Four women’s basketball teams will pile into Pauley Pavilion this weekend for the opening round of the NCAA Tournament: No. 2 seed UCLA, No. 7 Creighton, No. 10 UNLV and No. 15 Cal Baptist.
“We’re gonna have our work cut out for us just right here in LA,” UCLA head coach Cori Close told reporters on Sunday.
“People may not know how good Creighton really is or Cal Baptist and sometimes I think people get all excited about name recognition, but we may have one of the most difficult and complete first and second rounds.”
The teams make up one of four groups in the Albany Regional 2, which is one of the most challenging regionals in the bracket with UCLA, No. 1 Iowa, No. 3 LSU and No. 4 Kansas State in the mix. UCLA, Iowa and LSU were ranked in the top eight in the most recent AP Top 25 rankings and Kansas State was the 15th-ranked team.
The Bruins will begin their climb against Riverside’s Cal Baptist (28-3) on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Close said that she had watched the Lancers’ 75-74 win over Stephen F. Austin in the WAC championship game, but had no other connections with the team beyond speaking on panels about international recruiting alongside coach Jarrod Olson.
“He’s really good. It’s been good consistently,” Close said. “But the reality is, right after this (press conference), I’m going to go to our scouting staff meetings and we will have more film that we know what to do with almost instantaneously. But I will tell you, they have my respect and we will not overlook anything.”
Cal Baptist has had a steady ascent through the ranks of college basketball. The Lancers competed as an NAIA program since 1969 before moving to NCAA Division II in the 2013-14 season. They began the transition to NCAA Division I in 2018.
The Lancers won the WAC regular season title this season and came back from an 11-point deficit to capture their first WAC Tournament title in four years for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Chloe Webb, a 5-foot-8 guard, recorded a double-double in the championship game with 24 points and 15 rebounds. The senior was named Tournament Most Outstanding Player after averaging 18.5 points and 12.5 boards in two games.
Anaiyah Tu’ua, a 5-foot-9 guard, was named All-Tournament after averaging 19 points and putting up 22 points, five rebounds and four steals in the championship game.
“I don’t have any fun stories or connections with them, but I do have a ton of respect,” Close said. “They are a really good basketball team and we are going to be focused on playing towards our identity first.”
Creighton will be the farthest-traveling team this weekend, coming from Omaha. The Bluejays (25-5) are making their third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance and were ranked No. 24 in the latest AP Top 25 polls.
The team finished second in the Big East behind a starting lineup that features all seniors. All-Big East players Lauren Jensen, Emma Ronsiek and Morgan Maly lead the group. Each of them averages at least 15 points per game and the Bluejays as a whole have scored 30 or more points in a quarter on five different occasions this season.
Creighton has performed well on the road, winning 10 out of 12 away games. It lost to Georgetown 55-46 at home in the conference semifinals.
The Bluejays will play UNLV (30-2), the No. 20 team in the AP poll, on Saturday at 4 p.m. The game will be shown on ESPNews.
The Rebels rank in the top seven nationally in two different scoring categories. They hold the No. 6 scoring margin, outscoring opponents by an average of 21 points, and are the No. 7 team in bench points with an average of 28.8 per game.
UNLV’s No. 10 seeding matches a program-best from 1994 and the Rebels earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after beating Sacramento State 66-49 in the Mountain West Conference Tournament championships.
Desi-Rae Young, a 6-foot-1 center, posted her 48th career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds in the championship game. Alyssa Brown, a 6-foot-1 forward, was named the Tournament MVP after a junior season in which she ranked second on the team in rebounds with 8.4 per game.
UCLA begins preparation for the NCAA Tournament amidst finals week, since the school’s academic calendar operates on quarters. Close said that the players will be off on Monday while the coaching staff has a scouting day to get ready for Cal Baptist.
“Our whole (bracket is) really good,” Close said. “LA, take notice. You’re going to want to come out for this.”
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