Above a muddled Southland college basketball landscape, a heartwarming, heartstopping story has arisen.
In a winter filled with the unhappy buzz of screaming coaches and quitting players, a beautiful noise has appeared.
It comes from the most dominant college basketball team in Westwood in three decades.
It is directed by the coaching curator of the memory of John Wooden.
It is led by the most impressive UCLA post player since then-Lew Alcindor.
If they were men, they would have been in the national headlines for the last six months. But from those shadows they have emerged stronger, more connected and loudly prepared to bring home a long-awaited national championship.
UCLA guard Kiki Rice drives under pressure from Iowa guard Chazadi Wright during the Big Ten tournament finals on Sunday in Indianapolis.
(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)
Listen up, that roar at your door is the UCLA women’s basketball team, bursting on to the national headlines Sunday after delivering the kind of Big Ten tournament title beating that sounds, well, fake.
They defeated ninth-ranked Iowa 96-45. They won the title game in arguably the country’s deepest conference by 51 points.
Fifty-one points. Fifty-one points! Who wins a game of such import by 51 points?
A team that should be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, that’s who.
Seriously, when officials reveal the women’s March Madness bracket next weekend, even though one-loss UCLA is ranked second behind defending champion and unbeaten Connecticut, the Bruins should be the top-line No. 1 team.
They have won 25 straight games, all but two by double digits, against a much tougher schedule than the one faced by UConn.
Yes, the Bruins’ one loss is to Texas, but the Longhorns just won the SEC and are going to be another No. 1 seed. And yes, the Bruins lost to UConn by 34 points in last season’s national semifinals, but the Huskies lost Paige Bueckers and the Bruins just got deeper and better and more committed.
By earning the No. 1 overall seed, the Bruins would have a smoother ride to the finals, where a UConn rematch for the national championship seems destined.
The Bruins deserve it. The Bruins have earned it. Were you watching the carnage at Indianapolis’ Gainsbridge Fieldhouse Sunday? If so, you probably turned the channel after 15 minutes. Maybe sooner.
“What they’ve done this year has been extremely impressive,” said Iowa coach Jan Jensen after the throttling. “I think you saw a lot of senior leadership on their end, a team that’s been on a mission since the Final Four last year.”
UCLA center Lauren Betts shoots over Iowa guard Kylie Feuerbach during Big Ten tournament title game Sunday in Indianapolis.
(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)
On Sunday, it was a mission of mauling. The Hawkeyes took the lead with a quick three-pointer before the Bruins reeled off 13 straight points while holding Iowa to two total baskets in a first quarter that ended with the Bruins holding a 17-point lead.
For the next three quarters, the Bruins made the Hawkeyes look like a grade-school team, not a program that reached the national championship games twice in the last three years.
No, Caitlin Clark isn’t walking through that door. Not that she would have helped much. These Bruins overwhelmed the Hawkeyes by displaying every necessary strength required to take the final step and finish the job next month in Scottsdale.
“I just want to say thank you to the incredible players that really fulfilled their mission and stayed committed to the hard character qualities that we knew we needed to make this kind of run,” Close said.
It helps that they have six veterans who will be taken in the next WNBA draft. It also helps that Close will be steering them into her 10th tournament in 15 coaching seasons, she’s been here enough to know all the madness moves.
In search of the school’s second women’s basketball national title — and first in 48 years — they are doing everything right.
UCLA guard Kiki Rice celebrates with a trophy after receiving the Big Ten tournament most outstanding player honors.
(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)
They play near-perfect team basketball.
On Sunday they set a Big Ten tournament record with 34 assists on 40 baskets, the highlight being an over-the-head backward pass from Angela Dugalic to Kiki Rice in the fourth quarter.
“This group has the potential to do whatever it wants,” said Rice.
They are deeper than any team in the country.
They won by 51 points and their unquestionably best player, Lauren Betts, took all of nine shots. Lauren was even outscored by her little sister Sienna, who Lauren wildly cheered while standing in front of the bench.
The tournament most outstanding player was not Lauren Betts, but Rice, who wasn’t the leading scorer but had eight assists and three steals and didn’t crack a smile until she heard her teammates on the trophy stage chanting her name.
“She’s one of the most selfless people I’ve ever played with,” Lauren Betts said of Rice. “She really could [not] care less about all the attention. She just wants to win.”
In all, nine different players scored for UCLA, and when is the last time you’ve seen a scoresheet so full in a game of such magnitude?
Oh yeah, they can also shoot. All of them can shoot, as they made half of their 26 three-point attempts, led by Gianna Kneepkens’ four treys and team-high 19 points.
The Bruins could have used Kneepkens last season against UConn, but she was playing for Utah. She’s here now, and that could be the difference.
Compared to last spring’s surprise Final Four run, everything feels different. These Bruins know they belong on this big stage, know how to win here and calmly and precisely play as if they know they can pull this off.
During Sunday’s postgame celebration, the three Bruins who briefly, but famously, joined the UCLA dance team during a recent men’s game repeated the dance on the Indianapolis court. They’re feeling it. Their fans are feeling it. Soon an entire city could be feeling it.
“I’m joyful,” said Close, and the dance is just beginning.