UCLA head coach Cori Close and the legacy of John Wooden ahead of throwback night

LOS ANGELES – It’s John Wooden Week at UCLA, with both the men’s and women’s teams hosting themed night’s around in honor of the legendary men’s basketball coach and the legacy he left on UCLA in his decades of success. The men’s team went first on Tuesday with a John Wooden bobblehead when they played Purdue, Wooden’s alma mater way back in the 1920’s, and the Bruins honored his legacy with a thrilling comeback victory against the No. 4 Boilermakers.

Now it’s women’s team’s turn when they take on Purdue themselves on Wednesday. And for UCLA head coach Cori Close, the legacy of John Wooden is something that’s on her mind daily.

Close has been a coach with the Bruins for close to three decades, first joining the program as an assistant in 1994 after a brief stint after assistant coaching careers at UC Santa Barbara and Florida State. When Close got the job, she wanted to go straight to the source of all things Bruins basketball, Wooden himself.

Steve Lavin, a fellow restricted earnings coach at UCLA at time, brought Close along with other UCLA coaching staff to see Wooden at his apartment in Encino, but at that point, Close didn’t feel prepared to meet the living legend so soon.

“I was like, ‘I’m not ready. I’m not dressed. I have sweats on,” Close said on the Jim Rome Podcast.

Lavin said it didn’t matter and insisted she come anyways. What followed was a day of anxiety for Close as she anticipated the meeting. When she arrived with the other coaches, Wooden picked her out of the crowd right away.

UCLA Bruins Coach Cori Close breaking down the game for Avary Cain (2) during an NCAA basketball game against Colgate, Sunday November 10th, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

John Panganiban-The Sporting Tribune

UCLA Bruins Coach Cori Close breaking down the game for Avary Cain (2) during an NCAA basketball game against Colgate, Sunday November 10th, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Wooden asked Close her name, asked her how she spelled it and took her to the balcony of his apartment and showed her a bench he had there inscribed with the same name and same spelling.

It was his great-granddaughter’s name, he explained, and he’d never met another person who spelled it that way until he met Close.

“If my mom had spelled it C-O-R-E-Y I would have been out,” Close joked.

That encounter, whether it was coincidence or fate, was the first spark of a friendship that spanned 15 years. Kindred spirits in their love of basketball, their commitment to their layes and their personal faiths, Close would go to Wooden’s apartment every Tuesday, she said, with Wooden at that point in his 80’s and 90’s, and just listen and absorb the sage wisdom he had to tell.

Close is reminded of Wooden in every game played at Pauley Pavilion, and not just due to her own fond recollections. The men’s and women’s teams share the same bench and same tunnel at Pauley Pavilion, meaning that every time that Close’s Bruins step onto the court, they walk past Wooden’s iconic Pyramid of Success on the wall and are confronted with the banners from his 10 NCAA National Championship titles.

Jordan Carroll – The Sporting Tribune

UCLA Bruins during the 1st half of the game against Boston University Terriers on Monday, November 11th, 2024, at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, CA.

“I’m always a proponent for anyone who keeps his memory alive. We all walk in the path that he blazed for us,” Close said after No. 3 UCLA’s Jan. 18 victory over Maryland. “I love that our bench is on this side and that we have to walk down that hallway with all of his banners and the Pyramid of Success in the background and I get to remember my time with him every single time I get to walk down that hallway.”

Close is in many ways the spiritual successor to Wooden. She references him often as an example of what she looks to be as a leader and she embodies it with the care she has for her players. Close’s values of servant leadership, of nurturing the women that play for her and promoting a family atmosphere on the team, is an echo of Wooden’s own approach where he taught his players not only to succeed at basketball, but at life,

She also embodies him in her fiery and rigorous commitment to excellence. UCLA has won all but a single game this season and yet Close often comes into the postgame conferences with an observation of what needs to be better, what standard the Bruins hadn’t hit in any particular game. Her practices are even more intense as she demands the best and then some from her players.

Nico Alba – The Sporting Tribune

UCLA coach Cori Close calling a play during a free-throw during an NCAA women’s basketball game against Southern University, Friday March 21, 2025 in Los Angeles, Calif

What follows next is the on-court success that Close promotes. An NCCA Championship escaped her team last season after falling at the hands of UConn, but this season’s squad looks better than ever and is poised to not just be a contender for the college crown, but a frontrunner.

Whether that ultimate success comes this season or not, Close will always have Wooden on her mind and in her heart.

“There’s probably not a day that goes by that I don’t think about something that Coach Wooden either taught me directly or that I observed in how he lived his life,” Close said.

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