With the NCAA Tournament looming on the horizon for UCLA women’s basketball, this is the time for teams to kick into high gear, to ramp up its focus, to raise its execution – to engage in an intense game of full-sized “Hungry Hungry Hippos.”
On Friday, the UCLA women’s basketball did exactly that. Multicolored balls were strewn across center-court in Pauley Pavilion, half the team was prone on little boards with wheels carrying baskets and the others steered by holding those players’ legs. Cheering and laughter ensued.
“There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of things we want,” said coach Cori Close. “But it’s good to laugh sometimes.”
The players looked at the game as the perfect chance to take their mind off basketball and school.
“We’ve never done that before – play a game at the end of practice,” said junior guard Kari Korver. “We just wanted to have fun after three hard days of preparation and it was a good finals stress reliever.”
During Pac-12 play, the Bruins didn’t set aside much room for fun and games, and with NCAA Tournament ahead of them on March 19, that will probably be the last time they play that type of game. The stakes are much higher now.
UCLA will head into March Madness on the strength of a 24-8 overall record and a 14-4 record against Pac-12 opponents, not including the recent conference tournament where the team finished runner-up to Oregon State.
The Bruins will be a No. 3 seed in the Bridgeport, Connecticut region, set to play Hawaii in the first round at Pauley Pavilion.
Despite being in the middle of a hectic finals schedule, the women said they are focused on preparation for the tournament, too.
“Practice was intense this week. The atmosphere is different,” said senior guard Nirra Fields.”It’s the postseason and it’s one-and-done. We have to be urgent, we can’t take plays off and we can’t have mistakes because they could cost us the game. Every detail matters.”
Email Bribach at wbribach@media.ucla.edu or tweet him @WinBribach.