Uncommon.

Coach Cori Close has used this label to describe UCLA women’s basketball mission and the six graduating athletes who have championed it throughout the season.

As for the Bruins, the word has become more than just one of Close’s soundbite sayings. It has begun to encapsulate the unconventional culture that cultivated a championship-winning team amid an NIL era prioritizing individualism.

“I wanted to find uncommon, courageous women that were willing to make uncommon choices that possibly could yield an uncommon result. And today it did,” Close said after the Bruins won their first NCAA title in program history on April 5.

Just over a week later, uncommon UCLA once again made history. All six of the Bruins’ graduating players were selected in the 2026 WNBA Draft – the most from the same collegiate program in a single year in the institution’s 29-year history.

Five of the six Westwood athletes who heard their names called were picked in the first round, breaking yet another WNBA record.

Senior center Lauren Betts paved the way for UCLA, which she has done for much of the season as the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, getting drafted fourth overall by the Washington Mystics.

Betts’ selection set in motion a flurry of Bruin recognition where Westwood’s core group of seniors was claimed in back-to-back succession.

[Related: UCLA women’s basketball makes history during record-breaking WNBA draft]

Senior guard Gabriela Jaquez – who was largely absent from preseason draft board’s first round projections – was picked fifth overall by the Chicago Sky, capping off her historic fourth and final season in Westwood where she improved across every shooting category to help fuel the Bruins to the national title.

The last time a UCLA basketball player went in the first round of either the WNBA or NBA Draft prior to Monday was when Jaquez’s brother Jaime Jaquez Jr. was drafted 18th overall by the Miami Heat in 2023.

The historic night for UCLA was far from over, as senior guard Kiki Rice was the third-straight Bruin to hear her name called when the Toronto Tempo – one of two expansion teams debuting this coming season – drafted the 5-foot-11 point guard sixth overall.

The unpredictable nature of this year’s draft, dominated by arguably one of the most talented classes in recent years, continued to shake up predicted selection orders. Graduate student forward Angela Dugalić, the fifth-year Bruin and six-year collegiate athlete, was picked next from Close’s squad – a selection that contradicted numerous analysts’ mock drafts.

Dugalić was the only bench player – apart from the three athletes with no NCAA experience – to hear her name called in the first round.​​ The Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year opted to use her last year of eligibility at UCLA, even if it meant being demoted from a starting position.

“My selflessness – that’s what I hope I leave with this team,” Dugalić said prior to the Bruins’ national championship celebration at Pauley Pavilion last Wednesday.

Graduate student guard Gianna Kneepkens rounded out the first-round selections when the Connecticut Sun drafted her 15th overall. The pick broke a record held by the Sue Bird-led 2002 UConn graduating class for most first-round draftees from the same school.

While UCLA continued to pick up milestones to adorn its historic 2025-26 campaign, graduate student guard Charlisse Leger-Walker broke records of her own.

The Waikato, New Zealand, local was selected as the third pick in the second round by the Connecticut Sun to become the first Kiwi to ever be drafted.

Through it all, Betts, Dugalić, Jaquez, Kneepkens, Leger-Walker and Rice celebrated seeing their professional aspirations accomplished alongside each other.

“How fun is it to go through it with all of your teammates? … This is, like, a dream come true for all of us,” Betts said, per USA Today. “Once I see them in their W jerseys, I’m probably gonna cry after the game just because I’m so proud of them.”