UConn, the program with the most-ever Final Four appearances, makes its 24th in Friday’s Final Four of the Women’s NCAA Tournament in Tampa, Fla., against first-timer UCLA.
At least, it’s the first Final Four that the Bruins reached under the NCAA banner.
“Many people have said it’s the first one in … UCLA history. It’s actually not correct,” said Bruins coach Cori Close, noting the program’s run in the 1978 Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women tournament. That year, Close made clear, “they won the national championship and went to the Final Four.
Close added: “So I just want to give them their flowers.”
Close mentioned alumni from UCLA’s title-winning AIAW team like Debbie Haliday and Denise Curry. The current Bruins lineup features players poised to etch their own names into program history — and center Lauren Betts already has made NCAA Tournament history.
With back-to-back games in the second round and Sweet 16 scoring more than 30 points with a field-goal percentage greater than 80 and grabbing at least 10 rebounds, Betts became the only player in Division I basketball over the last 20 years with such a stat line in consecutive games.
In No. 1 UCLA’s 72-65 Elite Eight win over LSU on Sunday, Betts faced a variety of double- and triple-teams that limited her to 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor. She came through in the clutch, however, passing the ball out of the post to Gabriela Jaquez for a clutch 3-pointer that helped put the game away.
“Gabs and I pretty much always play off of each other, so that was pretty normal,” Betts said.
UCLA (34-2) will need a similar multifaceted effort against the sport’s most decorated program, No. 2 UConn (35-3).
If any player has been more statistically impressive in this postseason than Betts, it has been the Huskies’ national player of the year contender in guard Paige Bueckers. Her 31 points in the Elite Eight against UCLA’s rival Southern California marked Bueckers’ third consecutive game of at least 31 points.
She tied her career-high with 34 points in UConn’s second-round win over South Dakota State, then followed up with a program Women’s NCAA Tournament record 40 points in the Sweet 16 against Oklahoma.
Bueckers helped the Huskies hold off a late-game rally effort in the 78-64 regional final win over USC, which was playing without its own player of the year candidate, JuJu Watkins.
With both Betts and Bueckers averaging more than 20 points per game, their individual presences in Friday’s semifinal could replace the lost opportunity of an Elite Eight showdown with Bueckers and Watkins.
For Bueckers, it is another moment in the spotlight of what Huskies coach Geno Auriemma described as the most pressure-packed career of any player he’s coached in a tenure with 11 national championships.
“I don’t think I’ve ever coached someone in this generation where they have to deal with this type of scrutiny and pressure that comes from the world that they live in,” he said.
“For her to get all the attention she gets, have all the demands on her life, all the expectations in her life, and still be able to deliver … she’s very unique.”
–Field Level Media
