UCLA Women's Basketball: How Bruins Intend To Take "Next Step" After Another Sweet 16 Loss

Alex Kirschenbaum | Apr 2, 2024

Mar 30, 2024; Albany, NY, USA; LSU Tigers guard Mikaylah Williams (12) shoots a jump shot against UCLA's Lauren Betts (51) and Gabriela Jaquez (23). / Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

For the second straight season, the UCLA Bruins fell in the Sweet Sixteen. This year, a stronger Blue and Gold club was vanquished 78-69 by the reigning NCAA Tournament champions, the LSU Tigers. LSU was vanquished on Monday by the Iowa Hawkeyes in a rematch of the 2023 title game.

According to Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times, the team's roster could look pretty different in the 2024-25 NCAA season. Graduate student guard Charisma Osborne, probably the team's best player, and reserve Camryn Brown will be gone. Expected 2023-24 starter Izzy Anstey retired after incurring a major injury. Bolch adds that upperclassmen Angela Dugalic and Emily Bessoir may come back.

Next season's group will field three five-star prospects, as Bolch notes: guard Avary Cain, wing Kendall Dudley and forward Zania “Big Z” Socka. Finnish guard Elina Aarnisalo will also be a fresh addition to the roster.

Head coach Cori Close is striving to get her club to the next level, and return to the Elite Eight or beyond. Whatever happens to Dugalic, a starter, and Bessoir, All-Pac-12 sophomores Kiki Rice and Lauren Betts will be back, as will sixth woman Gabriela Jaquez.

“That’s my job in this offseason to figure out how we can earn more, and what does that look like from my leadership, what does it look like from the growth within the players, what does it look like in our player development and team development for these high-pressured moments,” Close noted. “I think that has to be our next step, and we have to be able to … find ways to adjust, to pivot, to overcome, to conquer [in pursuit] of the excellence that we’re going for.”