UCLA women's basketball coach talks historic 1st NCAA title, advice from John Wooden
Cori Close woke up on Monday an NCAA title-winning women's basketball coach, following UCLA's decisive March Madness victory over South Carolina for the team's first championship in program history.
"I'm not sure I ever would have been able to go to sleep -- I still may be a little numb," Close told "Good Morning America" in the early hours after the win.
The Bruins defeated South Carolina 79-51 on Sunday for a historic national title, led by coach Close.
"I just keep thinking, and all these faces keep flooding my mind. It's really about the journey and who I've been able to share things with," Close said. "This is just about paying it forward. So it's hard to describe, but really just humbled and thankful for the people I've been able to share it with."
Six of the seniors on the team scored all the points in the Final Four round of the NCAA tournament, which Close said was a key component to their overall success.
"We knew we had a talented roster, but we knew that wasn't going to be enough, that there had to be incredible selflessness and sacrificial selflessness, elite work ethic, and just a relentless competitive spirit," the coach explained.
"After our walkthrough yesterday morning, we were talking about how three strands that are connected together and woven together cannot easily be broken, and that our team, it was by their connectivity, no matter what the role, everybody's sacrifice was important," Close said.
She continued, "They were just so locked in. I turned to Pam Walker, my director of basketball operations, and said, 'We got this, we're going to win this thing.' And I just knew I could see it in their eyes."
Close said that a growth mindset has been a core value for herself and the team all season.
"For them to recognize that I want to be in the trenches with them and grow with them, that really is meaningful," she said.
Close said she had "the unbelievable privilege to be mentored" by legendary UCLA men's basketball coach John Wooden for 15 years, who she said told her, "It's not a matter of how I would do it, you're wired uniquely. You need to teach and coach in a way that you're uniquely called to do it."
"He also really just coached from the inside out all the time," Close said. "He says, 'Remember, Cori, you're not coaching people's jump shots, you're coaching people's hearts.' But then with his big blue eyes, he would say, 'But if you coach their hearts really well, usually their jump shots end up pretty good too.'"
