It’s not every week the top team in the country invites you over for a playdate.
Not every season you get a 7-0 start – and a trip to The Bahamas with it.
Not typically the time of year you’re getting columns about women’s basketball in L.A., either.
But UCLA, whose whole thing is that it wants to be “uncommon,” is having a moment. (USC is too, actually, with its 6-0 start and the recent recruiting commitment from Sierra Canyon’s Juju Watkins, the No. 1-rated prospect in the country.)
The Bruins – who’ve emerged from the pile of “others receiving votes” in the Associated Press’ preseason poll to No. 20 in the nation now – get to see just how much their story can diverge from expectations when they hit the road Tuesday to take on the most dominant team right now in the women’s game.
That’s Dawn Staley’s top-ranked South Carolina, winners of two national titles in the past five years. (The game is at 4 p.m., airing on ESPN+, with an audio streaming option at ucla.leanplayer.com.)
With superb size and suffocating defense, the Gamecocks decimated No. 2 seed Connecticut in last season’s national title game, 64-49 – including doubling up the Huskies on the boards, 49-24.
Two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson – the Gamecock great who has a statue outside of their home arena in Columbus – was at the championship game to see her alma mater run through the tape, the first South Carolina squad to be ranked No. 1 in both the AP and the USA Today Coaches’ Polls every week, all season.
Now the Gamecocks are probably even better. They brought back Aliyah Boston, the Naismith Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, along with three other starters. One of their newcomers, 6-foot-3 freshman forward Ashlyn Watkins, just became the ninth player in NCAA Division I women’s hoops history to dunk in a game, when she threw down in an 85-31 win over Clemson.
HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE! First @GamecockWBB player to dunk in a regulation game and against Clemson! Ashlyn Watkins is a Freshman and South Carolina born and raised! @harrietwatkin13 @dawnstaley pic.twitter.com/e66nLZCpig
— Heather Jones (@hajones33) November 18, 2022
You won’t be surprised to read, then, that South Carolina entered the season as the odds on favorite to win a second consecutive championship – something only UConn and Tennessee, the two most prolific programs in college women’s basketball history, have accomplished in the past 20 years.
All of which is to say: UCLA faces a tall, tall task Tuesday, Herculean even. An uphill battle so steep it might as well be vertical. A tough proposition. An arduous challenge.
A rare opportunity!
In this photo provided by Bahamas Visual Services, UCLA guard Kiki Rice shoots against Tennessee during an NCAA college basketball game at the Battle 4 Atlantis, in Paradise Island, Bahamas, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. (Tim Aylen/Bahamas Visual Services via AP)
“I’m extremely excited,” said freshman Kiki Rice, whose presence as the nation’s No. 2-ranked recruit helped UCLA claim the top-ranked 2022 recruiting class in the country. And, if you’re wondering, the the 5-11 guard from Maryland is proving ’em right, averaging 11.3 points on 45% shooting.
“All we can ask for is the opportunity to compete against the top teams in the country,” Rice added. “We know we have the talent, the skill and we have the ability to execute and play at the level of a top-five team.”
See what Coach Cori Close has these kids on about? What’s next, national title aspirations?
Yes, actually.
“Both programs obviously hold themselves to very high standards,” Close said of her squad and Staley’s. “(The Gamecocks) are a little bit ahead of us, in the fact that they’ve won two national championships. But that’s where we want to be. We want to be that level of a program. And so it’s great to know that you’re going to have that barometer of where you are in that quest, every single year.”
That’s right: This uncommon occasion is going to be regular occurrence.
UCLA and South Carolina have agreed to a home-and-home series with three more games slated in the following four seasons.
What happened was: Staley did Close a favor last season during Black History Month, appearing on an installment of Bruin Table Talks and answering UCLA players’ questions about her life.
“Our players just loved it,” Close said. “And then her and I were just talking about really wanting to start back up a home and home.”
(It’ll pick back up in 2024-25, so South Carolina can sync its visits to UCLA and Stanford on the same West Coast trip the following year.)
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley watches her team against East Tennessee State during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Columbia, S.C., Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. South Carolina won 101-31. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
The opportunity to engage with Staley, one of the game’s all-time great point guards, a Hall of Famer and three-time Olympic gold medalist, gets at the holistic nature of Close’s operation there in Westwood.
Other indicators: An eye-opening visit to a Bahamian orphanage last week. UCLA offering free admission to all fans under 18 years old at every women’s basketball game this season. The Bruins’ focus on branding and entrepreneurship. (In October, Rice became the first college athlete to sign a Jordan Brand NIL deal. “This isn’t about pay-for-play, this is about teaching them skills,” Close said.)
Incredibly grateful to announce that I am joining @jumpman23 as its first NIL athlete! It’s my hope that we can continue to make a difference on and off the court and help improve gender equity in sports for young girls. https://t.co/V1HbtZILrq pic.twitter.com/8r3albyy3C
— Kiki Rice (@kiki_rice0) October 31, 2022
It’s all reflective of what Close describes, often, as an “uncommon” approach.
“Uncommon” is such a commonly used word at UCLA, Charisma Osborne says she finds herself laughing when she hears it.
“Yeah, she says that word quite a bit, every day,” said Osborne, the Moreno Valley native and former Los Angeles Windward School star who’s averaging 20.1 points per game and attracting lots of WNBA attention to start her senior season. An early highlight: Her five 3-pointers to help the Bruins upset No. 11 Tennessee en route to winning the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in The Bahamas.
“It’s sometimes corny, hearing it all the time, but I think she’s totally right,” Osborne said. “It’s just trying to be uncommon and be the team that separates themselves.”
Close explained she adopted that philosophy after reading Tony Dungy’s book called, yes, “Uncommon,” shortly before she took over at UCLA in 2011, a tenure that’s included three NCAA regional semifinal appearances and the school’s second in the Elite Eight between 2015-16 and 2018-19.
“We want to win the first national championship since 1978; that would be uncommon,” Close said. “It’s gonna take uncommon choices. It’s going to take new and different habits. It’s going to take championship habits.
“We don’t want to do it like everybody else. I really don’t. I’m not trying to find a roadmap. Just getting a trophy isn’t enough for me. I want to create an uncommon, transformational experience for every young woman to come through this program that teaches, mentors and equips them for long after the ball goes flat.”
Then, and now, when the ball goes up Tuesday at South Carolina, where the Bruins will learn more about where they are in their quest to become champions, to become uncommon.
How many uncommon choices can we make today? Discipline is the real shortcut because so few do it. ( right @TBrianKight ) #BeUncommon #OneMore (right @EdMylett ) #CarRidesWithCori #PreachingToMyself pic.twitter.com/isMvsCfZif
— Cori Close (@CoachCoriClose) September 27, 2022