A shiny trophy sat center court at Pauley Pavilion, reflecting the smiles of the players crowded around it.

At first glance, it seemed to be an excessive celebration for a blowout win over an unranked team – especially when the victor was the No. 2 team in the nation.

But UCLA women’s basketball was not just celebrating its 80-60 win over Wisconsin. It was celebrating making history with the program’s first outright conference title.

And, maybe most importantly of all, it was celebrating its graduating class.

Both Senior Day and the presentation of the Big Ten trophy coincided with the Bruins’ home game against the Badgers on Feb. 22. The day of festivities was a culmination of a regular season which will officially conclude Sunday – when UCLA faces USC at the Galen Center – and one that has cemented the program’s status as a national stalwart.

Headlining the Bruins is senior center Lauren Betts. The projected top-five pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft has earned her place among Westwood legends. Betts tops opposing teams’ scouting reports for her lethality in the post. She recorded the second-most field goals in the NCAA last season with 294 and is currently second in the Big Ten in double-doubles with 11.

That is not to mention her defensive prowess, which has earned her program records for most single-season blocks, most blocks in a single game and UCLA’s first-ever Naismith Defensive Player of the Year honor.

Betts’ impact is undeniable.

But senior guard Kiki Rice is the secret to UCLA’s success.

The Bethesda, Maryland, local arrived in Westwood as a five-star recruit in 2022 – part of the Bruins’ second-ever No. 1 freshman class. Her high school accolades were numerous. She was named Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year in 2022 and was the co-MVP – alongside her soon-to-be teammate, senior forward Gabriela Jaquez – at the McDonald’s All-American game that same year.

Rice made the Pac-12 All-Freshman team after logging 1,034 minutes in her collegiate season debut – the most of any freshman in the conference. The next year, she sharpened her shooting across the board while making noise off the court by becoming the first student athlete to sign a NIL deal with Jordan. And she earned a First Team All-Big Ten honor and an All-America honorable mention selection in her junior campaign.

Anyone can read a list of Rice’s honors and glean her talent. But the 5-foot-11 guard’s intangibles – her versatility, work ethic and leadership – define her true impact.

Come to a game at Pauley Pavilion, and it is almost guaranteed you will see Rice’s signature Euro step, which allows her to cut past defenders for clean layups. She has also improved her body control when driving to the basket throughout the 2025-26 campaign, helping her draw crucial fouls and create and-one opportunities.

And if there is anyone you want at the charity stripe, it is Rice. She tied for the third-most free throws in the Pac-12 her freshman season and has since narrowed in on a career-high 88.9% clip from the charity stripe on 117 attempts this season.

Rice’s ability to make clutch free throws in close contests exemplifies a mental fortitude that will prove crucial in the Bruins’ upcoming NCAA national tournament run. This is especially true if her team comes head-to-head with No. 1 UConn – the team that beat the Bruins in the Final Four last season. UCLA shot its fourth-lowest season clip from the field in the last meeting between the schools, a poor offensive performance that could seemingly be chalked up to the Bruins’ nerves in addition to the eventual national champions’ defense.

Even if Rice has never led the Bruins in scoring over a single season, her versatility makes her one of their biggest threats, and coach Cori Close subsequently provides her with the most minutes on the team. She currently shoots 50.7% from the field off 292 attempts and 40.8% from beyond the arc, sitting on the doorstep of joining graduate student guard Gianna Kneepkens in the elite 50-40-90 club.

A shoulder injury prevented Rice from starting the first game of the season, which she has done in every contest since, but if anything, her recovery has allowed her to fine-tune her shooting form. Another contributor was likely many hours spent in the gym, manifested in her improved accuracy in every shooting category each season at UCLA, apart from a less than 1% dip in her free throw percentage between her sophomore and junior years.

But where Rice’s offensive impact is most felt, though, is in her ability to dictate the pace of the game and make high-IQ, split-second decisions, allowing players like Betts and Kneepkens to shine.

Facilitating is an entry-level requirement for any point guard, but Rice does it better than almost any player in the country, ranking sixth nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio.

The addition of graduate student guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, who leads the Bruins in assists, eases some of Rice’s offensive coordinator duties. But her offensive impact has not been minimized because of it, and as the team’s second-leading defensive rebounder – even though eight players on the roster stand taller than her – Rice is frequently able to show her deadliness in transition.

To single out just one player on Close’s roster is an injustice to the Bruins’ functionalism. UCLA is at its best when it is playing as a unit rather than five of the nation’s top individuals. So Rice’s embodiment of this may be what makes her so valuable.

“Kiki is selfless and Kiki is incredibly hardworking in a way that has been contagious in building the character of our program,” Close said during Big Ten Media Day in October. “People comment all the time when they come and watch us from the WNBA that our preparation and work ethic is maybe unmatched in what they’ve seen, and the reality of that is that’s because Kiki Rice set a new standard in our program.”

Rice said the opportunity to hoist the program’s first NCAA championship in almost five decades was one of the reasons why she chose UCLA.

Four years later, her commitment to the Bruins remains the same.

As the postseason approaches, UCLA’s national title dream feels attainable for the first time since 1978. The Bruins have one shot with Betts, Jaquez, Kneepkens, Leger-Walker and Rice all in their final collegiate seasons.

And Feb. 22 may not be the last time a trophy awaits the Bruins, especially with Rice as the anchor.