Celebrating Pac-12 women's hoops: UCLA's Cori Close on tradition, players that have made conference special

The Pac-12 has stood out as one of the best women’s basketball leagues in the nation over the last two decades. This being the league’s final season, each month the Star is sharing Pac-12-centered stories of former Arizona players, as well as former and current league coaches. Up this week: UCLA coach Cori Close.

Close has been at the helm of the UCLA program since 2011, collecting more than 275 wins for the Bruins. She has taken her team to one Elite Eight, four Sweet Sixteens and one WNIT championship. She started out her coaching career as an UCLA assistant (1993-95), then moved onto her alma mater, UC Santa Barbara, and Florida State before returning for the top spot for the Bruins. She played guard in college. An advocate for women’s basketball, Close is in USA Basketball pool of coaches — most recently leading the U19 team to a gold medal in FIBA’s 2021 World Cup.

Best of the west: “Most recently there was (UW’s) Kelsey Plum. I remember playing her and just feeling like I don’t think we’re going to stop her or we can contain her but we’re not going to stop her. There was a game (where) (UCLA’s) Jordin Canada and (Oregon State’s) Sydney Wiese just went at it. It was just one of those times where you don’t really want anyone to lose. It’s such an epic battle. Even last year, I have so much respect for (Stanford’s) Haley Jones and Cameron Brink. (For us) to come back from 16 down against that Stanford team and to go to win semifinals of the conference tournament — that was really tremendous.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t say: the first time I got to beat Tara VanDerveer was at Florida State as an assistant. This time (as a head coach), I wouldn’t say it was a feeling of I’ve arrived but it definitely was a celebration of growth. This was a childhood hero of mine. This was someone who, I went to her camp — and worked them. Then I played against her teams in college when I played at UC Santa Barbara and then coached against her when I was at Florida State, Santa Barbara and here at UCLA. So that was pretty special.

“But the list of players goes so deep. Even when I was an assistant here 1993-95, Natalie Williams is superhuman. She’s incredible and she does it in two sports. Sometimes she would do things and I would think to myself, ‘There’s no one else in the country that can do what I just witnessed.’ I’m sure all of us as Pac-12 coaches have these moments, stories, admirations for these incredible women that just keep moving women’s sports and specifically Pac-12 women’s basketball forward.”

UCLA tradition: “I remember on my interview (for the UCLA assistant job in 1993), they walked me through the hall of fame and right as I come in the door to the right is the trophy wall of all the national championship that have been won here. I was just like, ‘Holy Moly,’ and I turned to the person who was bringing me in and asked, ‘How many of those are women’s basketball?’ They said, ‘Unfortunately, none because when we won the national championship in 1978, they didn’t acknowledge women’s basketball in the NCAA. It was still AIAW. At that moment, I’m like, ‘Man, this is a big deal. The standard of excellence here is really incredible.’

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“Then I remember my very first game in Pauley Pavilion and walking down that hall is a euphoric experience. I contemplate every time I walk down there — both men’s and women’s — but specifically our women. Our hallway from our locker room has all of our alumni in light boxes on the left. It’s generation by generation, decade by decade, and it’s just so humbling. On the right we’re celebrating our own philosophy and our current team. But on the left is only alums. And when you walk down that hall, it is a very humbling experience because you know you don’t only represent yourself or even the current team, you represent so much more over a long period of time.”

Growing up a Pac fan: “I think about even when I was growing up in the Bay Area, the great USC teams (with) Cheryl Miller and Tina Thompson. Then (the UCLA teams with) Denise Curry and Annie Meyers Drysdale. The very beginning people that were blazing trails in such incredible ways that we now get to walk in. I think about some of those great Washington teams. I actually went to Tara VanDerveer’s camp as a sophomore in high school. It was her very first one when she got to Stanford. I got to watch those players but then when I was in college, I worked all their camps and those players, you’re talking Jennifer Azzi, Katy Steading, Sonja Henning, and the list goes on and on. I was really tuned into the Stanford program at the time.”

Coaches leading the way: “I think the biggest thing for me is everyone’s willingness to take off their institutional hat and commit to moving the conference forward as well as the game forward. And I just think that has been really unique. Other conferences have tried to copy it. But we had a real commitment that we are going to look for opportunities to pound our chest and build other people up, even if we lose, and for the most part, we really live that. What a cool legacy that we get to celebrate: Having a group of coaches, who are going to say, ‘As competitive as I am, I want to grow the game and I want to grow Pac- 12 women’s basketball even more.’”

Pac-12 Networks grows the game: “I think we’re in such a special time. These are unprecedented times for women in sport and women’s basketball specifically. The athletes and the coaches in the Pac-12 had a big part in that. But also, as much as the Pac-12 Network has gotten a lot of flak and challenges in these times, from a women’s basketball perspective, we have to give them a lot of credit. Twelve years ago, we were not able to keep recruits — they were all going east. We were just having a heck of a time and really, when we started to be able to lead in the amount of women’s basketball games covered on linear television and we started to really brag about that, that was really pivotal.

“I know that there’s been challenges. I know there’s been mistakes. But I do think we would be remiss to not give credit to the Pac-12 Network and their contribution to the rise of Pac-12 women’s basketball. Nationally, when you’re talking about the growth of women’s basketball, you really have the Pac-12 leading the way. It’s with media, it’s with telling the stories, with performances and people going to the WNBA and beyond in the Olympics. (We’ve) just been the standard bearer.”