[Griffins78]

Close came to ucla the year after Wooden died

John Wooden started mentoring Cori over 30 years ago, well before she became the head coach at UCLA. She was a recent graduate and new assistant coach at UCLA and Steve Lavin invited her to meet Wooden with him. His great grand daughter was also Cori and they began meeting weekly even after she left UCLA.

She recruited Kiki Rice and Gabriella Jaquez (co-MVPs in the McDonald”s High School All-American game) as the core foundation of that culture - team first, really hard working, mature, strong values, etc. They played a significant role in recruiting the rest of the team. Then Lauren Betts came to UCLA and the effort and way Cori worked with Lauren to rehabilitate her and rebuild her confidence and love for the game is a really good example of the difference in the values, culture, approach and personalities of the coaches at Stanford vs. at UCLA.

[Griffins78]

Close came to ucla the year after Wooden died

John Wooden started mentoring Cori over 30 years ago, well before she became the head coach at UCLA. She was a recent graduate and new assistant coach at UCLA and Steve Lavin invited her to meet Wooden with him. His great grand daughter was also Cori and they began meeting weekly even after she left UCLA.

She recruited Kiki Rice and Gabriella Jaquez (co-MVPs in the McDonald”s High School All-American game) as the core foundation of that culture - team first, really hard working, mature, strong values, etc. They played a significant role in recruiting the rest of the team. Then Lauren Betts came to UCLA and the effort and way Cori worked with Lauren to rehabilitate her and rebuild her confidence and love for the game is a really good example of the difference in the values, culture, approach and personalities of the coaches at Stanford vs. at UCLA.