UCLA coach Cori Shut doesn’t need to discuss it.
The considered what occurred to the Bruins up to now two NCAA Tournaments makes ahead Gabriela Jaquez “mad and angry.”
However after back-to-back Candy 16 exits, No. 1 UCLA appears nicely in place to redeem itself from what has transpired up to now.
UCLA has now spent a program file 9 consecutive weeks as the highest group within the Related Press High 25.
The Bruins on Monday rocked No. 25 Baylor, 72-57, within the inaugural Coretta Scott King Traditional at Prudential Heart to stay — together with No. 5 LSU — as certainly one of solely two unbeaten groups left within the nation. UCLA is 18-0 total and sits on the high of the Massive Ten with a 6-0 convention file.
The Bruins have the nation’s finest submit participant in Lauren Betts and returned versatile two-way guard Kiki Rice and Jaquez, who’s the group’s motor (Jaquez’s older brother, Jaime Jaquez Jr., is a former UCLA males’s basketball standout and present member of the NBA Warmth). UCLA’s depth additionally acquired higher with the additions of transfers Janiah Barker (Texas A&M) and Timea Gardiner (Oregon State).
This Bruins group might take UCLA girls’s basketball to the place it’s by no means gone earlier than: the Remaining 4.
However why cease there?
UCLA — the one group in 661 days to have overwhelmed defending champion South Carolina within the common season — has the expertise and drive to probably be the final group standing come April 6.
Although that is perhaps the case, you gained’t catch Shut and the remainder of her group discussing their previous NCAA woes nor their upcoming potential for a March Insanity run until prompted by reporters.
“All we really want to talk about is how our character is growing because we know our talent only talks about our floor and our character and habits are going to determine our ceilings,” Shut stated. “So bottom line for us is that we are only focusing on giving to each other, growing and increasing our game.”
Shut stated she allowed her group just one probability initially of the season to overtly discuss final 12 months’s unceremonious Candy 16 defeat to LSU, which she stated was “in the top-five hardest losses” of her teaching profession.
In the course of the preseason assembly, Shut requested the group: “Well, what do you want to be different? Where do you want to be in March? And how do you want to be different?”
That dialog set the tone for the UCLA group that’s been unstoppable to this point this season.
Since then, Shut has confused to the group about staying dedicated to the every day grind. A giant focus for the Bruins this season has been on being dedicated to what she known as “passion plays” or the hustle strikes that don’t present up on the stat sheet, comparable to deflections, display assists, 50-50 balls and extra.
“I care about the habits that we agreed on that are going to take us there,” Shut stated. “I’m a big believer that how present we are — that fear or doubt or anxiousness lies in regret of the past or fear of the future — and so if you’re solidly in the present and focusing on getting better that day and give it to your team, that’s where the good stuff really happens.”
UCLA has made 5 Candy 16 appearances and one Elite Eight below Shut since she took over this system in 2011.
However this season’s Bruins appear to have what it takes to earn UCLA the Remaining 4 berth that has eluded this system all these years.
Shut nonetheless sees room to develop for her group. This subsequent week will likely be a great check for the Bruins, who’ll keep on the East Coast to play at Rutgers on Thursday earlier than heading to No. 8 Maryland on Sunday.
“I knew when I scheduled this that this was going to force us to elevate our level of toughness and focus,” Shut stated. “It’s going to force that level [up] in us.”
