How UCLA Won its First-Ever National Championship

Together in Phoenix after the national championship game, the whole No Offseason crew dives deep into UCLA’s decisive win over South Carolina. With a spotlight on UCLA’s six seniors — including Most Outstanding Player, Lauren Betts, and star guard, Gabriela Jaquez — Zena, Layshia, Sabreena and Chantel dissect UCLA head coach Cori Close’s incisive game plan to take down South Carolina, and her players’ elite execution of that plan. They also break down what went wrong for South Carolina, outside of not getting their shots to drop. Then, the crew speculates on what might come next for UCLA, with so many roster spots to fill next year and a newly open transfer portal.

REFERENCES:

UCLA clobbers South Carolina for first NCAA national title in program history by Cameron Teague Robinson

How UCLA’s super senior class, led by Lauren Betts, set the championship standard by Sabreena Merchant

For UCLA, a championship lesson came from losing by Jerry Brewer

Dawn Staley isn’t here for the drama. She’s here to protect the game by Jerry Brewer

Sacrifice and selflessness define coach Cori Close’s UCLA championship run by Chantel Jennings

What went wrong for South Carolina? The main thing: UCLA’s dominating defense by Grace Raynor

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Credits:

-Zena on BlueSky: @zenakeita

-Sabreena on BlueSky: @sabreenajm

-Chantel on BlueSky: @chanteljennings

-Layshia on Instagram: @layshiac

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