UCLA's unconventional strategy to win a national title — all seniors, all the time

College basketballUCLA's unconventional strategy to win a national title — all seniors, all the timeTo win its first NCAA basketball championship, UCLA leaned on its oldest players to an extreme degree. It paid off with a stunning championship using a difficult-to-replicate blueprint.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Angela Dugalić, Lauren Betts, and Lena Bilic of the UCLA Bruins celebrate after the victory against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the National Championship of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament on Sunday, in Phoenix, Ariz.Sarah Stier / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 5, 2026, 7:21 PM EDT / Updated April 5, 2026, 7:22 PM EDTBy Andrew GreifOne by one, UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close substituted out her starting lineup in the final minutes of her team’s national championship victory Sunday.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Point guard Kiki Rice, a senior.All-American center Lauren Betts, a senior.Gabriela Jaquez, a senior.Gianna Kneepkens, a graduate student. No other team in college basketball this season, men’s or women’s, designed its roster to be as veteran-dependent as UCLA, whose 12-player roster featured eight who were either seniors or graduate students. During the NCAA tournament, Close's rotation of playing time featured almost exclusively her oldest players. Those choices added pressure to Sunday’s national title game showdown against South Carolina — because if the Bruins didn’t capitalize and win a title now, before virtually their entire rotation departed for the WNBA, there might not be a better chance in the future.Instead, UCLA routed South Carolina 79-51 to win the program’s first NCAA title in a fashion that may never happen again. The Bruins' players, in their final year of eligibility, scored all 130 of the team’s Final Four points, and 170 consecutive points in all dating to earlier in the tournament. Women’s colle...