Guard Charisma Osborne sees career-high scoring output across last five matchups

For Charisma Osborne, the end of 2020 was not up to her own standards.

“Before break, I had my bad games,” the sophomore guard said. “I really was upset with how I was playing.”

After averaging 19.2 points per game on 44% shooting in her first five games of the season for No. 5 UCLA women’s basketball (10-2, 8-2 Pac-12), Osborne scored just six points on 3-of-11 shooting against a California (0-11, 0-8) team that still has not won a game this season. Despite their leading scorer scoring more than 13 points below her season average, the Bruins were still able to defeat the Golden Bears 71-37 on Dec. 19.

But two days later, Osborne shot below her season average once again, and UCLA failed to score 50 points for the only time this season in a 61-49 loss to then-No. 1 Stanford. Osborne scored seven points and shot 3-of-18 from the field.

Osborne said she talked to coach Cori Close directly after the game about her end-of-year struggles.

“I talked to coach (Close) about it actually the night of the Stanford game,” Osborne said. “I was just telling her how upset I was with myself about how I was playing both offensively and defensively.”

Close said Osborne’s honesty during the call showed the courage she possesses and helped her turn things around.

“(On FaceTime), she goes, ‘I’m just really struggling – I’m trying to get back to neutral but I don’t know how,’” Close said. “(The coaching staff) made a few tweaks on her visualization film, … but the credit really goes to her. She did the work. Her humility to say, ‘Hey, I need some help here, I’m really struggling mentally,’ (proved) she was already on her way.”

Since that conversation, UCLA is 5-0 with two road wins against top-10 teams and three wins against ranked opponents overall. Meanwhile, Osborne isn’t playing back at her normal standards to start 2021 – she’s exceeding them.

The former Pac-12 All-Freshman team member is averaging 24.6 points per game during the five-game run, the highest during any five-game stretch in her career.

After agreeing that Osborne’s scoring has been even better during the stretch, freshman forward Emily Bessoir gave praise to Osborne’s entire season.

“(Osborne) is a great teammate and a great player,” Bessoir said. “She knows when to take the ball and score and she has been great in the past – this whole season.”

Osborne’s 3-point shooting is also topping her previous marks. After shooting 33.3% last season and 31.9% through the first seven games this season, she’s 19-of-39 from beyond the arc, good for 48.7%.

Close said she’s been prepared for Osborne’s breakout since her first few weeks in Westwood when the then-freshman would follow around then-redshirt senior guard Japreece Dean prior to last season.

“I knew that she was going to grow into being one of the best guards in the country the first week she was on campus,” Close said. “She found our biggest gym rat, Japreece Dean, when she was a freshman the first week and said, ‘Don’t ever go to the gym without me.’ I give Japreece Dean a lot of credit for how (Osborne’s) work ethic and skill development and preparation (have) grown.”

Osborne now leads the Pac-12 in scoring with 19.3 points per game. She also received her second Pac-12 Player of the Week award this season Jan. 25 after her 24-point performance in a win against then-No. 5 Stanford.

In addition to Dean, Close said senior forward Michaela Onyenwere – Osborne’s current roommate – has been a role model for Osborne thus far in her career while making her an attractive teammate for future Bruins.

“The other person I give a lot of credit to is (Onyenwere) as her roommate,” Close said. “From a mindset perspective and a leadership perspective, those two things have really soared. I’ve been telling recruits all the time, ‘You’re going to want to play with her.’ She’s going to grow into being one of the elite guards in the country.”