Cori Close won her first NCAA Tournament title on Sunday afternoon, and UCLA won its first as the Bruins beat South Carolina 79-51 in the championship game. Close, 54 years old, reached the top for the first time 15 years into her career as a head coach.
For UCLA, it was a breakthrough built on restraint and depth. The Bruins finished 37-1, used a rotation of seven players all season and had six of those seven players projected as likely first-round WNBA picks in a week. On the sideline and in the locker room, Close’s team had spent the year living by the same idea the coach has repeated for years: “Every player had to sacrifice.”
That was not just a slogan. During the 2025-26 season, UCLA staff and players collected recyclable cans and bottles after practices and games. Staffers returned them for 5 cents apiece, pooled the money and donated it to one of the team’s chosen nonprofit organizations. The program recently used those funds to pay for school uniforms and a computer for girls in Tijuana, and the school later sent back a photo of the girls watching one of the Bruins’ games this season.
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The title also gave Close a place in the record book. She became the first first-time coach to win a championship since Dawn Staley in 2017, breaking through in a sport that had been dominated by a small group of powers. South Carolina, UConn, Baylor and LSU had won 11 of the previous 13 national titles coming into the 2026 Final Four, a run that made UCLA’s climb even steeper.
What made the Bruins different was the same thing that had long defined Close’s tenure but had not always produced elite-level results: selflessness. The coach, born and raised in Northern California and a former UC Santa Barbara player, had built a culture around habits that sound simple and are hard to sustain. “Never get tired of doing the right thing,” she has said. She has also put it more bluntly: “The grass is greener where you water it.”
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That approach finally matched the scoreboard. UCLA did not just win a title; it did so with a team that shared minutes, shared responsibility and, in a small but revealing way, shared even the recyclables after practice. Close’s belief in process did not merely survive the season. It won the championship. And for a coach who has spent 15 years chasing this moment, that is the answer.
