The UCLA women’s basketball team’s unprecedented season rolled right into an unprecedented WNBA draft.
All six eligible Bruins were drafted – five of them in the first round – on Monday night in New York City to set a new record for most draftees from a single school in WNBA draft history.
“It demonstrates that being a selfless team, that maybe giving up individual stats for team success, that you can win with that formula and you can still be successful,” guard Kiki Rice, who was selected sixth overall by the expansion Toronto Tempo, told reporters.
“We all wanted to be pros, but that wasn’t the only focus during the season,” she continued. “It was winning. It was giving to each other. It was, how can we be the best team possible? And in the process of doing that, we still got the results that we wanted to at the end of the day.”
Just one week after leading UCLA to its first NCAA championship, two-time All-American center Lauren Betts became the first Bruin selected when she was chosen by the Washington Mystics with the fourth overall pick.
“I’ve grown so much,” Betts said during ESPN’s live broadcast. “My confidence – I feel like I’ve just finally owned who I am as a person and as a player and I’m ready to see what the future holds.”
Betts led the Bruins with 17.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game this season. She earned multiple awards this season and was recognized as the Most Outstanding Player for the NCAA Final Four and the Lisa Leslie Award winner as the nation’s best center.
She was the first player in men’s or women’s college basketball to have an NCAA Tournament with more than 125 points, more than 50 rebounds and more than 15 blocked shots while shooting 65% or better.
The Mystics dipped into UCLA’s talent pool once more on Monday when they snagged Angela Dugalić with the ninth overall pick.
The Serbian-American forward won the Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year award and, overall this season, came off the bench to average 9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. Dugalić also represented Serbia in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2024 Paris Olympics.
Betts and Dugalić will join former USC player Kiki Iriafen in Washington, D.C. as well as UCLA alumnus and assistant coach Michaela Onyenwere.
“I also played against Michaela my first year when I was at Oregon,” Dugalić said, “so it’s hard to see her as a coach. But I have to now see her as a teammate as well, which is really cool. I never got to play with her, so it’s really exciting that I’ll be able to play with her now.”
UCLA was represented in three consecutive picks on Saturday. Immediately after Betts was selected fourth, guard Gabriela Jaquez was selected fifth overall by the Chicago Sky, then Rice was selected sixth by Toronto.
“These are like my sisters, and getting to watch your family do something like that is amazing,” Betts said. “But I mean, this team is just so special. We knew the type of players that we had on the team, and to really just have this night really showcase all of the things that we’ve worked on all season is just amazing.”
Jaquez made a name for herself with her versatility and high-motor playing style that earned her 21 points and 10 rebounds in the national championship game against South Carolina. She and her brother, Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez, are now the first brother-sister duo in the NBA and WNBA.
“For me, (I’m) going into every game just doing whatever the team needs and doing whatever I can to help the team win,” Gabriela said. “And I think, for me, in pressurized moments, just staying calm, just having trust in the work and realizing that I’m meant for this moment and I’ve prepared for it.”
Rice, a four-year starting guard for the Bruins, averaged career-bests of 14.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game and ranked eighth nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.5. Her steady presence was a major factor in UCLA’s success.
“Leaving UCLA, I feel very confident in my voice, and what I’m stepping into and what it means to be a leader,” she said. “I think it starts with leading yourself, being able to show up every day at a high level, and then from there, it goes on to being able to inspire, to motivate, and to bring up others with you.”
Guards Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker were both selected by the Connecticut Sun. Kneepkens, who shot 49.3% from the field and 42.9% from 3-point range, was the final pick of the first round (No. 15 overall) and Leger-Walker, who led the team with 5.6 assists per game, was the No. 18 overall pick.
She also became the first player from New Zealand to be drafted in the WNBA.
“It’s a big moment,” Leger-Walker said. “It means a lot and I’m really humbled to know I can be that role model and I hope that everybody watching from New Zealand knows that they belong here and if they set their sights high, they can be limitless.”
UCLA (37-1) beat Texas, 51-44, in the national semifinals before crushing South Carolina, 79-51, in the national championship game.
The week that followed was full of guest appearances on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Good Morning America” and being honored at Lakers and Clippers games – in addition to the celebration held at Pauley Pavilion.
“It’s really hard to sum up because there’s so much,” Jaquez said. “I think that we’re just on a high right now. We just won the national championship. A lot of us have also graduated college, which is a huge step and something to be super proud of, especially at UCLA. … Obviously, a lot of us are here at the draft tonight being drafted. It’s just been a special moment.”
“Those girls mean the most to me and good thing we live in this day and age and we have phones, so hopefully we’ll keep in touch,” Kneepkens said. “And obviously, we’ll see each other around. I’m just so proud of them, and I just feel grateful to have them alongside me.”
UCLA coach Cori Close, who sat up front with her players, has said she doesn’t care about records, but that changed Monday.
“Well, I mean, I sort of do care about this one actually, because No. 1, it helps us in recruiting. I think we’ve really taken a developmental approach to this and to see it come to fruition the way it has is obviously really gratifying,” she said.
“Just to be a part of an historic night and for them to be so excited for each other, that’s sort of representative of how they’ve been all year long. But it’s a pretty cool record to be a part of.”
UConn had the previous record of four first-round selections – all in the first six picks – in 2002. Sue Bird was No. 1, Swin Cash No. 2, Asjha Jones No. 4 and Tamika Williams No. 6 from a team that went 39-0.
Tennessee, in 1999 and again in 2008, had five players selected in the draft, as did Notre Dame in 2019 and South Carolina in 2023. But those players weren’t all taken in the first round.