TAMPA, Fla. – The Michael Price Family UCLA Women’s Head Basketball Coach Cori Close has been named the 2025 Werner Ladder’s Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m not at a loss for words often, but I am about this award,” said Close. “I’m humbled and grateful. It’s most meaningful because it gives me a chance to thank each player, staff member, role model and mentor. May our work in the win and loss columns always pale in the comparison to the work we do to help teach, mentor and equip for life beyond the hardwood.”
UCLA claimed the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press Top 25 Women’s Basketball Poll after defeating then-No. 1 South Carolina on Nov. 24. The Bruins sat atop the AP poll for 12 weeks, setting the record for the longest streak at No. 1 for a Big Ten women’s basketball program in conference history after nine weeks at the top spot. UCLA reclaimed No. 1 after taking down USC in the Big Ten tournament championship game and finished the regular season with 14 weeks on top of the AP poll.
As a unit, the Bruins rank No. 1 in the Big Ten in seven statistical categories: assists per game (20.4 APG), field goal percentage (.482 FG%), field goal percentage defense (.352 DFG%), rebound margin (+12.3), defensive rebounds (29.3 DRPG), rebounds per game (42.9 RPG), and scoring defense (57.9 OPPG). UCLA has only been outrebounded thrice this season but won all three games (Dec. 8 at Washington, 32-30; March 9 vs. USC, 38-27; March 30 vs. LSU, 43-38).
Close is in her 14th year at the helm for the Bruins; she became the first UCLA women’s basketball coach to amass 300 wins as leader of the Bruins. She boasts a 321-142 (.693 W%) record heading into UCLA’s first-ever NCAA Final Four appearance.
The Bruins last made the national semifinal game in 1979 when they played in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) prior to the NCAA’s 1982 adoption and sponsorship of women’s basketball. It was the second-consecutive appearance following the 1978 AIAW championship run for the Bruins, UCLA’s lone national championship in program history. Close helped lead the 2025 Bruins to a Big Ten Tournament Championship victory, dethroning the top-seeded Trojans after overcoming a 13-point second-half deficit. It is UCLA’s second conference tournament title (2006, Pac-10).
Coach Close was named USBWA Coach of the Year on Thursday, March 20. Coach Tony Newnan, who has assisted Close since her inaugural season at UCLA, was named WBCA NCAA DI Assistant Coach of the Year on Wednesday, March 26.