LA’s (other) college basketball superstar

When most people think of women's basketball in Los Angeles, they probably think of JuJu Watkins and the USC Trojans. While a hometown hero looks to lead his team to its first national championship in more than 40 years, another group just a few miles away will also bring the trophy back to Los Angeles to crown the city's new women's basketball dynasty. I'm aiming to get a job.

UCLA, which currently leads the Associated Press Top 25 poll in Week 6, is led by 6-foot-7 Lauren Betts, who averaged 19.9 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2 blocks for the undefeated Bruins. They have exceeded expectations thanks to their homegrown superstars.

Among those familiar with the women's game, Betts' name is not new. In the words of an ESPN scout, Betts quickly distinguished himself with his “imposing presence in the post,” and while playing at Grandview High School in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, near his hometown of Centennial. , attracted interest from many elite universities.

Betts spent the first eight years of her life in Vitoria, Spain, where her 7-foot-1 father, Andrew, played professional basketball. As a child, she tried soccer and swimming to differentiate herself from her father, but ended up joining the basketball team when her family moved to Colorado.

After developing friendships with his teammates, Betts decided to continue playing basketball, even though he felt he was not particularly talented. As her game began to gain traction, Betts realized that her inner confidence was the key to unlocking the talent and passion that had always been there.

After a dominant high school career in which he averaged a double-double at Grand View, Betts was widely considered a five-star prospect and cemented his ranking as the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2022 class. The two-time Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year had offers from every school she could dream of and decided to play for Stanford's Tara VanDerveer just months before her team won a national championship. announced.

Shortly after graduating from Grandview, Betts said Charlie Desadier of SLAM Magazine. She said “[didn’t] I want to go to a school where I can be confident that I can be the best the moment I enroll. Obviously, I want to go to a school where freshman year may not be as great as I would like. [it] It will be, but we'll see what happens,'' she said, emphasizing that she believes each season gets better as time goes on.

While adding a player of Betts' stature and talent to one of the nation's top programs may seem like an undeniable benefit, Stanford's core rotation was at the point when she arrived at Paolo Alto It was already well established. Betts' freshman season was the last hurrah for Stanford's “Funky Four” (Fran Belibi, Hannah Jump, Haley Jones and Ashten Prechtel). Together they led the Cardinal to three Pac-12 championships, the 2021 national championship and the Finals. In 2022, he will participate 4 times. With six national championship players on the roster, Betts, a freshman, knew his role and his role. Statistics – It may look a little different than high school.

Betts' freshman year with the Cardinal was quieter than expected, considering the strength of the roster. In the shadow of then-junior Cameron Brink, who dominated national award voting that season, Betts averaged 5.9 points and 3.5 rebounds in just 9.6 minutes of action during his freshman campaign.

News broke that Betts had entered the transfer portal just weeks after No. 1 overall Stanford lost to No. 8 Mississippi in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. This news is especially shocking, not only because of her previous comments acknowledging that this season may not be the best, but also because Stanford boasts a historically low portal admissions rate. Ta.

It's rare for players to discuss the exact reasons why they left the program, but Betts hinted that his underperformance at Stanford led to a plummeting confidence, and he's looking forward to the upcoming season, half of his college career. I admit it. It will probably look the same. During a podcast episode with former teammate Jones, Betts said entering the portal “was a very difficult decision” and that outsiders don't consider off-court factors in a player's choice to leave the portal. He emphasized that there are many school.

“At the end of the day, I just wanted to be happy,” Betts said. “It was very difficult when I was a freshman, but I wanted to spend my remaining four years in a good place, and I wanted them to support me in the end.”

During her freshman year in high school and through USA Basketball, Betts developed a relationship with Bruins head coach Cori Close, prompting her to take an official visit of her own. After spending the weekend in Westwood with Crows staff and players, Betts canceled other pending visits to commit to UCLA.

Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Betts' impact on the Crows' roster was immediate. In her debut as a Bruin, she scored a career-high 18 points, shooting 81 percent from the field and scoring 20 points in 20 minutes. She finished her sophomore season with 24 double-digit scoring games, half of which were double-doubles, while leading UCLA in points (14.9), rebounds (9.3) and blocks (1.9) per game. He led the team to the Sweet Sixteen. exterior. Betts, currently in his second season with the Crows, has already recorded seven double-doubles in just 10 games and recorded his first 30-point performance in his second game of the season.

For Betts, transferring to UCLA is a reminder of what first ignited her passion and unleashed her talent.

“I get a lot of confidence from my coach,” Betts said during his conversation with Jones. “They really believe in me in everything. Like I'm going out here and guarding the boundaries, I wasn't doing [at Stanford]…I feel like it's changed my game a lot and I'm very confident…My coach pushes me a lot in practice and believes I can do it on my own. They're making sure that they're there, and I think that's spread out because they care so much about my game and all of the beliefs that they have about me. ”

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

While Betts' height and rim-protecting ability are often highlighted most when talking about his game, Crouse has been pleasantly surprised by his growth in other areas since joining the team.

“It starts with the leadership side. That's where I've seen the most growth.” [Betts’] She has the ability to use her voice and has an incredible basketball IQ,” Close said. “In that sense, she's like a point/forward for us. We want to hear her voice. We want her to help us not anticipate and react.” Her IQ is really, really high and her leadership voice is incredibly influential to us.”

By clicking a button and entering the transfer portal, Betts transformed from a shy, bench-riding freshman to an unapologetically confident leader at one of the top programs in the country.

UCLA, which currently holds a perfect record, will soon be entering its first season of conference play as a member of the Big Ten. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until February 13th to see Betts' Bruins take on cross-town rivals USC and Watkins. This is a rematch of last season's thrilling double-overtime PAC-12 Championship.