Women’s basketball tries to find footing in practice with new-look roster

This post was updated Oct. 11 at 1:41 a.m.

Deja vu was in the air at the Bruins’ practice Friday morning.

After prematurely ending practice a week before because of what she called an unsatisfactory effort from her team, UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close expressed a similar sentiment Friday, telling the Bruins during drills that she won’t coach players who don’t show up to practice and deliver.

Redshirt senior guard Chantel Horvat, who said she is embracing her leadership role this season, responded in the huddle by motivating her teammates to rise to the challenge.

Horvat is one of three returning upperclassmen this year from last year’s active roster for the Bruins and is still nursing an ankle injury. During a fast break drill at practice, she didn’t run the full court but was seen advising her teammates and clarifying play mechanics with other Bruins.

“I’m looking forward to getting back out there a hundred percent and getting ready for the season,” Horvat said. “Every year I’m learning more and more about myself as a leader and more and more about this team. It’s a very different team this year.”

With the addition of four transfers and three Bruins who opted out last season because of injury or the COVID-19 pandemic, UCLA will sport a new-look roster this year. And with sophomore forward Emily Bessoir set to miss the entire 2021-2022 season after sustaining an ACL tear earlier this week, the handful of new players will have a chance to assume larger roles this season.

By taking advantage of the transfer portal, Close was able to build a deeper roster after dealing with roster shortages throughout last season. However, the 11th-year coach said integrating so many new players has not come without its difficulties.

“Our challenge really (is) how quickly we can go from a group with nine new players that weren’t on the roster last year to a unit that knows how to make each other better, that knows how to be stronger together than they ever would be individually,” Close said.

Close said junior guard Charisma Osborne will also be an important leader for the Bruins this season. Osborne started all 23 games last season, averaging 17 points and 3.8 assists per game to secure All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 All-Defensive Team honors.

During a special situations defense drill, Close cited lazy players on both sides of the ball but directed her attention to Osborne, calling out the lack of leadership from the second-leading scorer on the team last year.

After practice, Close said Osborne’s ability to implement constructive criticism has improved from years past.

“I was really proud of how she responded after that – it’s the best she’s ever responded to a challenge by me,” Close said. “The reality for Charisma is she’s already one of the elite guards in the country. What she’s going to need to be to reach her potential is an elite leader, and she’s well on her way.”

Osborne has now had two seasons under Close since joining UCLA in 2019 and said that during that time, they’ve built a relationship based on accountability. The third-year guard said Friday’s practice was no different.

“She tells me all the time that she’s going to hold me to a higher standard, and that’s what she did,” Osborne said. “Those times happen, and I just wanted to take what she said … and just be there for my teammates.”

Before the team returned to the locker room for the end of practice, coaches and players gathered in the center of the court for call outs, which Close said uplifted and acknowledged the Bruins for their hard day’s work.

“At the end of every practice, we do ‘what-went-wells,’ and we’ll call each other out,” Close said. “We always end the day calling each other up and catching each other doing it right.”