The UCLA women's basketball team will face Ole Miss on Friday in the NCAA Sweet 16. The Bruins entered the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed, and as real contenders to win a championship, which hasn't often been true in the program's history.
Before their matchup against Ole Miss, here's a look back at the team's history in the NCAA tournament.
When Did UCLA Last Win the NCAA Tournament?
The Bruins have never won an NCAA championship. In fact, the team has never even advanced to an NCAA Final Four. Unlike the UCLA men's team, which has won a record 11 championships, the women's team does not have the same historic success.
The UCLA women's basketball team did win an Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championship title in 1978. The AIAW tournament lasted for a decade before the NCAA took over women's collegiate sports and began the first women’s NCAA tournament in 1982.
In the field of 16 teams in 1978, UCLA defeated BYU, Stephen F. Austin, and Montclair State on its way to the championship game, where the Bruins defeated Maryland. That 1978 team was led by Basketball Hall of Famers head coach Billie Moore and Ann Meyers Drysdale. Drysdale recorded nearly a triple-double in the 90-74 championship win with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists.
How UCLA Has Performed Since Its Last Title
UCLA's women's basketball program has been unable to come close to adding another championship in the NCAA. They finished third in the AIAW tournament the following year, but have yet to get that far since.
The Bruins would go on to make two NCAA Sweet 16 appearances under Moore, who resigned after the 1992-93 season. Kathy Olivier took over and led the team to five NCAA tournament appearances, going as far as the Elite Eight in 1999.
Current Bruins head coach Cori Close has also led the program to consistent success, bringing them to the NCAA tournament in eight of the last 10 seasons, including to the NCAA Sweet 16 in each of the last three seasons. The furthest Close has led the team is the Elite Eight in 2018, when they lost to Mississippi State.
Historic Moments from UCLA Women's Basketball
Meyers Drysdale was not only part of the Bruins women's lone title, she was the first woman to receive a four-year collegiate athletic scholarship from UCLA. She also made history as the first basketball player in NCAA Division I history to record a quadruple-double. She and former teammate Denise Curry are the only members of the program to have their jersey numbers retired.
Can UCLA Win An NCAA Championship Soon?
UCLA has never been in a better position to contend for an NCAA championship than they are now. The Bruins ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll for the majority of the season, and went 32-2 in the regular season. They won the Big Ten championship, and entered the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed. They have beaten powerhouse South Carolina this season, and are legitimate contenders. The only team to beat UCLA this season so far is USC, but they have now been hampered after star JuJu Watkins suffered a devastating torn ACL in the second round of the tournament.
If the Bruins do not win the title this season, they will still have a good opportunity to do so next year with their duo of Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice still in tact. Even so, there's no guarantee they would be the same next season, and this year is the best opportunity UCLA has to capitalize.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Farthest UCLA Has Ever Gone in Women's NCAA Tournament.
