Bruins Ranked No. 9 in AP Preseason Women’s Poll
Los Angeles, Calif. – UCLA Women's Basketball has earned the No. 9 ranking on the Associated Press (AP) Preseason Poll, as announced by the AP on Tuesday. The Bruins are one of five Pac-12 teams that cracked the preliminary top 25, with Stanford (No. 2), Arizona (No. 7), Oregon (No. 10), and Oregon State (No. 18) also joining the list. UCLA has now been ranked in the AP Top 25 in 25 straight weeks and has secured a top-10 ranking in each of the last 16 weeks.
UCLA checks in one spot ahead of its final ranking at the end of the 2019-20 season, as the Bruins were voted the 10th-best team in the country following a 26-5 campaign. UCLA finished 14-4 in Pac-12 play and advanced to the semi-finals of the Pac-12 Tournament. The team was on track to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament before the tourney was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bruins are set to return five student-athletes who had significant starting roles throughout the season, including AP Third Team All-American Michaela Onyenwere and Pac-12 All-Freshman team honoree Charisma Osborne. Onyenwere led the team with 18.9 points per game and became the 36th player to reach 1,000-career points with the Bruins. Osborne started 29 games as a true freshman and set a UCLA freshman record with 59 made three-pointers. Senior forward Lauryn Miller returns after starting 30 games as a junior, setting new career highs in points per game (6.6) and rebounds per game (5.7). Redshirt senior guard Natalie Chou and redshirt junior guard Lindsey Corsaro also figure to have prominent roles in the Bruins' rotation.
The Michael Price Family UCLA Women's Head Basketball Coach Cori Close is set to enter her milestone 10th season at the helm of the Bruin program. She has compiled an 198-104 (.656) record in her previous nine seasons and has guided the team to five NCAA Tournament appearances. The Bruins are one of only eight programs to have reached the Sweet 16 in each of the last four NCAA Tournaments.
Associate Head Coach Shannon Perry-LeBeauf and Assistant Coach Tony Newnan are also on the cusp of their 10th season with the Bruins and have been on Close's staff since the beginning of her tenure. Assistant Coach Tasha Brown enters her third season with UCLA.