Lauren Betts gets 100% real on UCLA women's basketball's success

12/14/2024 12:54 PM

As the UCLA women’s basketball team prepared for the upcoming season to be the No. 1 team in the country, they are just that in the current moment. It would be defined by the UCLA women’s basketball team’s win over South Carolina, where even legendary head coach Dawn Staley called them a “buzz saw” as Bruins star Lauren Betts speaks about their success.

Betts is in the midst of a great season with the group, leading them in points and rebounds per game with 19.6 and 10, respectively. Talking about the win over the then No. 1 squad in the Gamecocks on ESPN, Betts said that her team believed they were the best team in the country.

“I mean, to be honest, I think we all always believe that we’re the number one team,” Betts said. “And I think we just kind of like rolled with that throughout preseason. I think we just went in every single day with that same mentality that like we’re going to win this game no matter what. And I think that we just walked into that arena with that confidence, and I think it showed throughout the game. But I’m just super proud of our team. I think we really deserve that win.”

“We have all these amazing starters … when we need to come out, you bring in another 5-star recruit, it’s insane.”

UCLA’s Lauren Betts with @MJAcostaTV on beating South Carolina, her team’s mentality, and her basketball family pic.twitter.com/w6I9P7DnGC

— espnW (@espnW) December 14, 2024

It was the program’s first win over a No. 1 ranked team, where, as said before, Staley would compare the Bruins to a “buzz saw.”

Lauren Betts on UCLA women’s basketball team’s ceiling

Betts would agree with that statement while also touting how “deep” the UCLA women’s basketball team is, along with the recruiting success that they have experienced.

“I mean, I think that’s a great way to put it,” Betts said. “I just think we’re so deep, like, I mean, there’s just, we have so much skill, like, just everywhere, I think that top to bottom, we’re just like a really amazing team, I mean, we have all these amazing starters, I mean, at any given moment, when we need to come out, you bring in like another five star recruit. It’s insane. So I think that just the amount of talent that we have this year, I just think it’s like unstoppable. It’s truly amazing.”

Going off to this fast of a start, people wonder what could be the ceiling for this team in terms of the national title as they lost to LSU in the Sweet Sixteen last season. This time around, Betts would answer that question with a saying the team repeats over and over.

“We have a saying on our team that our ceiling is our character, and our talent is the floor,” Betts said. “We have all of these amazing players, but that can only take us so far. At the end of the day, it’s us against us, and we want to make sure that we’re doing the right thing every single day, just holding ourselves to the highest standard no matter how talented we are.”

The Bruins are 9-0, as their next game is against Long Beach State Beach on Saturday evening.

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