UCLA Women's Basketball: ESPN Ranks 2023-24 Bruins Among 5 Best NCAA Squads
Your UCLA Bruins women's basketball program is coming off another solid season.
The Bruins finished fourth in a deep Pac-12 and reached the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen before falling to No. 1 overall seed South Carolina.
UCLA will look to take a step forward off that momentum, and they have the pieces to do it. They have multiple players returning -- led by graduate student Charisma Osborne and junior Kiki Rice -- and received a commitment from one of the nation's top transfers in Stanford forward Lauren Betts.
Those were key reasons why ESPN women's basketball analyst Charlie Creme named UCLA No. 3 in his Early Top 25 Rankings.
Here's some of what he had to saw about this year's edition of the Bruins:
"The offseason good news began with Charisma Osborne's decision to bypass the WNBA draft and return to school for her bonus year. Then the No. 1 recruit from 2022, 6-foot-7 Lauren Betts, left conference rival Stanford for Westwood. Kiki Rice was rated right behind Betts and lived up to that ranking as UCLA's second leading scorer (11.6 PPG) last season behind Osborne (15.6 PPG). Emily Bessoir made great strides as a 6-4 sophomore and was the Bruins' most accurate 3-point shooter (35.7%)."
Between the key cogs to the UCLA machine in Osborne, Rice, Bessoir, and the newly-added Betts, they have a core that could challenge the nation's top teams.
Add in sophomore role player Gabriela Jaquez, and UCLA has a true embarrassment of riches heading into the 2023-2024 campaign.
The regular season tips off on November 6 when the Bruins take on Purdue, and this year could be a momentous one for the steadily rising program.
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