fans at Pauley Pavilion cheered louder with each second.
Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, Gianna Kneepkens, Charlisse Leger-Walker and Angela Dugalić each have had their own unique journey at UCLA. But on this court, they became one.
"The reality is this is one of the best teams in UCLA history, no question," Bruins coach Cori Close says. "This team isn't about individual players. It's about the unit. We are better when we're a unit. And that's what makes this team special."
It's the end of February and UCLA's final home game of the regular season. But the real farewell for these six -- a group that includes an All-American, two all-conference first-team honorees and the Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year -- wouldn't begin until March. And this season, they know that everything they've built and created during their time in Westwood will depend on what happens in the NCAA tournament.
On senior night and with five of them scoring in double figures, the Bruins ran over Wisconsin to remain perfect in the Big Ten and secured the regular-season title. In the locker room afterward, Big Ten champion hats on their heads, the players screamed and danced around Close as she shimmied in celebration. Betts, a projected lottery pick in the WNBA draft, thrusted her 6-foot-7 body into the air and sprayed water at her coach and team.
"We understand that we're super close this year," Jaquez told ESPN. "We have a lot of seniors. Each celebration means something more than just the wins. Those moments in the locker room are the highlights of my time at UCLA. They are also the moments that show just who this team is and what we're about. It all starts with our chemistry. And you can't fake that."
The mood in the locker room was very different a year ago, when the Bruins lost to UConn in their first Final Four appearance in the NCAA era. But this group of players immediately knew what must happen to write a different ending this season: come together as a team; work together as a team; put the team above yourself. The goal: win the program's first national championship.
On Monday night, as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year, UCLA clinched a spot in the Sweet 16. The Bruins will ride a 27-game winning streak -- second only to undefeated UConn -- into their game against Minnesota on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). They're four wins away from completing their goal.
"It's all or nothing for us," Betts says.
"TAKE A LOOK at yourselves in the mirror," Jaquez said to her teammates in the locker room after last year's Final Four loss. "Is this what we want to be as a team?"
UConn, which would go on to win its 12th NCAA title two nights later, had just routed UCLA 85-51 for the largest margin of victory in a women's national semifinal. With 19 turnovers and 12 missed 3-point attempts, the top-seeded Bruins were barely recognizable. They played as if they had never been on that stage before -- and maybe wouldn't get there again unless something changed.
Betts scored 26 points on 11-for-18 shooting, but the center was the only UCLA player to make more than three field goals. Betts tried to take control of the game, but Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, Sarah Strong and the stacked Huskies were too much. And a season marked by UCLA firsts -- a school record for wins, the program's first Big Ten championship title in its first year in the conference, the program's first No. 1 NCAA tournament seed and its first appearance in a national semifinal since 1979 -- ended in heartbreak for the Bruins, who were the No. 1 overall seed in 2025.
"I hope this fuels us," Betts said in her postgame news conference. "I hope that we come out angry after this."
For Jaquez, the night was a reminder that she's not finished at UCLA. Playing 34 minutes, the guard had a team-high eight rebounds but failed to score. The Southern California native and sister of former UCLA Bruin and current NBA player Jaime Jaquez Jr., dreamed of playing for UCLA since she was a little girl. From the moment she stepped foot on campus, she believed in Close and the development of the program. When some of her fellow freshmen transferred after the 2022-23 season, Jaquez stayed put.
"I never thought about transferring," Jaquez said. "I understood that coming in as a freshman I would grow a lot. There's going to be hard times, but I really trusted the coaches. I really saw my development grow not only as a player, but as a person."
That April night in Tampa, Florida, brought the Bruins closer together, to recommit to trusting the process. Whether they'd been together as freshmen like Jaquez and Rice, or transferred to UCLA at various stages of their college careers like Betts (from Stanford) and Dugalić (from Oregon), the Bruins were ready to channel that Final Four loss into motivation.
"Playing in a Final Four has always been a dream of mine since I was a little girl," Rice said. "To get to that moment was huge. ... But to fall short in that time, I think it really reminded us of the work that we need to do to kind of take that next step. We needed to get to work right away in the offseason. We needed to be selfless."
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California Baptist Lancers vs. UCLA Bruins: Game Highlights
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THE BRUINS WASTED no time channeling their loss into a gain. And Close took every opportunity to reiterate the message to her team in the offseason.
What did the Final Four teach us?
How do we need to be different?
What are you willing to commit to for a different result?
The Bruins' roster got a boost not long after the season ended. Kneepkens, a 3-point shooting specialist during her career at Utah, transferred to UCLA, and Leger-Walker, who sat out the 2024-25 season because of a knee injury after transferring from Washington State, returned, adding depth and grit. And the Betts family legacy at UCLA grew with Sienna Betts, Lauren's younger sister, joining the team as the nation's No. 2 recruit, per ESPN's rankings.
The tests came early this season. UCLA opened 2025-26 with six consecutive wins -- including victories over fellow Sweet 16 teams North Carolina and Oklahoma -- before losing to then-No. 4 Texas 76-65 in the inaugural Players Era Championship. Texas led by as many as 23 points in the first half before UCLA trimmed the lead to four in the fourth quarter. The Bruins stalled from there, failing to hit a field goal over the final 4 minutes, 31 seconds.
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UCLA routs Iowa for second straight Big Ten title
No. 2 UCLA Bruins defeat No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes 96–45 to capture back-to-back Big Ten titles.
It was time for a reset again. "Let's refocus," Close said.
"We learned that when we play certain teams, we need to come out with a different mindset that we need to take things away quicker," Betts said. "Defensively, that was our biggest area of growth that we needed to have. We needed to come into it not thinking, 'We're going to take this game,' but instead 'It's not just going to come to us. We're not just going to win just cause who we have on the team.'"
Step 1 for that shift to work: lowering Betts' usage rate and creating opportunities for other players to step up.
"In the Final Four, she was the only one that really had the confidence to step up and make plays and deliver," Close said. "We wanted to be a more balanced team, more complementary to the team."
Betts leaned into accepting slightly less individual dominance for the good of the team. The Big Ten Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year still leads UCLA in points (17.1, down from last season's 20.2), rebounds (8.7, down from 9.5) and blocks (1.8, down from 2.9) while averaging 3.2 assists (up from 2.7), but she has loved seeing her teammates' stat lines grow throughout the box score.
"My ultimate goal this year is just to win games," Betts said. "It's probably the most stacked roster that you'll ever see here at this program. The amount of skilled players we have on this team is just incredible. I'm in a situation where I don't need to average 20-something points a game."
Rice's growth is proof of Close's plan in motion. The 5-11 guard produced her best regular season and is averaging a career-high 15.2 points and 6.0 rebounds while adding 4.5 assists on a career-best 49.7% shooting. A projected first-round WNBA draft pick, Rice has worked hard to become a more versatile guard after acknowleging her defense was a weak spot at the 2025 Final Four. Earlier this month, she was named to the all-Big Ten first team and all-league defensive team.
"We have earned the right to be one of the best development programs, I think, in the country," Close said. "Every single person on the team is putting in the work before or after practice. Kiki is leading that charge."
WITH LESS THAN one minute left in Monday's second-round NCAA tournament matchup between UCLA and Oklahoma State, Betts & Co. sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the bench at Pauley Pavilion one last time, watching their team and their legacy on court.
For their final home game, Betts logged a career-high 35 points on 15-for-19 shooting; Kneepkens added 15 points, hitting 3 of 6 3-pointers; Jaquez and Rice each scored 10 points; Leger-Walker tallied a team-high eight assists; and Dugalić's seven rebounds trailed only Betts' nine. They each played at least 26 points as UCLA joined the other three No. 1 seeds in the regional semifinals.
Leger-Walker wrapped her arms around Betts, who was fighting back tears. Betts found Sienna, who couldn't hold them in. The Bruins marked their spot in the Sacramento 2 Regional on a life-sized cardboard bracket and danced on the court.
"From a basketball perspective, these aren't where the tears come from," Close said. "It's the way these seniors have affected our UCLA community ...
"I got emotional with them just realizing how much they have committed. Just having a vision and wanting to execute that doesn't mean anything if you don't have incredible, courageous young women willing to make uncommon choices. Our hopes are yielding uncommon results."
