SPOKANE, Wash. — Kiki Rice remembers the feeling. The bitter emotions she felt sitting on the training table in UCLA’s locker room in Albany, N.Y., while processing yet another Sweet 16 loss.
A year later, the shock has worn off, but the disappointment has remained. UCLA’s star point guard wants to make her third trip to the NCAA regional semifinal the charm.
“Coming out here the last two times and not having won really is a sour taste in all our mouths,” Rice said. “[We learned] the extra competitiveness and energy that we’ll play with because we don’t want to have that same feeling again.”
UCLA, which will face No. 5 seed Mississippi at 7 p.m. PDT Friday at Spokane Arena, is in the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in the last 10 years. After the Bruins (32-2) blew out Richmond in the second round, their celebration was business-like. They quickly assembled in the handshake line then walked around the court to salute their home fans.
An appearance during the second weekend of the NCAA tournament is now “an expectation” for the program, coach Cori Close said after the second round.
“We’re going to have habits that lead us to those places,” she added, “and now we’ve got to push the envelope.”
UCLA has reached the NCAA Elite Eight only twice and not since 2018. The program’s first top-rated recruiting class — led by current WNBA veterans Jordin Canada and Monique Billings — anchored the historic season that brought the Bruins to the regional final for the first time since 1999.
The program’s second No. 1 recruiting class is ready to go even further. Rice, Gabriela Jaquez and Londynn Jones formed the core of the group that pushed South Carolina to the brink twice as freshmen. That season, a Sweet 16 run that ended against No. 1-seeded South Carolina felt like an overachievement. A disappointment against Louisiana State as sophomores was a necessary motivational setback.
Players remembered how uncomfortable LSU made them during the 78-69 loss when they lined up during spring workouts to run through a set for the umpteenth time. They set their alarm clocks for early morning workouts. Coaches, managers and scout team members arrived early and stayed late to rebound.
Close called this team “the hardest-working group I’ve ever had a chance to be around as a collective whole.”
“Our team really understands that all the work that we’ve put in since we lost the last Sweet 16 is applying now,” Jaquez said. “It’s really hard to see that at that time because it’s so far away but in reality, it’s going to apply. … We understand that we all had to individually get better, and as a team, collectively get better and understand that we don’t like that feeling and we can change it so let’s do that.”
Instead of landing in a regional on the other side of the country like when they were sent to Albany, N.Y., and matched up with the defending national champions in the Sweet 16, the Bruins’ historic regular season positioned them well for the postseason. They grabbed the No. 1 overall seed, remained on the West Coast for their regional and were placed in a bracket that has no conference tournament champions remaining in the regional semifinals.
If the Bruins get past their reunion with former teammate Christeen Iwuala, who was part of UCLA’s vaunted recruiting class before transferring to Ole Miss this season, they will face No. 2 North Carolina State or No. 3 LSU on Sunday for a place in the Final Four. The potential rematch against the team that knocked the Bruins out of the tournament last season sent murmurs around UCLA’s selection show watch party last week.
“I know what this team wants at the end of the day, and we have all the parts to do it,” center Lauren Betts said. “I just think it’s going to be us stopping us at the end of the day.”