A few weeks after UCLA’s 2024-25 season ended with a loss to UConn in the Final Four, Bruins coach Cori Close sat down with her All-American center, 6-foot-7 senior Lauren Betts, for a heart-to-heart conversation. Betts had been one of the top players in the country as a junior, but Close believed the grueling toll of the season, during which Betts averaged 30.1 minutes per game, was too much. Close revealed to Betts that for her final college season, she wanted her to play a little less, shoot a little less, and hopefully win a little more.
At first, Betts was resistant to the plan, but the more they discussed it, the better it sounded. The reason? “Lauren wants to win a national championship, period.” Close told Hoops HQ.
If Close and Betts can find the right balance between her individual brilliance and team balance, then the Bruins could not only return to the Final Four in 2026, but win two more games there. UCLA returns three other starters in graduate student Angela Dugalic, 5-foot-10 senior Gabriela Jaquez and 5-foot-11 senior Kiki Rice, plus a key bench contributor in 6-foot-3 senior forward Timea Gardiner. Rice and Gardiner are also healthy for the first time in two years, Close said, with Rice coming off shoulder surgery and Gardiner finally overcoming a lingering knee injury that has been bothering her since she played at Oregon State.
Graduate-student guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, who transferred from Washington State but missed last season due to an ACL injury, is also recovered. Leger-Walker started practicing with the team midway through the season and Close said everyone was surprised by the 5-foot-10 guard’s skillset. “She started doing full practices in February and it was like everyone almost forgot how good she was,” Close said. “And then it was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ Her talent is undeniable. She has the feel of when she needs to score, who needs to get the next touch and how to prepare the team for the next possession. That is hard to teach.”
The Bruins are also adding Betts’ younger sister Sienna as a freshman. The 6-foot-4 forward was the two-time Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year and is ranked the No. 2 recruit by ESPN’s HoopGurlz. Sienna will also help minimize Lauren’s workload, as the leftie forward can also play the five in her place, in addition to the four. “I think she is going to be an impact player this year,” Close said.
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The veterans will be especially important given that the entire freshman class — 6-foot-1 guard Avery Cain, 6-foot-3 forward Zania Socka-Nguemen, 5-foot-10 guard Elina Aarnisalo and 6-foot-2 forward Kendall Dudley – transferred. Londynn Jones, a 5-foot-4 junior guard who had been with the program since her freshman season and 6-foot-4 junior forward Janiah Barker, who had transferred in from Texas A&M, also left UCLA. Close sat down with Barker and Jones to have conversations about their futures. Both have just one year of eligibility remaining, and both opted to move on to different programs. Barker landed at Tennessee, while Jones is staying in LA after transferring to USC. “We said ahead of time that we would put all of our cards on the table, and if there wasn’t alignment then they had my full support to go ahead and move on,” Close said.
With Leger-Walker returning and Gardiner gearing up to play more minutes, Close knew it was inevitable that players would leave the program. She wasn’t surprised to lose her freshman class, with the exception of Aarnisalo, who would have played significant minutes, but the other departures still stung. “Any time something doesn’t work out with a player, it rips your heart out,” Close said. “But I always think to myself, ‘If it doesn’t rip your heart out, wouldn’t you have bigger problems?’ If you are going to invest deeply in a person and it doesn’t work out, that is going to hurt.”
Close said none of her former players left for more money. Their decisions came down to playing time, fit and the desire to play bigger roles. “With the freshmen, they didn’t want to wait until their junior years (to get significant court time),” Close said. “And how can you blame that? It’s the new normal. As a coach, it is my job to adjust to that.”
There was some good that came from all those departures. Prior to any of her players telling Close they intended to transfer, she heard rumors that Utah guard Gianna Kneepkens was thinking of entering the portal. If everyone from the 2024-25 Final Four team had returned, UCLA wouldn’t have had a scholarship for her. The 6-foot guard averaged 19.3 points, five rebounds and three assists per game, while shooting 50 percent from the field, 45 percent from beyond the arc and 89 percent from the free throw line. Her shooting ability in particular was desirable for UCLA as they need players to spread the floor and take some pressure off Betts in the paint.
Kneepkens was a four-year starter for Utah, but a broken foot during her junior season gave her one more year of eligibility. Throughout her career, Kneepkens has been one of the country’s most underrated players, but according to Close, “She isn’t underated to anyone who has played against her.”
The Bruins threw everything they had at wooing Kneepkens. “We went into high gear and just absolutely put all of our eggs in one basket,” Close said. “We would have liked to sign maybe one more transfer, but the bottom line is, we made such a high commitment to her that we knew it would decrease our chances to land some others.”
Making the Final Four was a learning experience for everyone, but Close didn’t quite realize just how challenging things were behind the scenes until a week later when she drove to the Wooden Awards with Betts and the two had a candid conversation. “If you knew all the distractions that we were managing, you would have been like, ‘I can’t believe we made it to the Final Four,’” Betts told her.
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If it were just basketball and media obligations, Close and her players would have been focused and prepared. But because of the pending changes to Name, Image and Likeness rules, the players and coaches were working out details in the days leading up to the Final Four that had nothing to do with how they were going to beat UConn. “Not only did we have the normal increased distractions of the Final Four, but we also had to meet with every single athlete and their families that week about their NIL contracts,” Close said. “The judge could have signed new legislation into place on that Monday (two days after the loss to UConn) and if we didn’t have signed contracts we wouldn’t have been able to get the money out the door.” The transfer portal was also already in full swing, which meant, whether consciously or subconsciously, many players were already contemplating their next steps.
Those challenges weren’t unique to UCLA, but Close admits that she, her staff and their players weren’t fully ready to take them on. Now, with a Final Four – and all of its distractions – under their belts, the Bruins are ready to play the 2025-26 season with one goal in mind: Win the national championship. “There are no margins,” Close said. “It’s not about your talent. It’s about your focus, your preparation and how you handle those distractions. If we want to be prepared to do better next time, we have to come in with a sharper focus.”
The Bruins have the talent, the tools and now the experience to make it happen.
