No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball emphasizing character over talent to maintain a high standard ...Middle East

The No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball team beat No. 24 Michigan in its last outing, but head coach Cori Close still came down hard on her team.

“When we do not take care of things under our control and the scoreboard doesn’t make it hurt, it’s my job to make it hurt,” she said. “At the same time, I always want them to play out of gratitude and joy. There’s this healthy tension where it’s not an either/or, it actually can be a both/and.”

The Bruins (14-0 overall, 3-0 Big Ten) are roughly halfway through the regular season and have now spent six straight weeks atop the Associated Press Top 25 poll. But staying at the top, as the cliché goes, can be harder than reaching the top.

The team has emphasized character over talent to help maintain its high standard, which can continue on Saturday at Indiana (10-3, 2-0) and on Tuesday at Purdue (7-7, 0-3).

“Right now we’re winning games and we’re a great team,” junior guard Kiki Rice said, “and we can’t forget all the work and all the growth that we’ve earned, but we also have to remember that we’re not where we want to be. And in order to be where we want to be at the end of the season, we’re gonna need to continue to get better.”

UCLA beat Michigan 86-70 on New Year’s Day but the Wolverines kept within striking distance of the lead for most of the game. The Bruins went on an 8-2 run in the final quarter to pull away.

Leading a team by single digits isn’t the standard that UCLA has set for itself, based on how the first half of the season has gone. The coaching staff has reverse-engineered the Michigan game, searching for correctable moments.

“We really weren’t as engaged or competitive as we have been up to this point,” Close said. “I really do trust their hearts and I really do trust their work ethic. Something got in the way. What was it? How do we remove it? How do we make better choices moving forward?”

The mind gym — a series of meetings designed to work on players’ mentality — has focused on awareness and how to respond. The Bruins can exercise those skills against Indiana and Purdue, which are the fifth- and last-place teams in the Big Ten Conference, respectively.

The Hoosiers are on a six-game winning streak dating back to Dec. 1 and have been shooting 50% or better in the last four games. Yarden Garzon, a 6-foot-3 guard, is one of the most efficient players on the roster with a team-leading 14.1 points per game. She has yet to miss a free throw this season and shoots 39.8% from long range.

Purdue is battle-tested after starting the Big Ten Conference season with games against three ranked teams — No. 8 Maryland, No. 23 Iowa and No. 21 Michigan State. Destini Lombard, a 5-foot-9 transfer from Stephen F. Austin, is the team’s leading scorer with 12.5 points per game and also has grabbed a team-best 40 steals in 14 games.

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“I don’t want to look too far in the future just because I don’t want to get caught up in anything that can happen or could happen,” Rice said. “It’s hard not to look ahead when we’re having so much success, but I just have to continue to remind myself to stay focused on the day-to-day process and just get better each day.”

No. 1 UCLA at Indiana

When: 9 a.m. Saturday

Where: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana

TV/Radio: FOX/UCLA Digital Radio

No. 1 UCLA at Purdue

When: 4 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Mackey Arena, West Lafayette, Indiana

TV/Radio: Big Ten Network/UCLA Digital Radio

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