UCLA entering NCAA title game with ‘businesslike’ mindset

PHOENIX — UCLA could be making its first look in an NCAA championship game, however head coach Cori Close mentioned Saturday she felt her workforce confronted extra strain final 12 months whereas making its first Final Four.

The Bruins misplaced within the semifinals a 12 months in the past, and that spurred their run to this 12 months’s nationwide title game, the place they are going to face South Carolina on Sunday. Close mentioned that having final 12 months’s expertise has helped the workforce strategy this game a lot in another way.

“Last year, we were reacting to everything, not anticipating,” Close mentioned throughout a information convention previewing the title game. “Whereas now that we have been apart of this, it just was a totally different planning experience. I just felt like we were able to be more strategic in how we put our players in position to be successful.”

Close mentioned she heard a number of of her returning gamers from final 12 months telling gamers new to the Final Four what to anticipate. “That makes all the difference in the world.”

UCLA shall be going through a veteran South Carolina workforce that has been on this stage many instances. The Gamecocks have made six straight Final Fours and are enjoying of their fourth nationwide title game. UCLA has not gained a nationwide title since 1978, earlier than the NCAA ruled girls’s basketball.

Close mentioned his workforce has taken a “businesslike” strategy and didn’t rejoice within the locker room after beating Texas 51-44 to clinch its spot within the title game.

“We have really come to this tournament very focused,” Close mentioned. “We really believe that the job wasn’t done yet. We want to have a chance to compete for a national championship. We want to do that at the highest of levels. I don’t think there was a sigh of, ‘Oh, thank goodness we made that next step.’ We want to compete to win.”

Gabriela Jaquezwho has performed at UCLA her total school profession, mentioned the workforce is much extra “calm and confident” this 12 months.

“We have a sense of calmness that we know we’re meant to be here,” Jaquez mentioned. “We know we’ve put in the work. We know we’re prepared. We’re going to be focused, and we’re going to come out ready to play.”

guard Kiki Rice reiterated that the workforce took a special strategy this 12 months, and the truth that the Bruins have but to expertise a title game won’t be an element.

“I felt like we’re just much better prepared,” Rice mentioned. “We know that we have to go out there and compete and not let the title of the game distract us from the task that we have to get done. We’ll be ready.”