WNIT 2022: UCLA Women's Basketball Predictions

After winning the WNIT in 2015, the Bruins will try to make up for missing the NCAA tournament by going deep in the secondary bracket.

The Bruins' postseason begins Friday night on their own home court.

UCLA women's basketball (14-12, 8-8 Pac-12) will start its pursuit of its second WNIT title when it hosts UC Irvine at Pauley Pavilion. Should the Bruins win that one, they'd have to face Air Force before going through some combination of Wyoming, Tulsa and Oregon State in the ensuing rounds.

All Bruins is making its picks for how far UCLA will go and who they will beat on the way there, courtesy of Managing Editor Sam Connon and contributing writer Benjamin Royer.

Sam Connon, Managing Editor

Prediction: Lose in Finals to Boston College

For all of the trials and tribulations the Bruins have faced this year, they typically win when they are the better team on paper.

Now that UCLA is back to full strength – outside of point guard Gina Conti – they should be able to ride that nice and deep in the WNIT this March.

An early-season loss to Kent State stands out as a worst-case scenario for the Bruins, making it possible they lose to anyone at this point. But it stuck out as an oddity in UCLA's 5-2 start to the year, with the other loss coming to South Dakota State, who ranks No. 36 in the NET.

Since the start of December, the Bruins may be 9-11, but only one of those losses came to a non-NCAA tournament team. UCLA is 13-3 against teams it currently ranks above in the NET, and that accounts for most of the WNIT field of 64.

UC Irvine and Air Force rank lower than any team who has beat the Bruins, so lock those in as wins. The same goes for Wyoming and Tulsa, potential third-round opponents.

That relatively clean path should push UCLA to the quarterfinals, where it could face Oregon State, San Diego, Portland or Colorado State. The Beavers could give the Bruins trouble, considering they won the  regular season matchup, but that was while UCLA was without guards Jaelynn Penn and Charisma Osborne.

South Dakota State, who also beat the Bruins, will likely make the semifinal from the other quadrant, and UCLA could definitely avenge the November loss with so many seniors fighting to extend their collegiate careers one more game.

That resolve, resiliency and magic might not last UCLA quite as long as it did in 2015, though, and another highly-rated metrics team in Boston College is the favorite for a reason. Still, it would mark a feel-good end to a tumultuous season, one that may give the Bruins some momentum heading into a new era next fall.

Benjamin Royer, contributing writer

Prediction: Lose in Semifinals to South Dakota State

It would be a fair assumption to say that UCLA had a difficult 2021-22 campaign. The Bruins hobbled into Pac-12 action struggling with depth and at one point were unable to play against Oregon due to having minimal scholarship players available.

However, despite the mid-season issues, coach Cori Close helped the recovering Bruins find its stride in late February, defeating then-No. 12 Arizona and Arizona State in an away trip and began the Pac-12 tournament with their third win against USC. Even in their loss to Oregon – which knocked the blue and gold out of Pac-12 and March Madness contention – they lost by three, a much closer result than the 14-point loss to the Ducks on Feb. 16.

UC Irvine provides UCLA with a comfortable draw in the first round. The Anteaters fell to the Bruins’ Pac-12 foes Arizona State and USC within their non-conference slate and the now relatively healthy Bruins should be able to knock off their Orange County neighbors with ease.

The veteran presence provided by All Pac-12 Bruins — junior guard Charisma Osborne and graduate forward IImar'I Thomas, as well as graduate guard Jaelynn Penn — hold postseason experience and should carry the load through further rounds of the tournament.

Overall, the only team in the field that likely could create a large issue for UCLA would be Oregon State — a team the Bruins lost to once before in 2022. The rest of the West Coast region lacks the threat to knock off a close to full-strength UCLA.

If the Bruins can get by the Beavers, perhaps it's South Dakota State who knocks them off, but that too should be an entertaining game at the very last.

The late-season return of redshirt freshman forward Angela Dugalic allowed the Bruins to have a larger presence in the post, solidifying the team’s frontcourt depth and becoming their X-factor as the first player off the bench.

Yes, the Bruins’ 14-12 regular-season record leaves much to be desired, but anything other than a Semi-Final birth would be a disappointment for a squad that had aspirations for a long March Madness run pre-season.

Playing deep into the WNIT would develop positivity heading into the 2022-2023 season, with optimism to go farther into proper March Madness along with the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation entering Westwood this fall.

Follow Connon on Twitter at @SamConnon
Follow Royer on Twitter at @thebenroyer
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