Cori Close on Her UCLA Stars

UCLA head coach Cori Close sits down with Rich fresh off winning the national championship, and the conversation she offers is not about X's and O's. It is about showing up for players on the hardest days of their lives.

Rich asks about Lauren Betts, the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four and the author of a raw Players Tribune piece about her mental health struggle transferring from Stanford to UCLA. Close shares what she is willing to share. She is proudest not of the banner, but of how her staff responded when Betts checked herself into UCLA care for depression.

Close quotes her father. The greatest honor is when someone else invites you into their greatest time of need. She describes how the entire program came alongside Betts in a genuine way. She gives Betts herself credit too. When Close coached Betts on the USA Basketball under-19 World Cup team, Close's father passed away while they were in Spain. Betts was the one pouring empathy into her coach.

Close chokes up recounting how Izzy Anstey, Betts's closest friend from that World Cup team, flew in from Australia during one of the darkest stretches. Close thought she was going to lose Lauren. A picture after the national championship shows Betts, Anstey, and Cam Brown, another teammate who had shared her own mental health journey with Betts, with their foreheads pressed together and their arms locked tight. That is the picture Close is proudest of.

The conversation shifts to Gabriela Jaquez. Close laughs at herself for the recruiting story. Jaquez had only one other power four offer going into her senior year of high school. Close says she looked like an idiot.

Gabriela's AAU coach Kelly Sopak, now at Nevada, told a perfect story. If he had to pick ten players for a three-point shooting contest, Jaquez would be his last choice. But if he had one shot to win the game, she would be his first. That is the warrior spirit. She shows up in the most pressurized moments. Close says from freshman year through senior year, the most consistent player in the biggest games was Gabriela Jaquez.

Jaquez shot in the teens from three as a freshman. She made herself into a 50-40-90 player. That does not happen. It happens with work, with joy, and with the refusal to let your game look like everybody else's.

Rich predicts three UCLA players in the top ten of the WNBA Draft. Close corrects him. Four. And she thinks all six draft-eligible Bruins will be drafted.

The national championship was the headline. Close's story is the subtext, that mental health, loyalty, and showing up for each other on the hard days is what turns a roster into a team. That is what built the banner. That is what she is proudest of.