Spend a few good minutes with ... UCLA basketball coach Cori Close
Close on her coaching style and more
As you can see, I am starting out by going big into west coast sports. I will expand the footprint as we go, but I do believe that west coast women’s sports are forgotten at times. Many of the stories on some of the best athletes and teams are going untold. And they deserve better.
UCLA basketball coach Cori Close agrees with this statement. We’ve talked about this many times over the years, including last week when I introduced this Substack to her.
In our wide-ranging conversation, Close, who swept all the Coach of the Year awards in 2025 (Naismith, USBWA, AP and WBCA), shared a little on her coaching style, players who surprised her in the offseason and the transition when a member of the Bruins family left for Rutgers this summer. The conversation has been lightly edited.
Q: You adjust your coaching style to meet your players where they are. How would you describe your coaching style in general?
A: “Well, it’s an art form, not a scientific formula. I think it’s really having a pulse. And the only way to have an accurate pulse is to have genuine relationships. (Former UCLA men’s basketball) Coach (John) Wooden used to say the biggest form of partiality is to treat every player the same. That does not mean that the standards are different. It just means the style of your teaching might be different. When I consider myself adjusting to the players that I have, it’s not adjusting the standards. The standard is the standard, but it’s adjusting the style to where they are, what they are going through, where they’re coming from, how they’re processing the experience, where they are in their maturity level. That’s how I go about it. It is different, but the standard does not change.”
Q: How do the young women react to this?
A: “There’s no perfect place and there’s no perfect relationships. I always say we’re not a perfect family, we’re just a committed family. And we don’t let things get brushed under the rug. There are different seasons of development. Some years, they need me to be a little bit more tough. Some years, they need me to be a little more encouraging. It’s interesting that the start of the last year, when we were in Paris (UCLA went on to beat No. 17 Louisville, 66-59), the night before our Leaders in Training (LIT) group, asked to meet with (former UCLA associate head coach) Shannon (LeBeauf), and they just honestly said, ‘We’re not as confident as you would think, and we need you guys to build us up.’
“I thought that showed a lot of character on their part to (show) their strength and vulnerability. And they were just saying, ‘We need you guys, and we need you to help us. I know we’re really talented, and I know we’ve got all these things, but our minds have not caught up to that yet, and our hearts have not caught up to that yet.’ For the first three months of the season last year, it really was building them up. Then, we become No. 1 (in the AP poll), and it was really about not getting complacent. Sometimes your tone has to change a little bit and you have to look through the lens of something different.
“This year, to be honest with you, it’s all about managing expectations. What I mean (by) managing expectations is we expect way more than anyone else on the outside. And everyone on the outside expects a whole lot of us this year. I think the team really needs from me as a leader is to surrender outcomes and stay totally focused on what a great process looks for our team, try to shut out noise and try to stay present, focused and truly honor the process. … I think you have to have good emotional intelligence, you have to have a really clear mission of what you are about as a program, and you have to be a teacher that’s willing to be able to adjust with the different seasons and landscapes of what is required.”
Q: You have many leaders this year with all the upperclassmen. How does that get managed because everybody’s leading and everybody has a strong voice?
A: “Yeah, it’s tricky. I would say we’re still evolving in that. The reality is that we have our LIT group, and it’s optional, you don’t have to be in it. Coach Shannon used to run it. Pam Walker, our Director of Operations, who used to be a coach, who’s brilliant in this space, is leading it now. The challenge that we’re having is that eight people have requested to be in leadership this year. Well, we only have 12 people on the team, and so what does that look like? We’re trying to think about how we adjust some of the framework to try to figure out how to take advantage (of) that and not have it be convoluted.
“We’ve always said that leadership is just influence, and it’s going on a journey and making sure you’re taking someone else with you. I don’t want to overcomplicate it. What I expect of our leaders is: Number one to uphold the values of our program and Number two to be other-centered in the way that when they show up they’re a thermostat and not a thermometer. They change the energy in the room. They bring somebody with them. In our circle every day we talk about what went well and they call each other out. If our leaders are not the ones that are being called out the most in terms of positively affecting the practice or the experience, then they’re not leading with enough strength or enough influence. It’s interesting. You have seven seniors; you just have an interesting dynamic. I just keep going back to, I don’t care about the who; who does it. I just care about the standard of behavior being held on a consistent basis.”
Q: Did anyone surprise you during offseason training?
A: “Angela Dugalić and Gabriela Jaquez are two that stand out to me for very different reasons. We were trying to really talk to Angela about how she has phenomenal skills and she always works at her skills. What I asked her to do in the offseason is to work on the consistency of her presence of mind and to work on her consistency of making the right basketball reads. You can win a skills competition and be terrible at putting it in place into basketball. I really challenged her to not just be a great skills player, but to be a great, seamless piece in the basketball puzzle that makes us great. That had to do with basketball decision making. I’m just really thrilled with how coachable Angela has been and how that has transferred to making our team really effective. I also have been surprised that what a defensive stopper she’s taking pride in becoming. That’s going to be really huge for us, because that’s something that we don’t really have. She can guard a guard, or she can guard a post, and is really versatile.
“Kiki (Rice) was coming off (shoulder) surgery and Charlisse (Leger-Walker) is coming off (ACL) surgery, and we really needed another point guard that I could rotate through. It was sort of a just in case thing. I said (to Jaquez) ‘Hey, you need to be prepared to play the one (position).’ I just didn’t know how that would go over the summer. Wow! Gabs just took that on. I don’t know why I was surprised. She attacks every challenge that’s put in front of her. She was an undersized post player in high school and now she’s been running the point guard for us at a really, really high level. Her handle and play making ability off the bounce has gone to another level. Then she spends another offseason truly fine tuning the consistency of her three-point shot. She’s our second highest three-point shooting person through the summer and fall, next to Gianna Kneepkens. So that tells you how far Gabriela Jaquez has come.”
Q: (Former UCLA standout and pro basketball player) Michaela Onyenwere joined your staff as an assistant coach. What qualities did you see when she played for you that made her the one you called when you had this opening?
A: “I think that the reality is I trust her. I trust her character. She’s a great relationship builder. She has a joy that she brings to every room she’s in, and she can share an experience that 90% of our players want to go to (playing professionally). When Shannon became the associate head coach at Rutgers, I knew that the biggest hole was that as great of a teacher as she is of the game, she’s an even better relationship builder. She was the safe place for many of our players. I knew I needed someone who could build, not the same way, but could be a safe place and could be a great relationship builder with our players. I remember announcing to the team at the retreat that it was going to be Michaela. And of course, Sienna and Lauren (Betts) were just shaking their fists in excitement. Because they know her from their Grandview (High School) days. They grew up watching her and then being inspired by her. I just think she had the character qualities, and she had the complementary gifts that we needed to make our staff stronger.”
Q: Shannon was and is family to you, but she left for a great opportunity. What has this transition been like for you?
A: “I remember texting her after the photo shoot this year, and I said, ‘I really missed you today.’ That was a vision that we came up with together. We were both equally passionate about what it did for our women from the inside out. She was my right hand for 14 years. There are obviously really deep things that I miss, even though I completely support her in her decision for her and her husband (Sean) to go to Rutgers, and I understand that. There will never be a time that I don’t go, ‘Oh man, I can’t believe I got to spend those 14 years with Shannon LaBeouf.’ I am so grateful for that. We lived together for several years, we did everything (together). She was such a huge piece of (developing) our philosophy and how we went about things.
“As a first year, first time head coach, I gained so much confidence from (Shannon) because she believed in the values that I was bringing to the table. I needed that. I was hoping it would work, but I wasn’t sure at the very beginning. Her ability to blow wind into my sails and to help come alongside me and complement my weaknesses with her strengths, I will be forever grateful.
“In every loss, there’s opportunity. To evaluate, ‘OK, what do we need right now? How has our organization changed?’ There have been some really neat parts of that, even with the lives of our players who would depend on Shannon. If our mission is truly to teach, mentor and equip with young women for life beyond UCLA, then they need to be able to make great choices, even without Shannon there. They need to be able to use the tools in their toolbox. A few of our players have been forced to find out like, ‘Oh, I can do this. I’m a little bit stronger than I thought I was.’ In the midst of missing Shannon every single day, I also try to realize and see how there’s also been some amazing pieces of growth at the same time.”
The Bonus
Of course, Cori and I talked about Lauren Betts, one of the best players in the country, who was named to the AP Preseason All-America team on Tuesday.
“I think that the biggest (area of growth) is her consistency of leadership,” Close said. “She’s been more positive about the work. She’s always been incredibly talented, but her level of extra work has gone to a whole ‘nother level. Her teammates have over and over, told me that she’s been one of the most positive leaders in the locker room. That’s something at the very beginning was a struggle for her. She’s tended to see the bad of the day instead of the good of the day, or sort of almost ‘I have to experience’ instead of an ‘I get to experience.’ … I am really proud of her.”
Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.
excellent article - i love how Cori talks about her players and the game. i wish she would talk more about strategy - especially about defense. but then that's just me. i listen to this today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by7qb4RwQhI and am wondering over and over again why Arizona could not have found the money to keep Adia and build a first rate team. of all the coaches i have listen to she tells it like it is and if i were a player i would LOVE to play for her. thanks for the article on Cori she is amazing and I hope they take the whole dang thing this year.