TAMPA — One by one, they filed off the bus up the walkway. Their police escort encased them as they packed in for a player-only team photo framed by their brightly colored “UCLA and “Final Four” wrapped transportation.
Inside the Embarc Collective near the burgeoning Water Street district of downtown Tampa, the blue and gold crew took up most of the room on Wednesday afternoon. At every utterance of those four letters, the team built into a crescendo of cheers, booming the loudest when its own player and coach won two of the three Naismith women’s Honors on Wednesday afternoon.
There was Naismith Coach of the Year winner Cori Close, the self-described “uncommon coach” who praised her group of “uncommon women willing to make uncommon choices and eventually yielding an uncommon result.”
Then Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts, also a finalist for player of the year who credited teammates for boosting her confidence to perform at her career best.
And collectively, the Bruins, the No. 1 overall seed bubbling under the surface of attention bestowed on giants South Carolina and Connecticut, the national title clash many surmised when the bracket came out on Selection Sunday.
“We are expectant,” Close said on Thursday at Amalie Arena. “This is not a surprise for us to be here. We expected and believed that we would be in Tampa.”
The “uncommon” claim dates back to Close’s first season at UCLA in 2011-12 and has her 14th UCLA roster in the uncommon position of an NCAA Final Four. The Bruins reached the Elite Eight twice, including Close’s 2018 squad, but never reached the final weekend in the NCAA era. The school won the AIAW national title in 1978.
“What else is uncommon of this group … I’ve never had a roster this star-studded,” Close said. “And it’s uncommon to have this many stars be willing to give up individual things for a more powerful collective thing.”
The “top to bottom” level this group works at is also the most uncommon of Close’s tenure, she said. And it starts with junior point guard Kiki Rice, who later on Wednesday was named the NCAA Elite 90 award winner for highest cumulative GPA of any ...
