'We're a professional organization': How Cori Close built UCLA into a champion in the NIL era

PHOENIX -- On Sunday afternoon at the Mortgage Matchup Center, UCLA Bruins head coach Cori Close led her team to a dominant 79-51 victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks to win the program's first NCAA women's basketball national championship. It was a legacy-altering moment for Close, who has been coaching for 33 years and in the UCLA job for 15. She broke into an elite club with the win: only four other active head coaches in the women's game have won a national championship.

The victory will benefit Close's life and career in a myriad of ways, but as the confetti fell, she had one particular perk on her mind.

"I did say to my mom, 'the transfer portal just got easier,'" Close told reporters.

The transfer portal officially opened on Monday, just hours after the Bruins arrived back on campus to celebrate with their fans in Westwood. And Close has to be very active in the portal this year -- all five of her starters and Angela Dugalic, the Big Ten sixth player of the year, are graduating. But while the trophy will certainly help attract some talent, it's not the only ace up her sleeve. 

"I'm in Los Angeles, and a lot of people, if you've been in these cold, small college towns, it sounds pretty good to go to LA," she said on Thursday. "In the new NIL era, being in Los Angeles is a tremendous advantage, because I can say that the NIL package that I provide is just the floor, not the ceiling, because of what they can build on top of what we're able to offer, given Los Angeles is a No. 1 media market of all Power Five schools. It's been a huge selling point for us ... and we've really leveraged that in the transfer portal."

Close has been a vocal critic of the lack of regulations and guardrails in the NIL era and the negative impact that this new world order can have on players and coaches alike. But she also believes that NIL is long overdue and has adapted well to the times. 

"I am much more like a CEO than I am just like a head coach," she said. "We've worked our tails off this year to be ready, especially in a year like this where we're probably going to get five transfers, you better be doing a lot of work on the financial side of things."

Last month, a Fox Sports documentary on UCLA's 2024-25 season gave fans a raw look at the team's historic Final Four run that ended in a blowout loss to UConn in the national semis. Camera crews have been following the Bruins again this season. When asked why she allowed filmmakers access to such vulnerable moments, Close candidly told Lisa Leslie on her podcast, "We got paid a lot of money to do it and that helps build my roster."

While her coaching and player development skills deserve a lot of credit, Close's willingness to embrace these new realities is a major reason why she's been able to transform UCLA's women's basketball program from an afterthought to a potential powerhouse. 

"We're a professional organization now. We're building front offices. We have roster construction. I have GMs. It's a different landscape," Close said.

Three of the five starters on UCLA's championship roster were transfers -- superstar center Lauren Betts, who was the No. 1-ranked recruit in her class, transferred from Stanford after her freshman year, while Charlisse Leger-Walker and Gianna Kneepkens came over after four years with Washington State and Utah, respectively. Dugalic transferred after her freshman year at Oregon.

Close has also found success recruiting, developing and retaining key pieces. Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez were both with the Bruins for their entire collegiate careers. Rice was the No. 2 overall recruit in her class, behind Betts, and Jaquez was the leading scorer in the championship game with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Both are expected to be first-round picks in the WNBA Draft next week.

In Phoenix, Rice praised Close and UCLA for helping prepare her to be a professional from the start.

"I mean, I think we've been fortunate to experience a lot of changes over the four years that we've been here, been in college," Rice said. "Just the support and the willingness to be able to recognize that playing college basketball now is like a job. It's not just something you show up to for fun. This is a job. We take it seriously. You get paid to do it. Just being ready to take on that mindset of you're a working young woman. Even (though) we're only 18, 19 years old, it's true. We have to have that mentality. The coaches and entire staff do a great job of preparing us to really take on that mindset, to be smart businesswomen."

Close has made sure to provide her players not just with NIL money but with the resources they need to properly handle it. She prioritizes financial literacy, mental health care and connecting her players with UCLA's vast alumni network -- all of which former UCLA players told her they wish they had more of when they were with the Bruins. 

"I have tried to be methodical about that because it doesn't do any good if we give them this money, if they're pros, and we don't give them the equipping to actually be able to maximize those for real opportunities that change lives," she said.

What really sets Close apart, though, is that while she's succeeding with NIL and the transfer portal, she's also managed to stay true to her principles and keep a selfless, team-first culture intact amidst it all. That, it turns out, is a winning formula.

"I think you have to be a really good relationship builder and culture builder if you're going to have continuity within this environment. You have to be incredibly intentional about that," she said. "I don't think you can have a committed team unless you have a connected team. Really building that with a new group of people has to be really well-planned out. But I don't think it can't be done. I think it really can.

"I think you can do it if everybody's aligned in the vision and they're willing to be known. That's hard. I mean, to be courageously vulnerable with each other, to grow, to sacrifice individually for something you want collectively, you have to have the right people on your bus. But I do think it can be done."