Coach Cori Close asked each player to raise her hand if she felt that she had committed absolutely 100 percent to the last drill.
No one raised their hand, so Close had the drill repeated. Immediately, a new sense of urgency drifted onto the court.
That urgency was what Close was looking for. With just six games left, UCLA women’s basketball is at a crossroads after losing four of the past five, including its latest against USC.
But judging from the way practice has been going this week in preparation to travel to Oregon State (15-9, 7-5 Pac-12) on Friday and Oregon (13-10, 4-8 Pac-12) on Monday, UCLA (11-13, 5-7 Pac-12) is trying to swerve onto the right road.
Following a tough loss to the rival Trojans last weekend, the Bruins coaching staff decided to let the captains run practice on Monday.
Sixth-year senior forward Atonye Nyingifa, senior guard Thea Lemberger and sophomore guard Kari Korver designed a plan to push through the weaknesses that popped up in the USC loss, like finishing through contact and diving for loose balls.
Then practice ended with a large three-game tournament of dodgeball that included scout team players, team staff and the coaches.
“It had everybody hyped and excited and just brought the whole competitive nature back to us,” Nyingifa said. “We needed something to give us a lift coming off a loss.”
Close appeared to be impressed with the way practice unfolded. She said she had felt that the players needed to take responsibility and ownership of how the rest of the season is going to unfold.
And then on Wednesday, Close pushed the team to go “beyond,” only ending practice because the entire men’s basketball team was ready and waiting on the sidelines for its practice to begin.
Close was determined to steer her team in the right direction.
“The crossroads is will we have that focus, will we allow distractions to come in, get us down and give up? That’s the crossroads,” Close said. “It’s my responsibility to set the course for this program and the course has got to stay the same.”
But in recent weeks, UCLA has gotten dangerously close to straying off the road.
After getting above .500 for the first time all season three weeks ago, the Bruins have faltered and fallen to two games below the .500 mark.
“We hold our own cards, and we’re not putting out the right ones as of late,” Lemberger said.
UCLA has to be careful now. A couple more misplayed hands and it might be too late to turn back toward the right direction.