PHOENIX — It’s laborious to envision a motivational quote or phrase Cori Close doesn’t like. The UCLA head coach is a strolling imaginative and prescient board that includes a bigger stash of phrases than the wins her Bruins accrued en route to the Final Four.
The underpinning of her teaching style is usually a lot, an undersell if there ever was one, given the appears on UCLA gamers’ faces of their Final Four locker room when requested how rapidly Close whips them out one after one other.
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“Oh my God, how many more of these can she say?” freshman middle Sienna Betts recalled considering upon her first Close expertise. “Like please, stop.”
The No. 2-ranked recruit wasn’t the one one initially puzzled at how simply quotes movement from Close in common dialog.
“I was taken aback, like, I wasn’t sure if she was serious or not,” redshirt sophomore Amanda Muse informed Yahoo Sports. “And then I was like, oh, she actually says this super often.”
Cori Close’s motivational phrases are a cornerstone of her teaching arsenal. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times by way of Getty Images)
(Gina Ferazzi by way of Getty Images)
It is a top quality that may be disorienting to hear in her interviews if unaccustomed. There’s a celebration recreation to be had, counting the variety of occasions she says them in any type or trend. Hitting on the low facet, it occurred twice in her pre-Final Four availability on Thursday in Phoenix ahead of the semifinal against Texas.
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But the references come so typically, they’re typically embedded within the bigger level while not having to name them out particularly. Underneath the jesting, Betts discovered that at sure occasions, her coach was right in prodding her crew with the sayings.
“It’s so vital to her coaching style and how she teaches us,” Betts stated.
Her favourite is, “the grass is greener where you water it,” a reminder to keep away from fleeing from laborious conditions and as an alternative studying to develop from them to flourish. Though she finds which means in them, Betts nonetheless enjoys poking enjoyable at Close for her phrases. It’s a tactic she stated she will get away with unscathed, and one by which she isn’t alone.
“A lot of times we have to get past teasing her about it and then actually absorb what she’s saying,” Muse stated. “Because there’s so much truth to it, even though she delivers it in a very corny way.”
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One phrase Close retains within the holster is “you can never outperform your image,” considered one of Muse’s favorites she’ll carry together with her past basketball.
“It’s saying you have to believe in yourself first to perform at the highest level,” Must stated.
It’s one which senior middle Lauren Betts, Sienna’s older sister, attributed to the crew’s cohesion. The National Player of the Year contender’s private favourite Close phrase additionally applies to the crew’s ascendance: Sometimes you, generally me, always us.
“There’s so many people that are involved in this process, and it truly is a team and our entire program,” Lauren Betts stated. “We’ve just worked so hard to get here. I feel like that one I’ve felt a lot in the past three years. … I’m not gonna get anywhere on my own.”
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It all comes down to psychological toughness, a cornerstone of Close’s teaching style and the UCLA program. Close took the onus on herself for final 12 months’s Final Four loss, the primary within the college’s NCAA historical past, claiming she did not put together her crew properly sufficient for the brilliant lights of the most important stage. Lauren Betts stated the seniors purchased deeply into the psychological work Close always accomplished together with her crew, whereas Close stated she engaged in her personal steering as the skin strain on UCLA mounted.
“We have a phrase, you got to learn to talk to yourself rather than listen to yourself,” Close told Yahoo Sports’ Hoops 360 podcast earlier this year. “Because if you just listen to yourself, you start to internalize all of the expectations.”
This is, with out query, the deepest and most skilled crew of Close’s 15-year tenure at UCLA. The Bruins reached an Elite Eight as soon as in her profession till breaking by final 12 months as a No. 1 seed, and repeating here again along with the other No. 1 seeds UConn, Texas and South Carolina. Everything is now even in a battle of elite heavyweights that went by the whole season because the clear high tier.
Close hasn’t shied away from that actuality, but she additionally isn’t making it all the pieces to her gamers. She informed Yahoo Sports that “banners hang in gyms and rings collect dust,” focusing as an alternative on who her gamers grow to be as human beings and their influence on the planet. It’s a side of her job she feels passionately about.
That’s how Utah switch Gianna Kneepken’s favourite Close-ism got here to be: “basketball is not who you are, but what you do.” It’s a reminder {that a} dangerous day on the job doesn’t have to outline what she means to these round her.
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“She always says, we invite all of you here, every single part of who you are into the program,” Kneepkens informed Yahoo Sports. “And I think that’s what’s special because we all do have different backgrounds and stories that make us who we are. It just builds a level of vulnerability and trust we can have with each other.”
Close leans closely on the concept she is just not merely a basketball coach. It’s why she speaks on such a ten,000-foot stage about how all the changes in college sports influence the gamers themselves. Her job, she stated, is to encourage particular person development and put together ladies for the remainder of their lives, whether or not or not it’s basketball.
Muse already sees how her favourite Close motivational kick will influence her after UCLA when she intends to pursue a STEM-related discipline.
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“A lot of times that’s a male-dominated space,” Muse stated. “Having the confidence in myself and my education, that will definitely apply.”
Lauren Betts, a projected WNBA lottery decide, is aware of the concept of “we” over “me” will stay crucial on the subsequent stage. Gabriela Jaquez, digging into 4 years’ value of Close’s affect, will always hold together with her, “don’t get tired of doing it right.”
“We’ll kind of giggle at that, but I think it’s true,” she stated. “You don’t want to do everything correctly. You want to do it right. And it can be tiring doing that, but don’t get tired of doing it right.”
No matter how typically her seniors made enjoyable of her for that one through the years, it’s one that might full the imaginative and prescient of this system’s first NCAA championship.
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