LOS ANGELES — Lauren Betts and JuJu Watkins earned the opportunity to be the only two collegiate players during the USA Basketball Women’s National Team’s December training camp.
UCLA’s Betts participated in five-on-five action and drills alongside the best American players, a thrown-into-the-fire experience for the potential top selection in April’s WNBA draft. USC’s Watkins, however, was in the room as more of a ceremonious future figure of the team, still rehabbing the torn ACL injury the star guard suffered during the second round of the 2025 NCAA tournament.
When No. 4 UCLA (11-1, 3-0 Big Ten) hosts No. 17 USC (10-3, 2-0) at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday at 5 p.m., it’ll just be Betts, the Bruins’ senior center, on the floor in the first of two rivalry matchups in 2026. In cardinal and gold, however, will be guard Londynn Jones, in her return to Westwood after transferring after three seasons playing in every game as a Bruin.
“Honestly it’s not my favorite because I just love the kid, you know what I mean?” Bruins coach Cori Close told a Zoom press conference after UCLA’s 97-61 victory over Penn State on Wednesday. “It’s going to be: Both teams really want to win and we’ll get back to being Londynn’s supporter after the game.”
And while Betts is playing up to her star billing a dozen games into the season – averaging a team-high 16.2 points and 8.1 rebounds per game – Close said she wanted to see an improved rebounding effort after UCLA’s first road trip of the season.
In defeating No. 19 Ohio State and Penn State to run its unbeaten streak to seven games, UCLA averaged plus-12 boards –- plus-18 against the Buckeyes and plus-six against the Lady Lions – in rebounding margin. Close said she’d like to see the Bruins assert themselves in the category further in the rest of the Big Ten action.
“For me, and just what I want to see in general, is there’s something just about the dog in you – you need to be a great rebounder there,” Close said, “just as a level of like fight that you want to see, that you got to want it more than that other person, whether it’s defensively or offensively.”
Close pointed to how Betts viewed rebounding, a sign of basketball IQ and the intangible efforts attached to basketball rather than just the basics of powering your way into the paint to grab a board.
“One thing that we talk about a lot in practice is reading people’s shots and how the rebounds are going to fall,” Betts said, adding that the scout team men’s players prepare the team well for the effort side of rebounding.
“They don’t take it easy on us,” Betts added.
Outside of the improved rebounding Close wants to see, UCLA has remained playing as one of the best teams in the country – and the Big Ten picture is becoming clearer by the day. No. 6 Michigan dropped a game to unranked Washington on the road, while No. 7 Maryland also fell to an unranked conference foe, Illinois, on New Year’s Day.
The dominoes are dropping and the Bruins are still figuring out rotations.
Freshman forward Sienna Betts is still finding her feet in college basketball after her debut following a preseason lower-left leg injury. So far, the younger sister of Lauren Betts has shot 54.2% from the field while averaging 14 minutes a game on an expected minutes restriction.
“She’s not been cleared very long and so I do think it’s like relearning things at a different pace with different urgency, with different intensity,” Close said.
No. 17 USC at No. 4 UCLA
When: 5 p.m. Saturday
Where: Pauley Pavilion
TV: Peacock