April 3, 1995. A 23-year-old assistant coach for UCLA’s women’s basketball team sat in Seattle’s Kingdome, watching the Bruins men’s team claim national glory for the 11th time.

Thirty-one years and two days later, that assistant can call herself a national champion.

Driven by the 11 banners hung for the men’s team in the Pauley Pavillion rafters, Cori Close always had a national championship in mind when she took the job at UCLA in 2011.

Although attending the 1995 title game helped cement Close’s passion, the previous 10 had an even larger impact.

Close, 54, was not alive for over half of those titles, but the coach who won them, John Wooden, is still one of the biggest influences in her life.

Although Close has now reached the peak of college basketball success, she thinks that Wooden would be proud of her for much more than cutting down the nets.

“Coach Wooden actually wouldn’t care as much about the championship as he would about staying true to our process,” Close said after Sunday’s 79-51 national title victory at Mortgage Matchup Center. “I hope I would make him proud by realizing and recognizing that this is a by-product of what’s happened in their habits, in their love for each other, in committing to a process over a long period of time.”

Wooden might have retired in 1975, but he stayed around the UCLA program long after. While Close spent time at UCLA as an assistant, she would typically look to Wooden for advice, and for more than a decade, met him twice a week at his home to talk basketball and life.

The legendary coach always knew what to say.

Close never had Wooden as a resource after taking the job in Westwood in 2011, one year after his death. She was nervous about her new role. 

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t want to let him down,’” Close said. “The biggest way I can pay it forward is to live in a way and coach in a way and teach in a way that pays it forward what he did for me.”

Close then teared up, thinking of his impact beyond the titles he won.

“I think the biggest thing he did is every time I would ask him, ‘What would you do here,’ he would never answer,” Close said. “He would always make me realize that I’m wired uniquely, and it wasn’t about what he would do, it’s how am I wired to lead to my best.”

The advice, or lack of it, from Wooden has now certainly paid off.

The win, years in the making, was the product of patience and connection from UCLA players and staff.

Although three freshmen and a sophomore are part of UCLA’s roster, eight players in the Bruins’ locker room are seniors. One unique aspect that those players experienced was a gradual climb. Going from Sweet 16 to Final Four to national champions, it took belief from the UCLA staff. 

One of the players the staff believed in most was Lauren Betts, who transferred in ahead of her sophomore season in 2023-24. Voted the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, she is grateful for what the school gave her.

“I can’t thank this program enough for how much they believed in me,” Betts said. “When I came in my sophomore year, I was completely different than I am today. I showed up and I had zero confidence. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play basketball for that much longer. Coach Cori really stayed patient with me. She wanted to see me accomplish everything that I’d ever dreamed of.”

With a lack of confidence thrown out of the window, Betts shined in Westwood, averaging 20.2 and 17.2 points per game in her last two college seasons. 

She stepped into the tournament with a goal of erasing the pain from last year’s Final Four loss.

Knocking out all challengers in UCLA’s way en route to the national title game, UCLA prepared hard for the Gamecocks on Saturday. During practice, fewer than 24 hours before tipoff in the last game of her college career, Betts had a special feeling of what was to come.

“Yesterday, I knew that we were going to win because we were so focused,” Betts said. “When you have a certain energy in practice, you wake up the next morning, you’re like, ‘We have done everything you can possibly do to be ready for a game.’ It’s just the confidence that you have.”

Then, the ball was tipped.

The Bruins were there, and the one running for her life like a shooting star was Gabriela Jaquez.

Despite what “One Shining Moment” says, the world knew just how hard Jaquez worked in all the years before the title game.

At Mortgage Matchup Center, it showed. Putting up 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, Jaquez contributed to UCLA’s one shining moment.

Growing up in Southern California, she had the opportunity to watch a different Bruins team make a memorable run to the Final Four, one that included her brother, Jaime.

Jaime, who also played at UCLA, made the all-regional team in the 2021 tournament, where the Bruins became the second team to go from First Four to Final Four. A high schooler while she watched her brother make magic in March, Gabriela had the will to end up in Westwood. Now looking back, she couldn’t be happier.

“Super satisfied with this result,” Gabriela said. “The journey was even better. Coming in my freshman year, my dream was to be at UCLA. Just to have an offer from UCLA brought tears to my eyes.”

While she is grateful for her relationship with her brother, who made sure to attend the title game after dropping 32 points for the Miami Heat the night before, she still took the time to flex a bit.

“Of course I have bragging rights,” she said. “I’m a champion now.”

While she now looks to move up to the professional level, she took the time to make a reference to another Los Angeles basketball legend.

Inspired by Kobe Bryant’s iconic press conference after Game 2 of the 2009 NBA Finals, Gabriela added her own spin.

“Job’s finished,” she said. “Job is finished.”  

 

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.