‘Rico’ provides wealth of talent for women’s hoops
German-born Kuypers finds niche in America as UCLA point
guard
By Hye Kwon
The UCLA women’s basketball might be having a hard time going
where they want to this season, but one player who has already
traveled a long way to be where she wants to be is Ricarda
Kuypers.
Known as "Rico" by her peers, Kuypers has come from Aechen,
Germany where she was born and raised. After graduating from
Dreieich Gymnasium, she chose to come to the United States to do
something different.
"I came here to experience a different country and a different
culture," Kuypers said.
Playing basketball, of course had a lot to do with her decision.
After all, she’s been competing in basketball ever since her youth.
In Germany, Kuypers played for a club team called Eimtracht
Frankfurt for three years. Kuypers lists her team’s club national
championship run in 1992 as one of her career highlights.
When she first arrived in America at the age of 19, Kuypers
enrolled herself at Orange Coast College in Orange County. She
averaged 13.7 points and 6.7 assists per game while leading OCC to
the California Junior College Elite Eight. Kuypers earned
All-Empire League honors and was selected All-Southern
California.
"The level of play at OCC was definitely lower than here at
UCLA," Kuypers said. "But it was fun. We had a good team."
After the completion of her freshman year several four-year
universities, which included UCLA, were interested in Kuypers. She
received offers from many schools around the Western United States
but chose to come to UCLA.
"I could have gone to Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State, Hawaii or
New Mexico State, but I decided to come here because I had a lot of
friends in the Orange County and the Los Angeles areas," Kuypers
said. "Also, I really liked my recruiting trip here. I had a lot of
fun."
Kuypers’ role in this year’s Bruin team has changed drastically
from last year. Last season, Kuypers did not have the pressure of
being one of the team’s leaders. In front of her on the depth chart
was Detra Lockhart, who displayed tremendous talent at the point
guard position. The task that Kuypers had last year was to come in
and give the team a solid 15 to 20 minutes backing up Lockhart at
the point guard position.
But this year, Kuypers is relied on to carry the young team on
her shoulders. Kuypers has started all but one game for the Bruins,
averaging 32 minutes per outing, which  along with Nikki
Hilbert  is tops on the team. Kuypers leads the team in
assists with 61 and is third on the team in scoring with 9.5 points
per game.
"I definitely feel that I have a lot of responsibilities
especially because I’m playing point guard," Kuypers said. "I would
say that I do feel the pressure because of that, but so far I don’t
think that I have helped the team enough with my abilities."
One thing that’s for sure is that the competitive nature of
Kuypers does not epitomize the manner in which the Bruins have
struggled this year. The Bruins have a 7-10 overall record and a
conference record of 2-6 which is worst in the conference. But
Kuypers believes that the team should not dwell on past losses but
look to the future.
"We can’t look back at what happened," Kuypers said. "We can
analyze and learn from (the losses) but we have to go on."
Come next season, UCLA will feature three "Diaper Dandies" in
Erica Gomez, Mari Burningham and Takiyah Jackson. But Kuypers is
still optimistic about the team’s success in the remaining games in
the Pac-10.
"Getting Erica, Takiyah and Mari will give us a lift next year,
but I still think that we can play a lot better than we are
actually playing," Kuypers said.
As far as long-term plans are concerned, Kuypers has ambitious
goals. She plans to play basketball professionally in Europe and
has plans to try out for the German National Team this April.