On April 5, 2026, celebrations were in order when University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) brought home the NCAA Women’s National Basketball Championship trophy for the first time in program history. Although some fans doubted their ability, the championship game against South Carolina was nearly a 30-point margin win for UCLA and was the third-largest margin of victory ever in the women’s title game. This win caps off a historic season for the team, with a 37-1 record and a 31-game season win-streak. With a stacked starting lineup with seniors like Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, and Gabriela Jaquez, it’s no surprise that they were able to pull this off.
Despite their exceptional in-season performance, many sports news outlets like ESPN doubted that UCLA would pull off the win this year. In the ESPN segment “Bracketology,” they predicted that University of Connecticut (UConn) would win it all because of their undefeated season and decisive playing style. While not the favorite, UCLA was still expected to go far.
On Bracketology, sports commentator and journalist, Ari Chambers, said that if there were to be an upset of a number 1 seed not making it to the final four, it would likely be because of UCLA or Duke. It wasn’t just sports outlets betting against them, it was the fans too.
Every year, millions of March Madness brackets are submitted by fans on major online platforms in hopes that they’ll win big by correctly guessing the winners of every game. Although a “perfect” women’s bracket has never been recorded, fans still take their predictions very seriously, hoping they’ll be the first.
Millbrook basketball player and avid basketball fan, Blair Allen, made a March Madness bracket with her family. Allen made her bracket predictions mainly based off of the team’s stats and overall her bracket did well up until her final four prediction. Allen predicted that UConn or Texas would win it all this year based off of UConn’s stacked team of WNBA prospects and Texas’ great 25-26 season. Despite these predictions, although she was slightly surprised by UCLA’s win, she believed it was well deserved because of their hard work and undeniable team chemistry.
Despite all of the buzz against them making it, the UCLA team says they were unscathed. When asked on Jimmy Kimmel Live if this negative feedback “fired them up,” Kiki Rice responded, “To be honest I didn’t care.” She said at the end of the day, they were just focused on playing the game and putting their best foot forward.
When asked how she was approaching March Madness given their almost perfect season, head coach Cori Close said that she trusted in the process they had built and that it instilled a level of confidence in her team. Close also attributes the team’s success to the strong senior leadership on the team.
She says, “So much of what we have built this year can be traced back to the work ethic, leadership, and example of Kiki Rice.”
Rice is just one of the starting seniors on the team who have repeatedly proven their value not just as an asset on the court, but also as an inspiration to her teammates. These other seniors and graduate students include Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, Angela Dugalić, and Gianna Kneepkens, all of which were selected in the WNBA draft on April 13.
This was a huge moment and UCLA were the first ever to have five players selected in the first round of the WNBA draft and six selected in one draft. It’s clear these athletes are going places and it will be interesting to see how they are able to compete on different teams in the WNBA. When asked on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the girls say they won’t have any trouble competing against each other due to their competitive nature and that they were excited to see what is going to happen.
Whatever happens, they will always be able to look back on their time at UCLA and remembering the championship trophy they won together.
