The second-best team in the nation spent the day before its biggest game of the season embracing tradition with something its players have done regardless of ranking or the wins under their belt.

Giving back.

Coach Cori Close said this aspect of her program is essential to the team’s experience and success.

“It’s not enough to give kids a diploma and a trophy,” Close said. “We’ve got to make a difference in their hearts.”

One day prior to its matchup against then-No. 6 Connecticut – a team the Bruins surmounted for the first time in their program’s history – No. 2 UCLA women’s basketball organized a basketball camp for young children in the Cayman Islands.

This tradition didn’t begin because the Bruins are under the limelight of the allure the No. 2 ranking brings. Close said her team has been putting on camps every year no matter where they travel for a tournament.

Despite receiving criticism that the camps could serve as a potential distraction, Close said she’s happy to prove them wrong.

“If you don’t win, people are like, ‘Oh, you’re distracted, you don’t have your priorities straight,’ whatever else, and what I love about being able to have such a signature win after that – it shows you can do both,” Close said. “You can make a difference in your community, and you can be competitively excellent at the same time.”

During the camp, the players conducted an hour-and-a-half-long clinic consisting of basketball drills and bonding. UCLA received partnerships with the The West Project and OOFOS to put on the camp, with OOFOS additionally providing free shoes for the participants.

Graduate student guard Camryn Brown added that in addition to putting on the camp, the kids were also able to attend the tournament, and it was equally special to be able to see them in the stands cheering the Bruins on while they were almost 2,500 miles away from their home court.

Brown – a player who’s been with the program for five years and has participated in many of these basketball camps – said seeing the kids in the crowd in the days after the event made the Bruins’ success in the tournament have a larger meaning.

“It just makes it so much better. It lights up our faces when we realize, ‘OMG, our kids are at the game,’” Brown said. “They get to see us play, and it really keeps instilling in us that we are role models to them.”

Even broader than this specific event, Close has made it her mission to coach her team not just as players but as individuals, too – helping them leave UCLA as better humans in all aspects. Close said when she is asked about her recruiting strategies, this aspect of her leadership and program is what she points to, which she modeled after the famous leadership of John Wooden.

“It’s honestly my greatest joy because the ball is gonna go flat sometime. And you know, banners hang in gyms and rings collect dust but who they become and who they impacted, they will have forever,” Close said. “And so for me to be able to watch them make great choices and connect those dots, it’s my greatest honor as a teacher.”

Close notably brought in the No. 1 recruiting class in 2022, which has posed five athletes – and new addition of sophomore transfer center Lauren Betts – as staples to UCLA’s success on the court. Subsequently, the coach just acquired the No. 3 overall recruiting class for 2024.

Sophomore forward Christeen Iwuala – a member of the top-ranked 2022 group – said Close’s commitment to service was paramount to her decision to call Westwood home.

“All in all, the opportunity that I’ve had in basketball to be able to help other people, … I came here for that reason,” Iwuala said. “I really enjoyed just having the opportunity in basketball to be able to give back and help others in whatever way that may be.”

The basketball landscape has changed as a whole with the addition of athletes’ ability to profit off their name, image and likeness. And the storylines surrounding UCLA’s program has made a 180 since its .500 conference record two seasons ago. But Close said the team’s nature has stayed the same.

The motto, “Sometimes me, sometimes you, always us,” reiterated by Iwaula and Close, is at the heart of their team. Close added that the triad of values she instills beyond this statement are being “humble,” “hungry” and “selfless.”

“Basketball is what we do. It’s not who we are,” Close said. “And I think when you put yourself in intentional circumstances to be around people that have less than you do, and you get a chance to make a difference in their lives, it comes back to you tenfold.”