UCLA names Cori Close women's basketball coach

UCLA announced the hire of new women's basketball coach Cori Close on Thursday, as Close takes the reins from Nikki Caldwell, who took the head coaching position at LSU in April.

"It is such a joy to be here," said Close, who served as associate head coach at Florida State since 2004-05. "I remember back to when I was an athlete, and I was driving down from UCSB to play UCLA, and I'm driving in the team bus, and my teammate's father called, 'Do you know what you get to do today? You're going down to the basketball mecca, where basketball starts. UCLA sets the standard for college basketball in this country. I remember how clearly we understood what an amazing opportunity it was."

Now she gets the opportunity to return to the place where she started her collegiate coaching career as a restricted earnings coach for the Bruins from 1993-1995.

Her first task? Building on the progress that Caldwell made in her short stint as head coach at UCLA. Before Caldwell arrived, the Bruins struggled to become a presence in the Pac-10, much less nationally. But the program rebounded under Caldwell, advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament each of the last two years, finishing second in conference play and the conference tournament.

Close brings her extensive offensive knowledge to the Bruins, who lose the service of guards Darxia Morris and Doreena Campbell but retain forwards Jasmine Dixon, Markel Walker and Atonye Nyingifa.

"This is a very unique opportunity I have because this program is not broken," Close said. "This program has great talent, and I have the opportunity to take the baton. I was sharing with players earlier that my expectations really mirror what's going on at Pauley Pavilion. I love that we're renovating and restoring and preserving Pauley Pavilion. We're not starting over. There's incredible rich tradition, foundational things in place that we are preserving. But we're also adding to it. We're adding new traditions. We're adding spice to it.
"That's where I feel our women's basketball program is now."

Close helped lead the Seminoles to seven straight appearances in the second round of the women's NCAA Tournament, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2009-10 and a Sweet 16 berth in 2006-07. Close also coached at UC Santa Barbara, her alma mater, from 1995-2004, with eight consecutive NCAA Tournament berths.

"Cori has established herself as one of the top women's basketball associate head coaches in the nation and is certainly ready to take the next step," UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said. "Cori has enjoyed great success at Florida State and UC Santa Barbara, on the court, off the court and on the recruiting trail, and has a great vision for the future of our program. She will continue to build upon the foundation that has been established over the last few years."