UCLA's Close is USBWA Women's National Coach of the Year

INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) – UCLA head coach Cori Close guided a roster full of stalwart players to an historic regular season that included a 23-game win streak and a No. 1 ranking for half the season. For her success challenging for the regular-season title and then winning the school’s first conference championship at the Big Ten Tournament in their first season in the league, Close is the USBWA National Coach of the Year for the 2024-25 season.

The Bruins (30-2, 16-2) have five players who earned conference accolades announced earlier this month. Close and UCLA take their overall No. 1 seed into the NCAA Tournament this weekend hosting the Spokane 1 Regional. UCLA faces the winner between Southern and UC San Diego on Friday.

Close will be formally honored on April 17 at the USBWA Awards Dinner hosted by the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis.

The USBWA Coach of the Year Award is the first for Close and a first for UCLA, which had a school-record 23-game win streak during the season, winning 22 of them by double-digit margins. The Bruins were the Associated Press’ No. 1-ranked team for 12 straight weeks, breaking the Big Ten Conference record. The Bruins battled with cross-town rival USC all season and avenged both losses to the Trojans by overcoming a 13-point deficit in the conference tournament championship to topple USC for their first conference title, 72-67.

UCLA center Lauren Betts became the school’s third two-time USBWA All-American announced yesterday, earning a spot on the first team. Betts was a unanimous choice as the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year after averaging a league-leading 2.8 blocks per game and broke UCLA's single-season blocks record after just 23 appearances. She was third in Big Ten rebounding at 9.9 rpg. The Bruins were the nation’s best in rebound margin (+13.5) and fourth in rebounds per game at 44.0 rpg. Junior guard Kiki Rice joined Betts on the All-Big Ten First Team and junior forward Janiah Barker was the conference’s Sixth Player of the Year. Gabriela Jaquez and Londynn Jones were conference honorable mention nominees.

UCLA was among the top five in the Big Ten in assist/turnover ratio (2nd, 1.35), blocks (2nd, 5.3 BPG), scoring offense (5th, 78.8 PPG) and scoring margin (2nd, +21.6). They led wire-to-wire in 14 of the 26 wins and won eight games over ranked teams this season. All but three of those were by 10 or more points.

This is the 13th season for Close at UCLA and her first head coaching job. She has worked as an associate head coach or assistant on teams that have now advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 17 seasons, won at least 20 games in 17 of the previous 19 seasons and won or shared a total of 11 conference championships. She was a part of the Bruins’ staff in 1994 and '95 and returned to Westwood after spending seven seasons as associate head coach at Florida State.

Close has the Bruins playing in their seventh NCAA Tournament of the last eight seasons and the ninth in school history. The Bruins have reached the Sweet 16 in back-to-back seasons going into the weekend and have advanced to the Second Round or further in seven of the last eight tournaments. UCLA made its first Elite Eight appearance in 2017-18.

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485.