LOS ANGELES — The UCLA women’s basketball team was awarded the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Division I Tournament on Sunday, the highest seed in program history.
“We would have of course loved to have been the No. 1 seed, but being a No. 2 is the highest seed in program history,” head coach Cori Close told reporters after the bracket reveal on Sunday. “So just wrap your mind around that. And we’re still a very young team in a lot of ways. And so I feel thrilled.”
The Bruins will host No. 15 seed Cal Baptist in the first round of the Regional 2 in Albany. The Lancers are making their first NCAA tournament appearance in program history.
The game will be held on either March 22 or 23.
Whichever team wins between UCLA and Cal Baptist will face either seventh-seeded Creighton or 10th-seeded UNLV, which will also play their opening game at Pauley Pavilion, in the second round.
CBU (28-3) qualified by winning the WAC tournament, topping Stephen F. Austin 75-74 in the championship game Saturday morning.
The Bruins (25-6) ended the regular season on a five-game win streak and third in the Pac-12 regular season standings. They were the No. 6 team nationally in the AP Top 25 rankings before heading to the Pac-12 tournament, where they beat Utah before falling to eventual tournament champion USC.
It was a tumultuous season at times, with 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts missing multiple games due to an undisclosed medical reason and Lina Sontag and Angela Dugalić missing time due to Olympic qualification obligations with their respective countries.
The Bruins’ depth got them through tough times and helped the team excel at the end of the season.
“It is our deepest team for sure,” Close said. “And I would say most versatile in some ways, too. The most varied ways we’ve won games and continue to win games. We can make a dip run as long as we’re focused on the correct things.”
UCLA is led in scoring by Betts, a sophomore who averages 14.7 points per game in addition to a team-high nine rebounds per game. Graduate student and guard Charisma Osborne averages 14.4 points per game after deciding to return to UCLA for another season instead of beginning her professional career.
“It’s not really about me,” Osborne said. “I think I’m just focused on the team and what we can do to get to the national championship. If anything, I want people to see that I lead the team really well, along with other people.”
The team drew support from Denver Nuggets forward Peyton Watson, an NBA champion and UCLA alumnus. Watson sent the Bruins a video message congratulating them on their success and gifted them all Jordan Brand vests.
“I wanted to congratulate you guys on a great regular season and wish you guys the best of luck going into the March Madness tournament,” Watson said in the video. “I wanted to give you guys a gift from me to you.”
UCLA learned its tournament fate on Sunday afternoon at a ticketed event at Mo Ostin Center hosted in conjunction with the Men of Westwood NIL collective and its women’s counterpart, Champion of Westwood. Tickets were priced at $500.
“It was super fun,” sophomore Kiki Rice said. “We had a lot of people come out and support our program for such a long time and it’s really great to all be able to come together through Champion of Westwood and just celebrate all the accomplishments this season.”
Charisma Osborne, Kiki Rice and coach Cori Close came into today's press conferences wearing matching shirts that say "everyone watches women's sports." pic.twitter.com/xQFAq2U4gi
— Haley Sawyer (@haleymsawyer) March 18, 2024
Close said that the NIL collective sponsored kids from a YMCA to attend the Selection Sunday celebration. There was a bracelet-making station — Rice wore one that said “Miss Rice” and Osborne wore one that said “love” — and both players as well as Close came into the post-party press conference wearing T-shirts that read “everyone watches women’s sports.”
“I’m trying to spin NIL,” Close said. “We don’t believe in pay-for-play here. We don’t believe in just buying teams or buying players. But I do believe in teach, mentor and equip. And so instead of complaining about NIL, I’m trying to leverage it. I’m trying to use it as an arm of our philosophy to teach, mentor and equip.”
