![\"(Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sp.wbb_.nbk_.10.11.25.B.AD_.jpg\")
Senior center Lauren Betts stands in a team huddle. (Andrew Ramiro Diaz\/Photo editor)<\/p>\nThe conference has spoken \u2013 UCLA is No. 1.<\/p>\n
Both coaches and media polls placed the Bruins atop the Big Ten preseason rankings \u2013 which came out in early October \u2013 and their star players backed up that claim.<\/p>\n
Seniors center Lauren Betts and guard Kiki Rice were named to the Coaches Preseason All-Big Ten team as the only two unanimous selections.<\/p>\n
Betts, the reigning National Defensive Player of the Year, was also unanimously named the Coaches Preseason Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
The senior tandem traveled to Rosemont, Illinois \u2013 home of the conference headquarters \u2013 with coach Cori Close to represent the Bruins at Big Ten Media Day. The trio previewed their upcoming season and highlighted a roster whose depth could not be rehashed by interviewers in the allotted time.<\/p>\n
The newcomers<\/p>\n
Freshman forward Sienna Betts has been the talk of Westwood since it was announced she would join her older sister at Pauley Pavilion this season.<\/p>\n
And while most headlines talk about the duo\u2019s impact as a pair, the younger Bett\u2019s individual merits and achievements warrant their own storyline.<\/p>\n
Sienna Betts enters Westwood as a strong playmaker in the post and the No. 2 overall recruit in the class of 2025 by 247Sports. Her rebounding skills could prove to be an important asset to the team, particularly after she averaged 10 boards per game, the second-most of any player, at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup.<\/p>\n
But Sienna Betts\u2019 strong personality on and off the court is one of the things Close highlighted to the media, including mentioning her uncanny impression of her coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew she (Sienna Betts) was funny. I didn\u2019t know she was this funny,\u201d Close said. \u201cShe just challenges every situation, and she\u2019s not afraid of that. And I always tell her, \u2018Yes, I\u2019m going to ask you to have boundaries on that sometimes, but I never want to push that down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Sienna Betts is not the only one making an anticipated Bruin debut, either.<\/p>\n
Graduate student guard Gianna Kneepkens is expected to make her entrance in the blue and gold come Nov. 3 in the team\u2019s inaugural contest against San Diego State.<\/p>\n
When asked to describe the Utah transfer in one word, Rice immediately replied \u201cshooter\u201d before the elder Betts followed up with \u201cdeadly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kneepkens posted a near 50-40-90 at Utah her senior year and ranked seventh in the nation for 3-point shooting percentage. The Duluth, Minnesota, local steps onto a team that struggled to generate efficient production from the perimeter in its Final Four loss to UConn last Spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve watched over and over again our Final Four loss,\u201d Close said. \u201cAnd one of the challenges was we didn\u2019t shoot it consistently enough or deep enough so that they could still double the post and close out and chase someone off the line. \u2026 Well, Kneepkens changes the game with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kneepkens will not be alone beyond the arc, though, as graduate student guard Charlisse Leger-Walker \u2013 who sat out the entirety of last season with an ACL tear \u2013 will return to the court healthy for the first time as a Bruin.<\/p>\n
Veteran leadership<\/p>\n
UCLA\u2019s depth isn\u2019t only manifested in the new players Close added to the roster \u2013 it is deep-rooted in a legion of experienced returners.<\/p>\n
Senior center Lauren Betts stands in a team huddle. (Andrew Ramiro Diaz\/Photo editor)<\/p>\n
Rice and Lauren Betts headline this group and vocalized the leadership roles they continue to step into in their final year on the team before both are projected to declare for the 2026 WNBA Draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, my biggest role is just being very vocal and kind of like that leadership aspect,\u201d Lauren Betts said. \u201cI feel like playing wise, it\u2019s always kind of going to be the same, but coming in, I\u2019m just making sure that I\u2019m using my voice a lot more consistently and saying the hard things.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a team that possesses some of the nation\u2019s top talent, vying for starting positions or looking to boost individual profiles might be expected.<\/p>\n
But Rice reiterated that a part of being a leader on the team means being selfless.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, the best thing about this group is how willing we are to just do what\u2019s best for the team,\u201d Rice said. \u201cWe have a really, really selfless mindset as a whole and are really focused on being present and just continuing to get better every day. So you see that in practice, and you feel that there\u2019s no one that\u2019s pressing to get shots or upset about a play that wasn\u2019t run for them or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
UCLA will start the season with a slate of non-conference opponents, including Oklahoma and Texas, before opening conference play against Oregon on Dec. 7.<\/p>\n
Coming off a year where the Bruins earned the program\u2019s first No. 1 overall ranking \u2013 which they held for 12 consecutive weeks \u2013 and first No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, Lauren Betts and Rice\u2019s team is learning how to settle into being called number one.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Last season) it was all the firsts that we got to learn from,\u201d Close said. \u201cI think that we really never did get complacent about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The conference has spoken \u2013 UCLA is No. 1. Both coaches and media polls placed the Bruins atop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-206839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}