There was little doubt what the Bruins would hear on Selection Sunday.

UCLA has dropped just one game all season and finished conference play undefeated, winning the Big Ten tournament by a record-breaking 51 points.

But hearing their names as a top March Madness seed still brought the Bruins to their feet as paper confetti – thrown up by fans and donors joining the team at a selection show watch party – rained down.

No. 2 UCLA women’s basketball (31-1, 18-0 Big Ten) earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season Sunday. The top overall seed went to No. 1 UConn, which has remained undefeated since winning the national championship last season.

“Whatever seed we got, we weren’t really worried about that,” said senior guard Kiki Rice. “I don’t think, honestly, in the team there was much conversation about what seed we would get, and that speaks a lot to the maturity of our team, the maturity of this group.”

UCLA will begin tournament play Saturday when it faces No. 16 seed Cal Baptist (23-10, 15-3 Western Athletic) at Pauley Pavilion. The Lancers have played just one ranked team all season, losing to then-No. 23 Nebraska 87-56 on Dec. 21. 

The Bruins, on the other hand, boast 10 ranked wins and 19 Quad 1 wins, the most of any team in the country. 

UCLA, which ranks No. 1 nationally in strength of schedule, was in the conversation to receive the No. 1 overall seed for the second year in a row over UConn, which has played just the No. 58 toughest slate in the country. 

But an early-season loss to fellow No. 1 seed Texas – which the Westwood squad could potentially face in the Final Four – has kept UCLA behind UConn in the rankings despite its 25-game winning streak since, the longest in program history. 

With the Bruins and the Huskies, who eliminated the former in the Final Four last season, on opposite corners of the bracket, the teams would only meet if both reached the national championship. 

“That Texas loss taught us that we need to do that – want to do that – in order to achieve our goals, to get to where we want to get to,” Rice said. “We had a conversation, as a team, but also with the staff included, and we got on the same page of what we want the rest of the year to look like. We didn’t want it to look like last year.”

A victory Saturday in the Round of 64 would yield UCLA another game at Pauley Pavilion, where it would face the winner of No. 8 seed Oklahoma State and No. 9 seed Princeton on Monday. 

The road to the Final Four continues in Sacramento after that, with Sweet 16 and Elite Eight play commencing the following weekend.

“We’re very level, and there’s this very business-like approach to how we’re going to attack this,” said coach Cori Close. “But I feel much more equipped as a leader, let alone them as players, of how we’re going to handle this next one.”

No. 2 seed LSU joins UCLA as the top two teams in its Sacramento region and, if seeding holds true, the squads could repeat last year’s tournament quarterfinal that vaulted Close’s squad to its first national semifinal in program history in the NCAA era. The Bruins won last season’s matchup 72-65.

Duke and Minnesota fall behind LSU as the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, respectively, in UCLA’s corner of the bracket. No. 1 seed South Carolina headlines the other Sacramento region, with Texas and UConn both topping the Fort Worth, Texas, quadrants. 

However, for now, the Bruins are directing their attention to Saturday’s contest.

“Right now I’m just really focused on the Cal Baptist game, and that’s been my mindset,” said graduate student forward Angela Dugalić. “Who we’re playing against each time – I’m not going to look too far ahead.”

The only other time UCLA has faced Cal Baptist is in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in 2024. 

Now-senior guard Gabriela Jaquez and Rice scored 20 and 19 points, respectively, in the 84-55 win at Pauley Pavilion. Dugalić also started for the Bruins in the matchup, scoring nine points and grabbing seven boards.

The entirety of UCLA’s tournament run will take place on the West Coast, with the last possible stop in Phoenix, Arizona.

But the road starts at home.

“We are the only NCAA tournament team in college, men or women, that is hosting here in Southern California,” Close said. “We’ve got to be packing that out.”