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<\/p>\nUCLA head coach Cori Close is amazed by the growth of the women\u2019s game over her 15-year coaching career with the Bruins. But she remains cautious of where it\u2019s going in the new NCAA landscape, which many have categorized as an unregulated Wild West.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think we need to be really careful that we don\u2019t crush our game by being too greedy [and] by not having good boundaries and infrastructure,\u201d Close said on Yahoo Sports\u2019 Hoops 360 podcast on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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Close called the introduction of name, image, likeness in 2021 \u201clong overdue,\u201d and has spoken consistently about issues around transfer portal timing, as well as other NCAA rulings impacting the sport. But she isn\u2019t a fan of the new landscape that allows unchecked player movement, often with big paychecks as the motivator, and which carries down-level impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have no boundaries at all,\u201d Close said. \u201cThere\u2019s no salary cap. There\u2019s no competitive equity. And what\u2019s happening is, the people that are losing I\u2019m worried will slow down the growth of the game because it\u2019s shutting out high school athletes. It\u2019s really taking away their percentages of opportunities. And I don\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cori Close is set to lose her best player, Lauren Betts, to the WNBA Draft this spring. (Photo by Michael Hickey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
(Michael Hickey via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Transfers used to be a rarity and looked down upon under the NCAA\u2019s strict regulations limiting movement. They are now an annual reality, and players have swapped schools three or four times. Some do it for the money offered elsewhere by collectives. Coaches are left to recruit their players throughout the season or else lose them and find a way to fill the more veteran hole left behind.<\/p>\n
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The rise of NIL and transfer rule changes have resulted in fewer four-year development situations, Close said. Fewer freshmen are given opportunities, while transfers take spots on elite rosters. And it\u2019s not an issue on which a coach such as Close \u2014 who, in an interview with Hoops 360, focused as much on individual personal development as athletic development \u2014 can easily take a stand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a responsibility to keep our program at a championship level and I don\u2019t think I can do it with just freshmen anymore,\u201d Close said.<\/p>\n
Three of UCLA\u2019s top six contributors are transfers as the program chases its first NCAA championship and a repeat Final Four. Its 2025 Final Four berth in Tampa was the first in the NCAA era for UCLA.<\/p>\n
All six of them are seniors, creating a massive hole Close needs to fill. She said she can\u2019t and won\u2019t replace them with six freshmen, as she would have in the past with larger recruiting classes. Instead, Close and the coaching staff will enter the offseason seeking four to five transfers, with a smaller three-to-four-player freshman class.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have no interest in rebuilding,\u201d Close said. \u201cWe really are intent on reloading. My responsibility is to adjust in the landscape that I\u2019m given and to lead well no matter what. But the reality is, I have to do that whether I like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The No. 2-ranked Bruins are losing Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Gianna Kneepkens, Charlisse Leger-Walker and Angela Dugali\u0107. Betts (Stanford), Leger-Walker (Washington State), Kneepkens (Utah) and Dugali\u0107 (Oregon) are all former transfers.<\/p>\n
Betts, the reigning Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, is projected to go in the lottery of the 2026 WNBA Draft. As much as Close is focused on high schoolers moving up into college in a good position, she also has eyes on that next step and the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations that center around a revenue-sharing structure.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI’m really pulling for the WNBA right now to have a CBA that\u2019s going to help us continue to build the momentum of that league,\u201d Close said. \u201cI just think when money comes in and greed comes in, you have a danger of losing what\u2019s really special about the growth of the sport. And I\u2019m hopeful, but I\u2019m also really, I\u2019m warning people, we have to make hard, right choices in order to protect the integrity of our game as well as the growth of our game. And if we get greedy and we get too selfish, we\u2019re going to lose it before we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCLA head coach Cori Close is amazed by the growth of the women\u2019s game over her 15-year coaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,5748,217,26754,11890,72222,231,772,1544,5747,32398],"class_list":["post-597499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-bruins","tag-college-basketball","tag-cori-close","tag-lauren-betts","tag-michael-hickey","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-ucla","tag-wnba-draft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116054129230337686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}