3 Important Points From Cori Close Following Huge UCLA Win

The Bruins were able to waltz past Rutgers winning 86-46, in a very dominant fashion.

UCLA is revving up for a deep tournament run in March following another great Big Ten showing. While the road to the title won't be easy, UCLA has proven to be an unnatural force in college basketball, which could be the key to a national title. Here is what Cori Close said following the win:

What UCLA Needs to Work On

Jan 21, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Purdue Boilermakers forward Avery Gordon (55) and UCLA Bruins center Lauren Betts (51) reach for a loose ball in the second half at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The Bruins, while a very strong team, are still far from perfect. While a 40-point victory is nice on paper, Cori Close knows best regarding things that she believes her team needs to work on. This starts with more consistency across the board.

"I think our team as a whole, the next piece of discipline that we need to grab is learning how to be more consistent in that venture. We haven't proven against teams that are not at our caliber from a talent perspective that we can put 40 minutes of disciplined basketball together and play to our standards. On a consistent basis and and that's what we got to grab next and so that's what I challenged them in the locker room is to really reflect on that. Come ready to do that. And to talk about that on Friday, and we'll go to the next spot. But we've got a great opportunity ahead of us, and we're just going to shift gears and focus on that."
Cori Close

Sienna Betts' Growth

Sienna Betts entered the season as the No. 2 recruit in the nation. Unfortunately, for her, she had to miss a good chunk of the season due to injury. However, since she has played, she has been nothing short of special. Cori Close walks us through how Sienna Betts has put in the work.

"Yeah, I think literally every practice I see her stacking skills and understanding, and more light bulbs. She's connecting the dots more. You know, she said to me the other day at lunch, We were with a recruit, and I said, well, 'what did you learn from this year so far?' And she goes, I just learned that I have to unlearn so many things before I relearn things at this level. And I think she's just in the middle of that process, but I really see her. I literally, when I go back and watch the film and I really, I spend probably three to four hours on each one just to watch her, you know, stacking the different skills and seeing, like, oh I saw last week she was struggling with this and now she's you know, three possessions better and I just think she knows she lost ten weeks and so I'm really I really trust her as a learner"
Cori Close

Frequent Lineup Swaps

Dec 7, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; UCLA Bruins forward Angela Dugalic (32) talks with head coach Cori Close during the first half against the Oregon Ducks at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The Bruins experimented with different lineups throughout the game. We saw Angela Dugalic, Amanda Muse, and Sienna Betts play a lot of minutes alongside eachother. While UCLA was able to win by 40, Cori Close takes accountability for some lapses.

" I do have to take some of the responsibility for sort of the lack of rhythm, because I was on purpose my probably my number one priority was subbing intentionally for their bodies. We have a lot of people; our trainer had come to me ahead of time was like, 'These are where our loads are, this is what you know and our AP team are does a great job of keeping me informed and looking at the data and reading the loads and so I-I-Part of that was just I really was trying to protect and balance minutes out."
Cori Close

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