Cori Close on Joy and Lightness

UCLA head coach Cori Close joins the show fresh off cutting down the nets in Phoenix, and she has a clear theory of the turn. Her team had not been challenged much all season. The real pivot came at halftime of the Elite Eight game against Duke, when the Bruins were down and had to decide who they were going to be.

From that halftime forward, Close saw a different team. The change carried through the Final Four and peaked the morning of the National Championship. That morning, she gathered her entire operation, players, support staff, managers, scout team guys, in a massive circle. She told them the superpower of this team was connectivity and mission-mindedness. Three strands woven together. Not easily broken. She could see it in their eyes. She turned to her director of basketball operations and said, we are going to win this thing.

The path went through Texas, the team Close thought was playing the best basketball heading into the Final Four. UCLA avenged its only loss of the season. Close says she was proud of the toughness, not proud of the 23 turnovers, and grateful her players were more level about the moment than she was. She walked into the locker room after the win and it felt like any other game. Players asked when the next film session was. Job not done.

The tell on Saturday, the day between the semifinal and the championship, was the looseness. Rich texted his group chat predicting UCLA by 100 after watching the team dance through workouts. Close explains where that comes from. Genuine relationships. Knowing each player's warrior dial. Lena Billie needs her dial turned up, she plays better mad. Others need it turned down. The team, she says, needed more joy and lightness going into the final, not more intensity. The intensity was already there.

She is candid about last year. UCLA got spanked in the semifinals. She did not handle the target on her back as well as she needed to as a leader. The answer this time was not more pressure. It was more breath.

Open practice on Saturday became the fun, connecting practice. Closed practice after that was business. Close says she had no idea how to handle the day, called Muffet McGraw at Notre Dame for guidance, asked Holly Rowe how coaches typically structure it. She split the difference on purpose.

The detail that punctuates it all. Lauren Betts, after her live postgame interview following the Texas win, turned to her teammates and said we are playing in the national championship game. With, Close admits, an earmuff-worthy word tucked inside. Nothing Taylor Close had not heard at home.

Joy and lightness won the tournament.