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Mar. 27—Most notably are Lew Alcindor — who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — and the late and colorful Bill Walton.
They were part of the best program in collegiate history with 11 national championships.
Lauren Betts would like to join the club. The 6-foot-7 junior post hopes to lead the Bruins to their first women's NCAA championship.
That journey includes a stop this weekend in Spokane at the Arena. Betts and No. 1-ranked UCLA (32-2) are favored to advance to the Final Four in Tampa, Florida.
UCLA meets 25th-ranked Ole Miss (22-10) on Friday in the second game of Spokane Regional 1. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. The winner moves on to an Elite Eight matchup against the LSU/NC State winner on Sunday afternoon.
At 6-foot-7, Betts has been the most dominant player her size this season. Considering the average height of women's players is much shorter than men, Betts is sizeable. She might as well be 7 foot.
WNBA-draft eligible, Betts said she plans to return for her senior season. In fact, the Bruins will return their team intact and add Washington State transfer Charlisse Leger-Walker, who transferred to UCLA and decided to redshirt to allow an ACL injury to heal following surgery.
Betts averaging nearly a double-double every game — 19.7 points and 9.7 rebounds. In UCLA's Spokane-qualifying win Sunday over Richmond, Betts, a Naismith Player of the Year finalist, had a game-high 30 points and 14 rebounds.
Some UCLA opponents have employed zones while also sending double- and triple-team defenders.
"We've seen (teams) sandwich up even before she ever touches the ball, trying to limit touches," UCLA coach Cori Close said. "It's really a matter of how many people they're sending to her and what that looks like. But we've seen every kind of rotation ... it's never hardly ever one on one. There have been maybe one or two teams all year that have said we're just going to take our chances and go one on one."
The problem with sending a lot of help is it exposes opponents to leaving other quality players open.
That might explain why Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin chose to speak about UCLA as a team, not about how to defend Betts.
"The conversation has to be about UCLA being a really good team," McPhee-McCuin said. "Unless she's getting ready to put 70 (points) on us, I don't know that that's their game plan. We should probably give more credit to their team as a whole and what they're about and what they're able to do. She's not the only one on our scouting report. ... We're from the Southeastern Conference. We'll figure out a way to do our best."
UCLA junior point guard Kiki Rice has averaged 5.1 assists per game, and many of those go to Betts.
"It makes life easy for anyone playing with her," Rick said. "Lauren catches any pass ... she finds her shooters on the perimeter. She's a great person and a great teammate. ... It just makes life easy for me. She has my back down there."
UCLA has spent much of the season atop the rankings and recently returned to the top after beating Southern Cal in the Big Ten Tournament championship game.
It's no secret winning a national title is at the top of the Bruins' goals.
"We've worked towards it all season," Bett said. "The coaches haven't taken it easy on us. We've done the work and we're ready. We're going to have to take it game by game and focus on Ole Miss right now. I know what the team wants and we have all the parts to do it."
Close knows the challenge that Ole Miss poses.
"Other than rebounding, I would say our ability to take care of the ball and get points in the paints, shots against that tough-minded defense, are really the keys to the game," Close said.
LSU, NC State could be high scoring
It's a rematch between No. 3 LSU and No. 2 NC State in the other Spokane Regional 1 game. Tipoff is at 4:30.
The Tigers (30-4) and Wolfpack (28-6) faced off in a November tournament in the Bahamas when LSU handled NC State 82-65.
The rematch could be an offensive slugfest.
Kim Mulkey, the Hall of Fame LSU coach, believes both teams have improved greatly since the late November game. Eyebrows raised in the press conference room when she said NC State should be favored since it is seeded higher.
LSU actually is favored by 3.5 points in a game that's expected to be high scoring.
"We've talked about it one or twice," Mulkey said of the earlier matchup. "We've looked at some film, but they're better and we're better. They're ACC champs, we finished third in the SEC. They're supposed to win, they're the two seed."
NC State is legitimate to be sure. The Wolfpack advanced to the Final Four out of the Portland Regional a year ago. Coach Wes Moore had to replace two key starters and has given three freshmen many minutes this season.
"We'll see if we have evolved," Moore said. "We got outrebounded by 20 (in the first game) and that's a big part of it right there."
Continue reading...
They were part of the best program in collegiate history with 11 national championships.
Lauren Betts would like to join the club. The 6-foot-7 junior post hopes to lead the Bruins to their first women's NCAA championship.
That journey includes a stop this weekend in Spokane at the Arena. Betts and No. 1-ranked UCLA (32-2) are favored to advance to the Final Four in Tampa, Florida.
UCLA meets 25th-ranked Ole Miss (22-10) on Friday in the second game of Spokane Regional 1. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. The winner moves on to an Elite Eight matchup against the LSU/NC State winner on Sunday afternoon.
At 6-foot-7, Betts has been the most dominant player her size this season. Considering the average height of women's players is much shorter than men, Betts is sizeable. She might as well be 7 foot.
WNBA-draft eligible, Betts said she plans to return for her senior season. In fact, the Bruins will return their team intact and add Washington State transfer Charlisse Leger-Walker, who transferred to UCLA and decided to redshirt to allow an ACL injury to heal following surgery.
Betts averaging nearly a double-double every game — 19.7 points and 9.7 rebounds. In UCLA's Spokane-qualifying win Sunday over Richmond, Betts, a Naismith Player of the Year finalist, had a game-high 30 points and 14 rebounds.
Some UCLA opponents have employed zones while also sending double- and triple-team defenders.
"We've seen (teams) sandwich up even before she ever touches the ball, trying to limit touches," UCLA coach Cori Close said. "It's really a matter of how many people they're sending to her and what that looks like. But we've seen every kind of rotation ... it's never hardly ever one on one. There have been maybe one or two teams all year that have said we're just going to take our chances and go one on one."
The problem with sending a lot of help is it exposes opponents to leaving other quality players open.
That might explain why Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin chose to speak about UCLA as a team, not about how to defend Betts.
"The conversation has to be about UCLA being a really good team," McPhee-McCuin said. "Unless she's getting ready to put 70 (points) on us, I don't know that that's their game plan. We should probably give more credit to their team as a whole and what they're about and what they're able to do. She's not the only one on our scouting report. ... We're from the Southeastern Conference. We'll figure out a way to do our best."
UCLA junior point guard Kiki Rice has averaged 5.1 assists per game, and many of those go to Betts.
"It makes life easy for anyone playing with her," Rick said. "Lauren catches any pass ... she finds her shooters on the perimeter. She's a great person and a great teammate. ... It just makes life easy for me. She has my back down there."
UCLA has spent much of the season atop the rankings and recently returned to the top after beating Southern Cal in the Big Ten Tournament championship game.
It's no secret winning a national title is at the top of the Bruins' goals.
"We've worked towards it all season," Bett said. "The coaches haven't taken it easy on us. We've done the work and we're ready. We're going to have to take it game by game and focus on Ole Miss right now. I know what the team wants and we have all the parts to do it."
Close knows the challenge that Ole Miss poses.
"Other than rebounding, I would say our ability to take care of the ball and get points in the paints, shots against that tough-minded defense, are really the keys to the game," Close said.
LSU, NC State could be high scoring
It's a rematch between No. 3 LSU and No. 2 NC State in the other Spokane Regional 1 game. Tipoff is at 4:30.
The Tigers (30-4) and Wolfpack (28-6) faced off in a November tournament in the Bahamas when LSU handled NC State 82-65.
The rematch could be an offensive slugfest.
Kim Mulkey, the Hall of Fame LSU coach, believes both teams have improved greatly since the late November game. Eyebrows raised in the press conference room when she said NC State should be favored since it is seeded higher.
LSU actually is favored by 3.5 points in a game that's expected to be high scoring.
"We've talked about it one or twice," Mulkey said of the earlier matchup. "We've looked at some film, but they're better and we're better. They're ACC champs, we finished third in the SEC. They're supposed to win, they're the two seed."
NC State is legitimate to be sure. The Wolfpack advanced to the Final Four out of the Portland Regional a year ago. Coach Wes Moore had to replace two key starters and has given three freshmen many minutes this season.
"We'll see if we have evolved," Moore said. "We got outrebounded by 20 (in the first game) and that's a big part of it right there."
Continue reading...
