This post was updated April 3 at 11:21 p.m.
Ten daggers from the free throw line in the last two minutes of the 2024 Sweet 16 game buried the Bruins’ season for good.
Since that night, Kiki Rice – who sat helplessly on the bench with five fouls in the final 39 seconds – said there has not been a day she has forgotten about her team’s heartache.
The junior guard filled her journal with a singular promise – “We will be in the Final Four” –which she said was a daily ritual leading up to the program’s rematch against No. 3 seed LSU in Sunday’s Elite Eight.
Rice’s manifestations came true for the Bruins as they put down the Tigers 72-65.
But to advance to its first national championship game in the NCAA era, No. 1 seed UCLA women’s basketball (34-2, 16-2 Big Ten) must overcome No. 2 seed UConn (35-3, 18-0 Big East) in the Final Four at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
And who is awaiting the victor?
Reigning champion No. 1 seed South Carolina or No. 1 seed Texas.
“We’ve done the work and we’re ready, but I think we’re going to just take it game by game,” said junior center Lauren Betts. “We have all the parts to do it. I just think it’s going to be us stopping us at the end of the day.”
UConn – no stranger to this stage – has made Final Four trips routine, heading into its 24th in program history.
And it’s facing off against the most inexperienced opponent – on paper – that remains in the bracket. The Bruins are taking the Final Four stage for a program-first in the NCAA era after the Ann Meyers Drysdale-led squad cruised to a 1978 AIAW national championship and since transitioning to the NCAA tournament.
A battle of tradition and transformation, one might call it. And for years, coach Cori Close made herself a student of her counterpart and Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma. And now, she’s getting to test her own learning against the architect of the Huskies’ dynasty himself.
In a video posted to YouTube in 2014, Auriemma offered a behind-the-scenes look at a UConn practice, and at the 5:22 mark, Close is seen, glued to the stands with a notebook in hand.
She took more than a playbook from that – she learned Auriemma’s art of controlled chaos, forging a team that can thrive under pressure long before the big moments arrive.
“I’ve picked Geno’s brain a lot on that,” Close said. “And sometimes it’s put an extra defender on there, sometimes creating a drill that you’re automatically at a disadvantage, sometimes giving three-in-a-row terrible calls. … It’s trying to teach the game and teach them how to play it as opposed to just calling a bunch of plays.”
Although the Huskies’ trophy case may be the envy of women’s college basketball, its last addition came under a golden era – four straight titles between 2013 and 2016.
But ever since, the dynasty has had failure in chasing success.
And the tale remains the same for guard Paige Bueckers, who was a finalist for the 2025 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Women’s Player of the Year Award alongside Betts.
Bueckers – the three-time Big East Player of the Year and expected No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft – is yet to cross winning a national title off her to-do list. The Huskies came their closest in 2022 but ultimately fell to South Carolina.
And the expected No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft had some words of praise for the Bruins’ biggest threat.
“Obviously, Lauren Betts – the size, what she does offensively, defensive, protecting the paint and being a force on offense – really carving out space for herself, but also what she does to get her teammates open looks with all the attention that she draws,” Bueckers said.
For the Huskies, a national title would be a storybook ending to Bueckers’ decorated collegiate career. But for the Bruins, winning a national title could be the beginning of a new chapter of UCLA women’s basketball. Yet again, it becomes a clash of legacy and possibility.
“Everyone came to UCLA for this reason, to do something we haven’t done in a really long time or in the NCAA era,” said junior guard Gabriela Jaquez. “Proud of my teammates, the staff, the coaches, for just continuing to get better every day and grow from each season prior.”
And if recency bias had to the favor the side, it’s all blue and gold.
Snapping a 23-year, seven-game win streak stranglehold UConn held over UCLA, Rice guided the Bruins to an 11-point victory over the Huskies in a regular-season matchup Nov. 24, 2023.
And UCLA has kept several players from that roster, including junior guard Londynn Jones and graduate student forward Angela Dugalić, who joined Rice and Betts in the Bruins’s starting lineup against UConn. And Jaquez, who recorded season highs with four 3-pointers and three steals in the Elite Eight and logged 7 points against the Huskies in 2023, has only asserted herself more as a junior.
Simultaneously, the Bruins have retooled since that 2023 meeting – stacking their roster with firepower from both high school ranks and the portal.
“Our programs are playing against each other, but they’re brand new teams,” Jaquez said. “We have a lot of confidence in our team, and we’ve all gotten better. We’ve all grown from that (the 2024 Sweet 16 loss against LSU), and we’ve added new members.”
Junior forwards Janiah Barker and Timea Gardiner found their respective routes to Westwood last season, serving as imperative pieces off the bench. Barker, a Texas A&M transfer, was named the Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year in 2025, and Gardiner earned the same honor in the Pac-12 in 2024 at Oregon State.
“One person goes down, another person steps up,” Gardiner said. “We have a deep team, and everyone is ready when their numbers called.”
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