This post was updated Oct. 28 at 12:06 a.m.

No. 11 UCLA women’s basketball has completed its exhibition matchups, defeating California 87-53 on Oct. 14 and falling to No. 6 Texas 81-64 on Oct. 25. The Bruins are entering the season as the reigning National Champions, but saw six of their players leave for the WNBA. Assistant Sports editor Sinclair Richman breaks down her five biggest takeaways from the games.

No need to panic

A 17-point loss to Texas may seem like a big deal, but I don’t think there’s any need to ring the alarm bells.

In case it is forgotten, the only team that conquered UCLA last year was Texas, handing coach Cori Close’s squad an 11-point loss in November 2025. And this loss allowed the Bruins to see their weaknesses, priming them for the challenges in the Big Ten season and the NCAA Tournament.

Now I’m not saying this is the only loss the Westwood side will suffer in the 2026-27 year, but I am saying that a practically new roster falling to a Longhorn team that kept its First Team All-American from last season is not the end of the world.

Every scorer from the Final Four and National Championship left the program to join the WNBA. With just five returners – four of whom played last year, and one of whom is out for the season with an ACL tear – the Bruins are rebuilding, and this is just a part of their growing pains.

Looking at the 24-point win over the Golden Bears gives us a better example of how the squad could truly perform this season.

No. 3 USC beat Cal by just two points, despite the presence of returning guard Jazzy Davidson – the team’s leader in points, rebounds and assists from the 2025-26 season and guard Juju Watkins, who is back from her ACL injury during the 2024-25 season when she won Naismith Player of the Year.

If a team with Davidson, Watkins and guard/forward Saniyah Hall – the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2026 – had to scrape by with a two-point win over a team that UCLA took down handily, the future could be looking bright.

The loss to the Longhorns is not the end of the world. In fact, the teams will face off again in December, allowing the Bruins to get revenge once more.

So don’t panic. Let Close figure out what went wrong, and allow the team to flourish.

Welcome back, Elina

Junior guard Elina Aarnisalo might have been the Bruins’ most crucial pick-up in the transfer portal.

After spending her freshman campaign in Westwood, Aarnisalo was part of the rookie class that all transferred to different schools. The Helsinki, Finland, local ended up at North Carolina, where she averaged 10.2 points per game on a 47.3% clip from the field and a 40.4% mark from behind the arc.

These numbers were huge jumps from her time off the bench as a rookie, where she averaged half of her points on a 43.7% mark from the field and only 27% from the 3-point line. Aarnisalo took on a much bigger role with the Tar Heels than what she had on the Bruins, scoring double digits in 18 games compared to just five games in the 2024-25 season.

Her time spent with the Tar Heels allowed her to grow into a player with more responsibilities, something that is crucial for a Bruin side that lost its top six scorers. And she showed that she could be the player UCLA needed her to be in the two exhibition matchups, leading the Westwood squad in scoring through both games.

Aarnisalo recorded 20 points in the win over the Golden Bears, shooting 4-for-5 from deep, also tacking on seven assists without a single turnover. In the lower-scoring game against the Longhorns, she was one of two Bruins to reach double digits, scoring 13 points on 4-for-7 shooting from the field.

If Aarnisalo continues to perform at the level she did in the exhibition matchups, she could be the next leader for this rebuilding UCLA team.

An international advantage

UCLA did not pick up a single recruit from the top-100 class of 2026 list.

But that’s not to say it doesn’t have talent coming in.

The team has two freshmen rostered, both coming from abroad, and guard Somto Okafor could be a secret weapon. ESPN Top 100 only looks at American – and occasionally, Canadian – high schoolers. This means that players from outside these two countries are what I like to consider hidden gems.

Guard Georgia Amoore, who played at Virginia Tech and Kentucky, technically entered the NCAA from Australia unranked, but opened her collegiate campaign averaging 11.8 points per game. Coming from abroad gives an opportunity to slide under the radar.

Okafor joins the program from Barcelona, Spain, where she has competed with various levels of the Spanish Youth National Team. At the 2026 FIBA U18 Women’s EuroBasket, Okafor played seven games, averaging 15.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. She was named the tournament MVP after scoring 17 points in the finals to help her team capture the tournament title.

She could enter the NCAA as a top, or at least notable, freshman, something she put on display in one of the exhibition matches as well.

Against Cal, she balanced the stat sheet with 15 points, six rebounds and four assists on 7-for-9 shooting. In her first matchup against a collegiate squad, she also recorded three steals to go along with zero turnovers.

And with the lack of media attention on her because she is an international player, she could prove to be an X-factor for the Bruin squad.

Bet on Betts

Sophomore forward Sienna Betts entered the collegiate scene as the No. 2 recruit in the class of 2025, per ESPN.

In her freshman season, she was coming off the bench behind her older sister, former Bruin center Lauren Betts. A lack of playing time limited what she could show off through her rookie campaign, where she averaged six points and four rebounds a game.

But as the returner who saw the most time last season, the younger Betts will be able to step into a bigger role under brighter lights.

She recorded a double-double in the Bruins’ win over the Golden Bears, putting up 11 points on 5-for-12 shooting and 12 rebounds to go along with four blocks. In the matchup against the Longhorns, she was limited to just eight points on 4-for-8 shooting in addition to five rebounds and three blocks.

Betts’ performance against Texas was cut short, as she fouled out of the game, but her stat lines still show promise. Seven blocks and 17 rebounds across a two-game stretch proves that she will be a valuable asset on defense.

Now, the Bruins need scorers, so figuring out more ways for the 6-foot-4 Betts to get on the blocks and make easy finishes will be crucial to the team’s success. But her defensive prowess – should she be able to stay out of foul trouble – is reminiscent of that of her sister, so Betts’ future could be very bright.

A deep(er) bench

Last season, one of the reasons UCLA was considered an underdog was its lack of depth.

In the Final Four and National Championship, only six players were able to score, and Close kept a pretty strict six-player – occasionally seven-player – rotation in tight games.

But, at least through the exhibition games, the Bruins’ 2026-27 bench looks a little bit deeper.

In the opening matchup against the Golden Bears, the Bruins recorded 40 bench points, almost half of the total points scored through the game. This included two players reaching double-digit marks, in Okafor and fifth-year guard KK Bransford.

Bransford, who comes to Westwood after four seasons with Notre Dame, has been seen as a spark plug before, and her 14-point performance on 6-for-9 shooting from the field – 2-for-3 from behind the arc – against Cal showed that she brought that ability with her.

The Texas matchup saw 20 bench points, with a combined 13 coming from transfers senior forward Addy Brown and sophomore guard Bonnie Deas.

Now I’m not saying Close is going to be reaching 10 players deep. But I think she can comfortably play an eight-player rotation – one that could have been nine but sophomore guard/forward Lena Bilić tore her ACL – in tighter games.

And with the six key players from last season gone, this eight-player rotation will have a lot of slack to pick up.