After missing the NCAA Tournament last year (and subsequently winning the WNIT), the UCLA Women’s Basketball team are ready to dance in the Pac-12 and NCAA Tournaments.
This time last year, the UCLA Women’s Basketball team was 13-17, 8-12 heading into the Pac-12 Tournament.
Though they claimed one win in the conference post-season, it was not enough to help them secure an invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
Instead, the Women of Westwood accepted a bid to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament and at that point, the season did a 180. All of a sudden, we got a glimpse into their future.
This UCLA Basketball team rattled off six straight victories which culminated against West Virginia (at West Virginia) to win the WNIT. In that game, freshman Jordin Canada shot 13-for-15 scoring 31 points to help the Bruins claim a hugely impressive victory.
This season, the Bruins are looking to improve off of that run as the enter the 2015-16 postseason and frankly, they have been doing a bang up job of it.
More from Go Joe Bruin
- UCLA Football: It’s time for the nation to meet Dante Moore
- UCLA Football: Where are they ranked heading into week 4
- UCLA Football: Position battle breakdown for Utah showdown
- UCLA vs. Utah: Location, time, prediction, and more
- UCLA Football: Highlights from Chip Kelly’s appearance on the Jim Rome Show
Head Coach Cori Close has been very impressive leading the Women’s team back into the national spotlight. This season, the Bruins are 22-7, 14-4 and despite starting the season unranked, are #12 in the nation heading into the Pac-12 Tournament as the #3 seed.
The Bruins started the season in the non-conference going 8-3 and in each one of those losses (all to ranked teams mind you) UCLA lost by eight or less with two of those games going into overtime.
Going into Pac-12 play, the Bruins kept the tempo, severaly improving on last season’s record. The exclamation point on all of this was that the UCLA Women’s Basketball team was perfect at home in conference.
It's going down starting Thursday in @KeyArenaSeattle!
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) March 1, 2016
Who you got? #Pac12WBB pic.twitter.com/QADCnMCF3O
With that, the Bruins, as mentioned above, have a #3 seed and a first round bye in the Pac-12 tourney as they head to KeyArena in Seattle to await the first round winner of #11 Arizona and #6 Oregon. It gets even better on the national perspective.
According to ESPN’s Bracketology, the Bruins are predicted to be a #3 seed in the Bridgeport Regional, possibly starting the first two rounds in Los Angeles. Now that is improvement.
Next: The UCLA Basketball All-Time Team
Either way, these Bruins do not seem to be slowing down which means we might see a deep run in both the Pac-12 and NCAA Tournaments. If all goes well, hopefully, we could see another championship in future for THIS UCLA Basketball team.
Go Bruins!