NEWARK, N.J. – Cori Close is pissed.
This is the coach who jumped in a pool fully clothed for Lauren Betts to celebrate her commitment. The one who hosted every freshman athlete from UCLA at her house to start the school year. The one who brings her mom on road trips. The stereotype of the angry, red-faced coach, who talks tough and yells tougher, isn’t one you’d normally apply to Close. Yet here she is, standing at midcourt and surrounded by her players.
“Championship reps or get out of the gym,” she tells them sharply. “Period. There is a level of excellence that is expected with the way we are attacking this road trip and if you don’t want to be a part of it, seriously, go sit on the bus.”
Close points toward the gym’s open door. “But if you’re ready to be at our level, with an attention to detail, then you can stay. If not, go.”
The words were delivered on Sunday afternoon during the No. 1-ranked Bruins’ practice on Seton Hall’s campus, one day before facing No. 25 Baylor at the Coretta Scott King Classic. It’s the only time all weekend that Close raises her voice.
That tone was not heard three hours earlier as the coach is sitting calmly in a DoubleTree conference room, watching her players trickle in slowly and sleepily, heads down and rubbing their eyes. They are still on L.A. time. Close asks every player how they slept and they answer with some variation of, “Good, but I’m still waking up.” They grab breakfast and someone announces every few minutes that there is an omelet bar in the other room.
Close is constantly reminding her players that they never know what moment could turn into a “remember when.” When she begins recruiting a player to UCLA, Close is already thinking of the memories they can make as Bruins. This moment is a simple one. There’s a white-walled room, decorated with bland hotel art. Blue cloths cover the tables and a projector is set up for film later today. Not the kind of moment that you’d expect to turn into a core memory, but you never know. Close wants to make sure the opportunity is always there.
It’s her job to keep them focused. It’s why in a few hours, she will meet them with fiery disappointment when they aren’t practicing like the No. 1 team in the country. Because all of this is connected. The better they are in practice, the more chances there are to create memories later on.
Gabriela Jaquez is the first to walk into the conference room this morning, going back and forth between the rooms, seemingly unsure what to eat and also why they are up so early. A few minutes later, Amanda Muse and Lauren Betts come in, and by 10:22 (7:22 L.A. time) the whole team is eating. The spread of eggs, bacon, toast, breakfast potatoes and orange juice seems to perk everyone up, but the thing that truly gets the energy rolling is the company. Once the team is all together, it’s like they can finally open their collective eyes.
A few coaches and players venture out for a Starbucks trip. They return with a vanilla latte for Close and a cinnamon dolce latte for her mom, Patti Close. Patti has been a fixture on team trips since her husband Don, a longtime high school basketball coach, died in 2021. She didn’t have a passport before her daughter got the job at UCLA, but since then, Patti has gone to places like Paris, Italy, Germany and Senegal. When Don passed away, “people felt sorry for me.” Patti says. Then, she smiles and looks around the room. “They don’t feel so sorry for me any more.”

There’s a lot of Patti in the UCLA women’s program — and a lot of Don, too. They shaped Cori, and in turn, they are shaping the players that come through. Cori is one of three girls, all with names that Don and Patti deemed unique. Her sisters are called Amity and Adell. “Cori wasn’t a common name back then,” Patti says. The desire to be different that started with her name is clear. This is her program and she’s forming it in her own vision.
Close’s voice suddenly takes over the room. “Stand up, high-five three people and say dominate,” she commands. High-fives are used like punctuation among the UCLA players. Every drill, every segment of their regimented schedules, and even pre-practice stretches draw to a close with high fives.
As Close speaks, the energy shifts from light-hearted to focused. The word “character” has been thrown around a lot lately and assistant coach Tasha Brown has tasked the team with coming up with their own definition. Jaquez reads from her notebook: “Someone’s traits, beliefs and values that can be developed and refined over time,” she says.
There are nine McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster — the second-most in the country after South Carolina — but Close knows that’s not enough to win tomorrow. “Talent is the floor and character is the ceiling,” she says.
Brown asks the team what they can do to ensure they are meeting the definition of character. Charlisse Leger-Walker, a transfer from Washington State, answers. She’s out for the season with an ACL tear but is still a major part of the team. She emphasizes the importance of knowing the scout, top to bottom, something her teammates agree with. They nod in unison as Brown transitions to watching Baylor film.
“Boxing out is umero numo!” Brown says so passionately that she stumbles over the words. The Bruins laugh and then turn to Jaquez. “Numero uno,” she corrects, rolling the “R.”
At practice that afternoon, the Bruins operate on a thin line between fun and hard work. They start the workout with a dribbling warm up to the Cha Cha Slide. They slide to the left, slide to the right and crisscross, all while bouncing the balls on the floor in unison. They dance during stretching and laugh during water breaks. But finding joy in practice is not a replacement for being locked in. When Close feels the pendulum swing too far in one direction, she calls her Bruins to center court. This is when she rips into them with the speech about championship reps. Close wants practice to be more challenging than games, so tomorrow, when UCLA tips off against Baylor, all the hard work will already be done.
Once they break the huddle, UCLA responds. They still find time to laugh, but in between the moments of levity, the execution is perfect. When Rice slips going to the rim on a guard drill, assistant coach Tony Newnan teases her. “You’re just too shifty,” he says. Rice responds with a smile. Of all the players, she is perhaps the most serious on the court, but if you make her laugh, Newnan says, you can’t help but chuckle, too. “She has the highest pitched laugh you’ll ever hear,” he says.
Practice ends at 3:04 and Betts and Janiah Barker celebrate by recording a dance video, but the real excitement for Barker comes when she exits the Seton Hall gym. It’s snowing. Barker was born in Georgia, attended high school in Florida and then started college at Texas A&M. Every stop in her career has been void of winter weather. Barker tilts her head back out and opens her mouth. “It tastes good,” she calls out as the flakes hit her tongue.

The 6-foot-4 junior has her coat zipped to her chin with a black beanie perched on her head, resembling a kid on their first snow day. But she has an edge, too. In a win over Indiana earlier in the season, she blew kisses to the crowd after they spent the game taunting her. Against Baylor, she curled her lip in a snarl, turning to the opposing fans after making her first jumper. UCLA needs that kind of energy. They don’t get it often from the sweet Betts or soft-spoken Rice. But those two can settle Barker if things go too far. After a series of offensive fouls went against UCLA in the game against Baylor, Barker drew contact from her defender. She stood over her, ready to deliver some trash talk when Betts raised a hand. “Hey,” she said. That was all Barker needed to refocus.
When Barker and Timea Gardner signed out of the transfer portal last offseason, UCLA officially had the No. 1 (Betts), No. 2 (Rice), No. 3 (Barker) and No. 6 (Gardner) recruits in the 2022 class. That’s the type of roster that allows for UCLA to do things like achieve the first No. 1 ranking in program history, a feat that came after the Bruins defeated South Carolina, ending its 43-game winning streak. That game is a “remember when” for a lot of players and coaches, a concept that is revisited at dinner.
After the empty entree plates are cleared, Angela Dugalic comes over to the coaches’ table to inspect their dessert spread. She already ate an Oreo-based pastry, but it was so good that Dugalic is hoping to find another. “What’s your ‘remember when’ from the season?” Close asks, but she already knows the answer.
Close’s spot on the bench is next to Newnan, but it doesn’t actually need to be there. She avoids the seat like someone has put a tack on it, never sitting down during games. Dugalic is the only person who has actually made her go butt-to-chair. During a possession in UCLA’s 101-52 win over Arkansas on November 17, Dugalic got cut off on the baseline. “My only choice was to pass behind my back,” she says. “I feel like there were a few more choices,” Close responds, before letting Dugalic continue her story. As Dugalic made the behind-the-back pass, Rice, her intended target, cut in the other direction. The ball sailed out of bounds. She’s not sure why, but Dugalic’s instinct was to turn around and throw her arms around Close, an action that was met by laughter from the crowd. Then, she ran up the court and continued playing. Close, who had been planning to take Dugalic out after the miscue, was so disarmed that she walked back to her chair, crossed her arms and sat silently for a few moments.
At 8:58 a.m. Monday morning, UCLA starts a film session with a visualization exercise. The mental aspect of basketball is one of Close’s major priorities. “It’s like any other skill,” she says. “You have to work on it.” Each player has an individualized visualization video to watch. It’s like a highlight reel, but the kind only a coach could put together. No flashy plays, just the right plays. It’s about execution and how that impacts the rest of the team.
It’s part of something Close calls mental conditioning. Just like her players work out various muscles in the weightroom, they also need to hit the mental gym. “Mental health is a big part of women’s basketball,” Londynn Jones says. “Coach Cori is always paying attention to that, checking in and making sure we’re good.”
The shootaround and film session that follows are designed to perfect the details. By the time the Bruins enter the locker room to face Baylor, just 15 minutes before tipoff, it’s exactly as Close said in practice on Sunday. They’ve done all the hard work. Now, they just have to execute. On the whiteboard, Close has a play drawn up for “after Lauren wins the tip,” she says. It has what feels like infinite options. One by one, she goes through them, emphasizing each priority. “I really want to get Gabs going,” she says.
At 3:06, Betts wins the tip and the play materializes exactly as Close envisioned. Jaquez cuts to the rim, spins and shoots over Darianna Littlepage-Buggs. It hits glass and falls through the net. Perfection. And it does get Jaquez going. By the end of the first quarter she has six points and four rebounds and UCLA leads 19-9.
UCLA is up the whole game, but Baylor cuts the advantage to five on a jumper from Jada Walker with 6:08 left in the third quarter. Close avoids her chair as always, pacing the sideline in her black Space Jam Jordan’s. She doesn’t call a timeout. This is an opportunity for her team to show character. They feed the ball inside to Betts, who draws an instant double-team. She pivots and finds Jones on the perimeter for a 3-pointer. Then, on the other end, Betts screams. Normally, her voice is low and soothing, like the hum of a box fan at night. But now it’s high-pitched and cracking. “Let’s go. NOW,” Betts yells. She takes her own advice by blocking a shot, grabbing the rebound and creating another possession for the Bruins. Betts finishes with 24 points, 9 rebounds and 9 blocks. That last number is both her career high and a UCLA record. That’s a “remember when.”
Jaquez earns one as well. In the postgame locker room, after the Bruins have closed out a 72-57 win, Close calls Jaquez the “stud of the game,” citing her 13 rebounds, 11 points and 16 passion plays – a non-statistical category the Bruins staff keeps track of which essentially boils down to doing the dirty work. That’s Jaquez’s speciality.
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Eden Laase’s rankings for Week 14. Notre Dame, Texas and USC move up.The Bruins laugh and dance like they’ve been doing all weekend. Close delivers her postgame remarks starting with compliments, then discusses ways to improve and closes once more with positives.
Earlier in the weekend Close had talked about pressure. The pressure of being undefeated, the pressure of being No. 1, the pressure of losing in back-to-back Sweet Sixteens. “We don’t really feel it,” she said. After defeating Baylor, no one in the locker room is sighing with relief. No one is celebrating excessively. They’re simply existing in the moment, a moment they might remember down the line.
The Bruins will stay an extra day in New York, where they will take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and visit the 9/11 Museum. Perhaps those will be “remember when” moments. Or those might come later in the week, when they head to Maryand to play in front of Rice’s hometown crowd. Or in April, if they can achieve the ultimate goal of winning an NCAA championship. But none of those memories can happen without winning games, practices and film sessions.
“Remember whens” only exist because of championship reps. They exist because when Close challenges her players by pointing to an open gym door, no one leaves to get on the bus.