SPOKANE, Wash. — UCLA has won 124 national championships in school history. The women’s basketball team comes into its home gym of Pauley Pavilion and sees banners for 11 men’s basketball titles, nine gymnastics championships and 25 national titles for volleyball.
It’s a seemingly impossible legacy to live up to, but one the Bruins women’s basketball team has never shied away from chasing. It’s one step closer to clearing a space of its own in that hallowed gym after a 72-65 win over LSU to send the Bruins to their first Final Four in NCAA Tournament history.
“Everyone came to UCLA for this reason, to do something we haven’t done,” junior Gabriela Jaquez said. “Proud of my teammates, the staff, the coaches for just continuing to get better every day and grow.”
This milestone has been a long time coming for the program, which experienced success in the AIAW era — a title in 1978 and another final four in 1979 — but had yet to translate it into the modern era of the NCAA Tournament. For decades, women’s basketball has been an afterthought in the Bruins’ athletic powerhouse.
UCLA took a chance on Cori Close, then a longtime assistant coach at UC Santa Barbara and Florida State, in 2011. The administration believed she could elevate the program with her…
