UCLA confident it can turn last year's hard lessons into Final Four success
Despite its last two losses coming against UConn and Texas, a senior-loaded UCLA squad is confident things will go differently this year in the Final Four.
UCLA guard Gabriela Jaquez, left, drives to the basket past Duke center Arianna Roberson during the Bruins' Elite Eight win in the NCAA women's basketball tournament on Sunday. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times) With Kendrick Lamar's "tv off" blaring outside the Mo Ostin Basketball Center, a crowd of cheering fans gave the UCLA women’s basketball team a fitting sendoff Tuesday as they left Westwood for Phoenix. The Bruins are back in the Final Four , where they'll play Texas — the only team that has beaten them this season — and begin a final push to win what they hope will be their first national championship since 1978.
Last year, UCLA fell to Connecticut in the Final Four, a loss that has made the Bruins hungrier for a title. “Experience is such an important teacher, for me, as well as for [the team],” said UCLA coach Cori Close . "I just think there's been a clarity of focus.
” Read more: Five concerns UCLA must address before facing Texas in the Final Four Gabriela Jaquez, one of seven seniors on the roster, is proud of how much the Bruins have grown since last season. “We've been using it as fuel and using that information that we learned to apply it for this year,” she said. Familiar with the Final Four spotlight, UCLA remains focused inward and understands the importance of turning off the noise from outside their circle, Jaquez said.
“I'm not trying to focus on the outside, we're just gonna come in really business-like and do what we need to do,” she added. Close said the loss to Connecticut taught her that she needs to direct her players to attack differently. She plans to implement some of the lessons from that game against Texas.