LOS ANGELES — Cori Close shared in early November a warning that South Carolina’s Dawn Staley had offered up as advice for a team coming off a Final Four run.
In short, winning causes a scheduling disaster.
UCLA’s success, building a reputation through the Bruins’ NCAA Tournament run, and not to mention the Lauren Betts factor, turned Close’s squad into a pariah. No one wanted to play UCLA – except for a few foes who wished to battle; teams like Tennessee, North Carolina and others that fell in defeat to the No. 3 Bruins (17-1, 7-0 Big Ten).
Ask any coach in the country, those non-conference games, supposedly, are the way to building success in March.
Early tests can turn weak teams into tough teams and allow growth within conference play. But what about the conference games, the conference match-ups that are becoming laughers for the Bruins?
Close credited Purdue (10-8, 2-5) for its might, defeating Washington in conference play, ahead of UCLA’s clash with the Boilermakers at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. But truths are truths. And the truth is, the Bruins have defeated conference foes by an average of 24 points, with all but one victory coming in double digits.
“What this team needs from me the most is to be willing to always say the hard things, and to be willing to hold the standard whenever they either don’t like it,” Close said after UCLA’s 97-67 victory over then-No. 12 Maryland.
Avoiding complacency is the top task for UCLA going forward – and for good reason. Take a look at No. 7 Michigan, the second-highest-ranked team in the Big Ten. The Wolverines lost on Monday, a defeat to Vanderbilt in a rare non-conference January game.
Of course, the fifth-ranked Commodores are no slouch of a foe. But UCLA is struggling to find conference foes to threaten an undefeated conference record. There is no JuJu Watkins – sitting on the sidelines for USC as the Trojans broke a four-game skid with a victory over Purdue – to take down UCLA on its home court or in the Galen Center like a season ago.
Close has turned to UCLA’s veteran presence as a clear reason the team has avoided a skid in the 2025-2026 season, and much of that has been the fresh faces on the court. As seen in UCLA’s 30-point victory over Maryland, graduate student guards Charlisse Leger-Walker and Gianna Kneepkens combined for 33 points alone.
“I think just over time, feeling confident and being able to help hold people accountable, being able to have those conversations,” Leger-Walker said. “I think that’s where I’ve had to take a step in my leadership. And you know, not always just sit back.”
For UCLA, with March slowly approaching, sitting back could lead to broader questions asked about clear national-championship aspirations.
UP NEXT
Purdue at No. 3 UCLAWhen: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Where: Pauley Pavilion
TV: B1G+
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