Cori Close brings in one of the top recruiting classes, featuring Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez, with an eye on the Bruins’ first national title since 1978
UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close wants her team to be championship-level, as she calls it, in every aspect. Championship-level habits, work ethic, teammates and so on.
Kiki Rice, the No. 2-ranked recruit in her class, headlines this season’s freshman group. Camarillo product Gabriela Jaquez – the younger sister of Jaime Jaquez Jr., who plays on the men’s team – Centennial alumna Londynn Jones and and Christeen Iwuala are also top-50 recruits joining the group. The first-year college players have guidance from senior guard Charisma Osborne, a Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference player who led UCLA in scoring last season with 16.4 points per game.
While they have four redshirt sophomores and five freshmen, the Bruins are at least starting with a healthy roster. Bessoir missed last season due to a torn ACL and Brown missed the first half of the season also due to a torn ACL. “She needs to be, ‘You want me to guard a post player, I’ll shut them down. You need me to guard the point guard and pick them up full court, I’ll shut them down,’” Close said. “Charisma is capable of that.”
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