2024-25 Team Preview: UCLA
How can one of the most well-rounded teams in the country make another leap?
Sorry for the extra day of delay, been a busy time at exactly the wrong time over here because FOLKS, WE ARE LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AWAY FROM REGULAR SEASON COLLEGE HOOPS. Here’s the schedule I’m hoping to be able to stick to leading into the season:
Today - UCLA Preview
Monday - (Who could possibly be left for Team No. 1????) Preview
Thursday, 10/31 - What To Watch for Week 1
Monday, 11/4 - Preseason Hoopla 40
I will give updates on Twitter/X if any of those are to change. Also, a shoutout to the New York Liberty for their first WNBA title. I disagree with some calls late absolutely, but the Liberty completely closed down the Minnesota Lynx in the OT to ultimately bring it home and they deserve credit for that. Truly one of the best finals series in any sport I have ever witnessed.
Last Preview:
Overview
UCLA enters the Big Ten on a great foundation. Cori Close has continued the winning ways that Nikki Fargas had in her brief stint with the team, and has gotten the program to some impressive places over the past 13 seasons.
Including the 2019-20 COVID season where the Bruins won 26 games, UCLA has qualified for eight of the last nine NCAA Tournaments, with one WNIT Semifinal run being the outlier. Before Close, UCLA had been to three Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight in 199, and since have been to six more Sweet 16s plus an Elite Eight in 2018.
While Stanford had been the largest name out of the Pac-12, UCLA has remained a rock solid unit that can be counted on for 20-plus wins and a spot in the Big Dance. But the Bruins have moved their goals up in recent years with what they’ve built, and that started to really show up last season.
UCLA was, and this will be a theme for the preview, as consistent as any non-South Carolina team in the country last year. Nearly every regular season loss was on the road to an elite opponent, the lone exception being a close home defeat to Washington State.
The Bruins came out of the gates red hot, winning their first 14 games before losing 5 of 10 in Pac-12 play. The Pac-12 did happen to be remarkably good for its final season in the form we all knew, so it’s hard to hold UCLA all that accountable. The same can be said for its conference tournament and NCAA Tournament runs, that ended at the hands of USC and LSU. Those were, arguably, two of the best teams in the nation, so while a Sweet 16 exit feels like a bit of a downer for a season like this, it was also a lot of bad luck in the seeding.
How was UCLA so good? The numbers don’t like on the consistency I speak of. The Bruins were the nation’s best rebounding team, they were a great offensive unit and a very strong defensive one. The offense was good despite mediocre shooting efficiency, thanks to the aforementioned rebounding, but also thanks to great ball movement (17.7 assists per game, 19th in NCAA), a lack of turnovers (17.2% rate, 74th in NCAA) and a whole lot of options to round out the scoring.
Here's last year’s UCLA roster, sorted by Her Hoop Stats win shares:
Departures
The Bruins lose six players from last year’s team, but just one through the portal and only one significant piece of the puzzle.
Charisma Osborne was a fantastic all-around guard for five seasons at UCLA, contributing as a scorer, rebounder, defender and more and more as a playmaker as her career went on. After four seasons of middling efficiency, Osborne improved it to 41.0% from the field and 89.2% from the free throw line, and she’ll be the largest hole to fill moving forward.
Four of the five depth pieces lost are at forward, which makes the transfer out of Christeen Iwuala feel more significant. Iwuala was a solid backup rebounding option who showed the ability to score as a sophomore behind Lauren Betts and Angela Dugalič.
Returning Players
Having five of the top six contributors come back is huge for any team that played as well as UCLA did. It feels even more significant to have them back considering how the Bruins played.
Look at those scoring numbers. Six players all between 8.7 and 14.9 PPG led the way in scoring for this team. The only team to score more points per game as a team without a 15 PPG scorer was the Gamecocks.
Leading this well-rounded unit is Kiki Rice and Lauren Betts, each of which may be two of the most important cogs to just how UCLA, and the Big Ten, is shaped this year. Both were the elite of elite prospects coming into college, had some slow-ish starts compared to standards and really began rounding into form as sophomores.
Betts’ arc is more clear cut. After not seeing significant action at Stanford, Betts came to UCLA and saw her numbers boom in the process. At 6-7, Betts is a towering presence that’s both a constant double-double threat and a real capital-I Issue for teams without a similar post player to counter.
Betts is a common runner-up choice to a player on the No. 1 team not yet discussed for Big Ten Player of the Year picks, and I understand why. That said, I feel a Kiki Rice rise is coming. Rice has been very good through two years at UCLA. Her Year 2 numbers aren’t night-and-day different like Betts, but she improved slightly in just about every category, a great sign considering her role was similar both seasons.
That’s about to change. Rice and Osborne both played a similar role for UCLA, and I think that could lead to Rice taking on some larger, loftier responsibilities for this team, and I think she’s more than capable of rising to that challenge. The shot took strides last season, but if the three ball can continue reaching into the mid-30s for percentage, she’s got every tool to be one of the best guards in the country.
The Betts-Rice duo would be enough to be excited about, but UCLA has plenty more returning talent. Gabriela Jaquez was a fantastic off-the-bench weapon that may be asked to do that again considering the transfers coming in (more on that in a moment). Londynn Jones is UCLA’s best returning three-point weapon, an area the Bruins did not excel in despite all the success. Angela Dugalič played 29 of her first 30 collegiate starts last year and played her new role very well, working as a strong complementary rebounder to Betts, as well as a decent spacer of the floor.
Those five returnees all shared large contributions and will be easy to plug into similar spots once again. The sixth returnee is Amanda Muse, who immediately has a great chance to earn minutes as a backup forward. Muse was a four-star prospect and saw some action as a freshman, with her shot-blocking in limited action standing out.
Incoming Players
UCLA did excellent work this offseason in filling out the roster, bringing in three huge-impact transfers to go along with plenty of exciting potential in the first-years.
Choose your fighter for which transfer you believe is the most significant, because all three were major contributors on Power Five teams and thrived in those spots. If UCLA wants to replace Osborne directly in the starting lineup, Charlisse Leger-Walker would make a lot of sense. She has been a machine at Washington State for years, and even with a down 23-24 really improved as a facilitator which should prove plenty useful in this attack.
I might like Timea Gardiner the most of the three. She feels like a tremendous fit next to Betts thanks to her high-efficiency, high-volume three-point ability, and she was a great rebounder and defender at Oregon State to go along with it. But the Bruins are spoiled for choice, because Janiah Barker was terrific at Texas A&M as well, and had a 40.7% three-point shooting season as a freshman before a slight dip last season.
There’s a really exciting core of nine talented, experienced players for Close to build a rotation around, oh and there’s also four highly touted recruits to chip in as well.
Avary Cain, Kendall Dudley and Zania Socka-Nguemen are Top 30 prospects, and the latter two have playing experience together at Sidwell Friends, where Rice also played. I could see Dudley and Socka-Nguemen being utilized together off the bench with that chemistry, but it could be interesting to see which of them works better around one of Dugalič or Betts as well. Avary Cain doesn’t have that same immediate chemistry, but was a massive get for the Bruins and could quickly threaten for a large role in this team with her scoring and stealing abilities.
The final new add is Elina Aarinsalo from Finland who has proven to be a consistently effective scorer wherever she is playing in Europe. All of this creates a deep bench for Close and this UCLA program to utilize, which would go hand in hand with the spread-out scoring from last season.
Outlook
Projected Starters
Charlisse Leger-Walker - G
Londynn Jones - G
Kiki Rice - F
Timea Gardiner - F
Lauren Betts - C
Projected Big Ten Finish: 2nd
Last year, UCLA was able to beat just about every single opponent it was supposed to beat, but it was not able to get over the hump in a lot of the largest games of the season. That was an excellent unit, but it was not a complete offensive attack thanks to middling shooting and a lack of a true No. 1 option.
Will a true No. 1 show up this season? That’s hard to say, because the 2024-25 Bruins look even deeper and more experienced than the unit that just won 27 games. The transfer adds were massive, the freshman class is deep with talent, and a large chunk of the core is back as upperclassmen.
I expect Leger-Walker and one of Gardiner or Barker to be in that starting lineup alongside Rice and Betts. I’m going with Jones as the fifth starter as, even at 5-4, she is a key spacing piece with her three-point range, which Gardiner will also help with. Any space you can give Betts to work inside, or Rice to drive to the hoop, should make a big difference at making this Bruins attack even more efficient than it already is.
There is not a glaring weakness in this team, and it makes the floor feel relatively safe. UCLA might be the team I predict to win the most overall games in the Big Ten because I feel like this group is so solid from front-to-back that it should avoid being surprised by anyone.
This season comes down to if the Bruins can rise to the challenges they know are coming. Rice and Betts stepping up might be the key to that, and I have a lot of hope Rice can erupt onto the scene in a big way entering her third year. The move to the Big Ten brings a lot of intrigue, but UCLA played fast as is and has the interior weapons to transition well into the conference.
Can this team get to the program’s first-ever Final Four? Oh without a doubt, but last year’s team also had the talent to do it. With a room full of players who experienced that first-hand, plus a fantastic trio of vets who should be familiar with the big moment, there is no limit to where I think UCLA could go this year.
Photo Credit: Caren Nicdao, UCLA Athletics
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