Cori Close Interview + Oregon State Headlines

Pac-12 Networks' Ashley Adamson and Mary Murphy discuss the Bruins statement win at Stanford and the significance of UCLA's first Bay Area road sweep since 1999 (4:57). They discuss the Wildcats' bounce-back mentality in defeating Oregon State to notch Arizona's first ever top 10 road win (6:04). The ladies discuss the significance of losing Kennedy Brown for the season due to an ACL injury (8:10) and how it will affect the Beavers moving forward. Mary breaks down Mikayla Pivec's game-winner vs Arizona St with 0.4 seconds on the clock (11:44) and the teachable moment it gave another team.  They also talk Pivec's name being added to the list of Senior CLASS Award finalists after an uproar over her exclusion (17:05). Ash and Mary discuss Oregon remaining No. 3 in the country and Sabrina's reaction to her 24th career triple-double (20:38).

UCLA's head coach Cori Close joins the show (27:00) and shares what made getting conference win #100 in the Bay Area so special. She discusses what it took for her team to defeat Stanford (28:48) and what Chantel Horvat and Lindsey Corsaro bring to the squad (31:00). Coach praises the job Charmin Smith has done at Cal in her first season and how the Bears challenged them (33:17).

Coach Close discusses what teachings she has taken from John Wooden (36:36) and the deeper meaning of why she has a shovel and broom in her office (39:08).  Cori shares how she tries to infuse joy in her players (47:50) and gives a self evaluation in her 26th year of coaching (51:10). 

Mary shares the dancing skills of USC's head coach Mark Trakh she witnessed over the weekend (54:53) and the impressive road sweep the Utes had over the Washington schools (57:20).  Ash and Mary discuss if teams want to avoid the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament so they don't have to play Oregon (58:22) and if anything but a national championship would be a disappointment for the Ducks (1:00:58).

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Yeah, hello, podcast of thatHighest Class twelve the rankings if you needed
to prove numbers, neat a lyingeven to while speaking the truth. To
calm the chaos, we bring inthe passion and the player of the year,
who'll be a crown shap begin,let's get the cracking. What's happening?
And Mary Murphy actually Adam saying,yeah, we back again, yea,

(00:26):
we are back again. Welcome backto the podcast, everybody, Ashley
Adams send my two best gals,Mary Murphy Colleen Farrell. Happy to have
you listening from wherever you are.How's everybody feeling happy? Valentine's Day week?
By the way, what's up?By the way, just real quick,
we have so much to get intoand we're going to dive into it.

(00:47):
But I'm on the elevator this morningcoming up to the office and someone
was talking about how Valentine's Day wasa trigger word for them. So I
know that there are definitely people thatfall in two different camps. There are
the people that like love Valentine's Dayand the people that hate Valentine's Day.
So I'm assuming by your face,Mary, I know where you fall.
Look, I'm super proud of myselfbecause I got a Valentine's date card off

(01:07):
to my mom and it has abird on it, and she loves birds,
so and it was really sweet onthe inside. And my only hope
is it gets there on time.But beyond that, like I'm gonna be
in Arizona in Tucson. You knowthat whole vibe. You can believe it?
What ye believe it? Colleen,how are you as a Valentine's person?
Oh? Um, yeah, I'mI am sure. It's gonna be

(01:30):
real exciting this year. Well,you're gonna be watching some pactual basketball,
So that's the best way I canalways but real quick, I mean,
and Mary, I have to goto a feature shoot on Sunday and Tissans
so I think, Um, Imean, I'm gonna try to get that
to that Neon game and watch onSunday. I'm gonna be in Tempe,
so good, have fun there,love that love that. I'm can I
do a self call out for Valentine'sDay because I'm one of those people that

(01:53):
says that I don't care about it. It's not important. It's a Hallmark
holiday all the rest. Yeah,And then like Chris, my husband doesn't
get me anything, and I'm likethe exactly, yeah, but just nothing.
And and so then I'm like,I guess I say that I don't
care because I'm like trying to pretendlike I don't care. But then I
guess in the end, give mesome flowers or something. But you gotta
kid, no, who can likewrite a yeah, you can put it

(02:17):
on your fridge. She's gonna besomething Mary Scopy special. O. Um
So just a little inside baseball forour listeners. Usually Colleen and Mary and
I are in comms the day beforeon Monday before we record the podcast and
just making sure that we're on thesame page and that we're talking about the
topics that everybody wants to cover.And I send out a few thoughts.

(02:37):
Mary writes back with a file thatwas literally too big to download on my
phone, Like, You've got alot of thoughts today and I can't wait,
I know, like a lightning roundexactly. Okay, all right,
so first things first, you werean a lister this weekend. Mary,
You're you're hanging out with Russell Wilson. Oh well that's too but you and

(02:58):
Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks quarterback hangingout on Sunday at Maple's. You guys
buds, Now, well, BrianWeber was there too, so there are
three of us. He graciously cameover and sat and sat for like five
minutes of the ballgame before halftime.And he is as wonderful as he appeared

(03:19):
on on on your TV's and devicesand your PAC twelve app. I mean,
the guy. It was just great. Talked about his his sister Anna,
a senior at at Stanford, andjust about education and about his philosophy
of life and their family. Itwas it was, you know, time
well spent and I didn't mind sittingnext to him at all. It was

(03:42):
awesome. Yeah. His hair,by the way, has really taken on
a life of its own. Iwas enjoying that. Uh and then hit
and it hit some Bedley Cooper's here. Yeah I didn't it was same style.
You're right, obviously have a typeum. But the clip of him,
it was just awesome because he wasso excited and I love it because
he's this mega NFL superstar and multimulti multimillionaire. He's married to Sierra and
here he is on Sunday just beingthis super cute, proud, enthusiastic big

(04:05):
brother. And it was a greatinterview and I loved it so well.
He talked about being a brother,he talked about what it's like to have
a sister and what she does forhim. I mean, it was just,
you know, I wanted to Ihave eight brothers, and I wanted
to ask him if I could tradelike three for one. But no,
no, Lison, No, yeah, all right, that'd be a good
trade. Though maybe I'd go,I would deal. You know, we're

(04:26):
at the trading deadline. I'd bealready given him everything. I already know
who would be Jettison. Oh,I think that's for a different podcast,
Mary Murphy's Eight Brothers and the FamilyDynamics there. Okay, let's talk about
the two major statement wins this weekend, both coming on the road. UCLA
at Stanford, and I should mentionthat Corey Close is our guest today.
We cannot wait to talk to herin about ten or fifteen minutes, and

(04:48):
then Arizona at Oregon State. Thoseare the two that kind of jumped out
at us and you called the Bruinsgame you mentioned with Brian Weber. So
let's start with that. A tenpoint win at Maples for those who maybe
didn't get to watch all of thegame or understand what did they mess how
did it happen? Well, Ithink that UCLA just did an outstanding job
of establishing their style of play andyou're not not allowing Stanford to really utilize

(05:12):
their bigs inside and the game theyseized control and that late in the third
and into the fourth, and justkept looking up the scoreboard thinking, Wow,
I'm not often sitting here and seeingStanford losing it. And they were
steady, and they knew who theywere and they went out and executed their
game plan. I know Tara wasextremely unhappy, as was their team with

(05:33):
how they played, and it showedit the next day at practice and how
they played, especially in the firsthalf against USC on Sunday. But it
was a statement win, without adoubt in the conference and nationally for UCLA.
It was a terrific performance, There'sno doubt about it, and only
their second win at Maples in thelast two decades. Michaela Onion Wady named
PACTOL Player the Week. Corey hada big coaching milestone. We're going to

(05:55):
talk to her about that as wellas kind of the strength of the overall
conference but the second statement that whenthat we want to talk about is what
happened in Corvallis, Arizona at OregonState, and I loved Ada Barnes tweeted
this out. She said something tothe effect of, like, we got
punched in the face on Friday andcame back on Sunday ready and the way
that we responded showed you our truecharacter. And I couldn't agree more.

(06:15):
You lose by thirty three points inEugene and then you go to gil and
you beat the Beeves on their courtin overtime. Well, look, this
is a philosophy that every team hasto have in this conference, because you
can get clobbered on Friday and you'vegot to compete, and you've got to
compete on Saturday at practice and beready on Sunday. You can blow somebody
out on Friday or win a biggame like UCLA and then go to Cal

(06:39):
and you know, be close tolosing a game against the Bears and Sherman
Smith in her first year. That'sthe kind of year it is. And
you have to have a short memory, remember the good stuff, improve on
the bad stuff, and be readyto go. Speaking a short memory,
I loved what you said to aboutSam Thomas. Just because a shooter hasn't
made a shot again a long time, you still got a guarden like they're
red hot. Well, I talkedto coach us about this a lot.

(07:00):
You know, when Aliah Goodman wasstruggling, you know, I asked her
before the Organ State game, well, do you guard her any differently?
And she looked at You know whencoaches give you that, God, Mary,
I thought you were smarter than that. Look. No, you guard
people if they even if they've missedone hundred shots in a row. And
Sam Thomas had not scored a bucketall week and long, and at just
the most important moment just rocked backand knocked down this beautiful three. And

(07:25):
it was a huge difference maker inthat ball game. Shoot or shoot,
you gotta be there. If you'renot, they're going to make you pay
eventually, and she certainly did so. Credit to her for knocking it down
and Arizona in that win, theysnapped an eleven game losing streak against the
Beads. And maybe the biggest thingit was Arizona's first road win against a
top ten program, a top tenteam in program history. I mean,
you just run down the list.You know, they've won nineteen games since

(07:47):
first time, since eleven. Imean we're saying these years like it's nineteen
ten. I mean, it seemslike a long time ago. Then when
twenty it's going to be since oh, three oh four. And you know,
Colleen Farrell talks about this a lotthere, like they just go through
the boxes and they're just checking themoff and doing a great job of it.
Big weekend at home against the Washington'sin the desert, all right.

(08:09):
So the sad part of that game, though, was the news that came
out last night. Certainly, ifyou're a Beast fan or just a pactual
fan in general, you hate youhate this type of thing. Kennedy Brown,
Oregon states one of their freshmen starsa big presence in the post tour
ACL and is going to miss themest of the year. What was your
reaction when you heard that? MayWell, I think we all are just

(08:30):
so sad when we hear the lettersACL, and you know they're already down
to a Corsdale. So two oftheir big important players rebounders. Brown not
so much of a score but anemerging score. Corsdale great defender shooter score.
It's devastating. But the thing aboutinjuries is you can't be devastated as

(08:52):
a coach and as a program.You've got to be able to say who's
in the room, who's healthy,and then you've got to put together game
plan. You have to go outand execute it. Tarvanvier's a great example
of this. You look at herteam on the floor now and what we
thought it was going to be.We thought Maya dolts And was going to
be out there. She's terrific.You know, you think about DJ and
A Carrington on every list. Thereis a preseason for the best players at

(09:16):
her position and in the country,and Hayley Jones goes down and so you
can't. You know, when Iwas coaching, I how this devis our
best player? Tore her acl andliterally I was like sitting in a chair
and like like in a puddle ofmy own tears for about an hour,
like, oh boy, and it'swasted energy. You have to be great

(09:39):
to the individual in the family andyour team and understand what that feels like.
But you've got to move on andyou've got to figure out That's why
you've got fifteen scholarships or twelve oreight, how many you have on your
team. You've got to figure itout. And you look at what Mark
Tracks done. He has eight peopleon his team and he goes out and
they get the kind of effort theyhave. So they're on your team for

(10:00):
a reason. You've given them ascholarship. You believe in them. You
got to find the best at eachindividual and say we're gonna go out there
and win, and this is howwe're going to do it. And you've
got to change your approach. Ifyou've got to figure out a different way,
then that's what you have to do. But that's your job as a
coach. And you know it's notyour job to sit there and make excuses
and say, well, you know, what if, what if? What
if? Fans do enough of that. You've got to get to work and

(10:22):
plow forward. Yeah, and thatis also true, and I think obviously
that the best coaches are the onesthat make adjustments. I do want to
say one more thing about Kennedy Brownbecause I was planning on talking about her
on the podcast today and now weknow that so after the loss, she
kept this awesome tradition alive of donatingher hair to locks of Love after the
game, and it was it's somethingthat that started, I think with through

(10:43):
Hamlen a few years ago said wedid it. The Bees posted a video
of her, and I just keptthinking, she must have known. She
tore acl like that's a pretty obviousthing. And she's sitting here smiling cutting
off her long, beautiful hair togive it to someone with cancer, and
it just to me, it justkind of speaks to who she is.
And I've never even met her inperson. Well, and I think it

(11:03):
also speaks to the spirit of theOregon State players. And we're going to
talk about Michael Pivoc later, butit's just this is a tradition, this
is what we do, Ashley,do you want to do? You want
to participate. It's just and theirfans and after the ballgame, everyone comes
down to the floor. It's justa it's a different experience. But it

(11:24):
just speaks to why somebody like Kennedydecided to go to organ State because she
wanted to be part of that kindof spirit. Yeah. Family is to
use the word that Scott ru accusesall the time, and I think it's
exactly the right one. So youmentioned Michael piviocs, let's just do that,
and we can't not talk about,obviously, the other epic game that
organ State was involved with this weekend, and that was their buzzer beater when
over ASU, and it was justone of the wildest ends to a game

(11:48):
that I can remember in a while. We were going on right after words,
and I'm sitting in studio talking toour producer Christine, making sure I
have all my shot sheets and mynotes because I assume we're going to overtime,
right like Kat Tutor hits that bucketsto tie it up with two seconds
left, and so I'm just kindof looking back down at my notes,
and all of sudden I look upand MICHAELA Pivoc's getting mobbed by her teammates
on the court, and I'm sayingto Christine, like, what how did

(12:09):
they get the ball back? Whatjust happened? It happened like that.
So shout out to Elia Goodman.She went off in that fourth quarter pivot
hit the game winner. But whatdid you see in that final bit?
Did you go back and watch it? Honestly, I watched it about fourteen
times and pausing it, pausing it, pausing it, it's kind of going
back to my coaching life. Couplethings. One, I thought it was

(12:30):
ann outstanding effort by Arizona State,knowing how determined organ State was to beat
ASU based on that they just havenot had much success. They were at
home, big crowd. I thoughtthey did. They played an outstanding just
an outstanding game, just special situations. And Scott Rooke what a job running
plays, running them well, knowingwhat they want to do. The beautiful

(12:52):
pass from Maddie Washington to Tutor goingbackdoor. For as you the ending is
just worst case scenario, just notwhacking the focus and just not being enough
in the moment. That's the whatyou need to have happened with point four
seconds, Just you need somebody totouch the ball and the game's over and
you're gonna win. So that happensfor ASU, and I think about myself

(13:16):
when I mispronounce a game on abroadcast or I not pay attention when I'm
driving. We all do things thatwere we don't mean to do. And
in that moment, that's what happenedto a player for ASU for Oregon State.
On the baseline, the person Idon't watch Mick, I don't watch
Aliah. I watch Destiny Slocum becauseshe's standing right in front of Aliah,

(13:39):
and she's the one that's got toand I'll use the word sell it.
She's got to make a cut.Her job is to clear the paint out
so they're space for Pivoc to comeoff that screen and be open for that
lab. So my jobs to sellit. And I've got to clear that
space. I know, I'm Destiny. I'm like, damn, coach doesn't
want me to have the ball,like the doesn't believe. Like no,

(14:01):
She's like, my job is tosell it. So she comes off.
You watch her. Her feet arespinning. She kind of skids around the
corner. She's just like throwing herself. It's like she's going diving into the
end zone. And she clears thatspace, they run the screen. Here
comes Pivoc like she's setting the ballin volleyball, And who else in the
world would you want to make thatshop at mcpivoc. I mean, it
was just it was just beautiful.What a moment, What a what a

(14:24):
horrible moment for ASU because they've doneeverything so well in that ball game,
so the heartbreak, you know,it was like wild world of sports with
it like the heartbreak, the youknow, the joy. It was just
an amazing moment. But I'll saythis, I think they need to start
handing out paperbags instead of T shirtsat at GIL because the people there for
this weekend are just hyperventilating. Likeliterally, they just need to start,

(14:50):
you know, because keep oxygen inthe corners because there's just too much going
on. Because the same thing happened. Quick question for you not to interrupt.
This is the fifth time in thelast seven meetings which the teams were
separated by two or fewer points atsome juncture in the final minute of regulation
over time. What is it aboutthese two teams? Like, is there
any other two teams that always playeach other this tight? I just think

(15:11):
they're well matched, that they're greatdefensive teams, their coaches do a good
job of taking away what you wantto do, and I just think when
you get that mindset like this isgoing to be a grinder and that we
got every possession counts, this iswhere we're at. I mean, it's
a terrific rivalry that the teams knowwhat the individuals know it and boy,
it's it's fun but yet incredibly tense. To watch and a teachable moment,

(15:35):
as you mentioned, and there's otherpeople that are paying attention to what happened
in that game. Yeah, itwas interesting. I was at Stanford's practice
and they were in their practice tohim, and they've got this big TV
on the wall with their their theirequipment on the side, and so they
queued up the last three point oneseconds and the whole team stood there and
I mostly watched Nadia Fingal and KeanaWilliams and you know, we see the

(15:58):
play evolve where the path comes intoMaddie Washington and so where the little back
door cut and Tutor makes the layupand then tars like okay, okay,
see the time they put it onit. So there's point four and then
they just you could just hear thecomments like oh, oh my wow,
oh my god. And their mouthswere wide open, their eyes were wide
open, and it was a teachablemoment that you know, you got to

(16:19):
execute, You've got to be inthe moment, you know it. It
spoke volumes to that Stanford team ofwhat you have to do at the end
of a ball game. It wasreally fascinating to just watch them watch what
happened that's a great story, andI know for a fact, I'm sure
Charlie was not pleased without that thingended. But it was a big teachable
moment for her team, one thatyou wish he didn't have to go through

(16:41):
and that you could just have youryou know, an example of that,
you could show your team in thelocker room like Tara did. But we're
talking about tiebreakers. Think about thesignificance of that. They Arizona State wins
that game, They've got the tiebreakeron Oregon State. So when when all
is said and done at the endof the year and we look at those
standings like that moment, moments mattermatter, no doubt about that. You
know what else matters? What words? Words matter? Because as long as

(17:03):
we're talking about Michael Pivic, Ibrought my soapbox for you today because I
was going to have you get upon my soapbox and I was going to
have you declare one of the greatinjustices that we saw over the weekend that
you called out on Twitter and maybemade a few phone calls about MICHAELA.
Pivoc. Well you you you tellthe story because well, Senior Class Award,
what is it, right? Theaward. The announcement came out that

(17:23):
the top ten players on the onthe Senior Class Award, and it's I
don't know if you have it infront of you, but it's academics,
community. You know, there's fourbig components to it. Leadership, leadership.
And I'm looking at the list andI'm going down the list, and
then I went down the list again. And then I went down the list
again, and I just thought therehad to be a mistake because MICHAELA.

(17:45):
Pivoc wasn't on the list. Graduatedin three years. We know from our
interview she's like had one a minusin her in her life and she's getting
a master's and she literally and KatTutor would say, yeah, she went
and spent the night at the homelessplace, you know, like yeah,
she goes in volunteers after games.No, yeah, and she serves meals

(18:06):
and she makes she I don't sheepitomizes the awarding. Yeah she does,
she does. And so I mean, I don't ever do this on Twitter.
I try to be super positive,but I just I found it.
I just could not believe she wasn'ton it. So I I tweeted that
out and uh, then I thinkit kind of like, oh, because
I don't often you don't often lookat a list, you see who's on

(18:29):
it, you don't think about who'snot on it. But the point I
really want to make about that listis and my my tweet was not to
say anything derogatory about anyone on thelist. Everyone on the list deserved to
be on the list. I justthought the Caleb Pivoc should also have been
on the list. And so apparently, after some some prompts, what happened.

(18:56):
We have no idea what happened,but I got a shout out Vicky
on Twitter, one of the dedicatedBeaver fans, who tweets that line,
she's awesome. Well, I justyou know, I don't have to read
it if you don't want to,but I am going to pull it up
right here because it is pretty It'spretty good. Hang on one second.
Yeah, So Vicky tweets out specialthanks to real Mary Murphy for voicing her
displeasure publicly on the first day theseSenior Class Award finalists lists posted. Now

(19:18):
we get to vote for Pivoc asa finalist. Hashtag you to real MVP.
So yes, you're the real MVPMary. I was. I was
getting ready to pick it their offices. I don't even know where the Senior
Class award offices are, but Ihad all my picket materials ready. I
was going to go and just butyou you sent out a tweet and you
know, you just see an injusticein the world and you make it right.
Well, so she does. Ithink the point is that read read

(19:38):
about these people, and then decide. And there's a third of the vote
that will be you know, peoplethat vote online, so participate, but
be a knowledgeable like vote for areason, as we know that's important,
and then coaches and media will bepart of the decision as well. But
it certainly is deserving of Mick Pivockand as Organ states fans have mentioned,

(20:02):
Mick, this is the last thingmcpickott wants is people to notice her like
and talk about this. She shedoesn't. It's not important to her so,
but it's it's important that someone ofher quality and ability is acknowledged that
recognition. I agree, So goodgood, any um, all right,
there were a couple organ players onthat list, if I'm not mistaken,
Yeah, there sure are. RuthyHibbert, Sabrina Janescu, so there are

(20:23):
three total now from the conference,and just you know, you're just making
the injustices right. That's why Iappreciate it. I think it is correct
that she's on the it is,it is, so we're glad she's on
the list. Um, let's talkabout Organ because you know there's again,
there's always so much you can talkto when you talk about the Ducks.
They were still number three in therankings that came out yesterday. Were you

(20:47):
surprised by that they didn't at leastmove up to the two spot. I
know it doesn't really matter at thispoint, but you know how I feel
about rankings. Yeah, it isa popularity contest. I think they're number
one in our PIM. I thinkthere's an acknowledgement that Organ is playing great
basketball. That and you know,Coreys gonna allude to this is just doing
a great job on the defensive entoffensive ents, special situations. They've got

(21:08):
three All Americans on their team.They have separated themselves in the conference,
and I think if they stay stayhealthy, knock on wood, the futures
are very bright as they head downthe stretch. Yeah. They So they've
got three straight wins over top twentyteams, and they beat those teams by
eighteen points, thirty three points,thirty one points. South Carolina and Baylor

(21:29):
remained that the top two spots inthe AP pole. And speaking of which,
South Carolina played Yukon last night andthey won guess how many points?
Eighteen So same exactly as the Ducks. And I know the transitor property doesn't
work in basketball, but that gamewas played in Columbia, so it was
played on the people. Yeah,I was kind of open Yukon was gonna

(21:52):
blast them just so for our purposes, but that didn't happen. South South
Carolina is good and ash to makethem another comparison, I just feel like
South Carolina and Oregon at a differentlevel. I mean, there they both
have. South Carolina has nine winsover top twenty five opponents. Oregan has
eight, and then the next onedown is Florida to State in Maryland with

(22:12):
five wins. And then you haveour our teams Arizona, Oregon State,
Stanford, and Ucla. I mean, I know there's a lot of balls
we played, but you could saythat we're kind of on a collision course
in March. I think we couldsay that. My favorite quote though,
when I watched them play. Now, I think about Denny Green when he
was in the NFL and he hadthat ranch where it just went viral.

(22:32):
He goes, wait, yeah,they are who we thought they are.
And guess what people organ is exactly. I thought they were a couple of
losses along the way. They aredominant. But think about what they did
in that week. You know thatthey play, then they go Connecticut,
then they have to come home,and then they play, you know again
against really good teams. And nowthey go to California for the next two

(22:56):
weekends, you know, to LA, to the Bay. I mean,
they are, but they they're justlike machines right now. They're like robots.
They are there. You know,who is who we thought she is.
Sabrina's who we thought she is.And you know, we talked.
You mentioned that they're going to theLA schools. We're gonna talk about their
huge matchup with UCLA on Friday,but let's talk about what she did this
past Friday against Arizona. Her thirdtriple double against the Wildcats. I think

(23:19):
that fan base won't be sad tosee her graduate. But it was her
twenty fourth career triple double, whichwas significant because that was, as everybody
knows, Kobe Bryant's number the finalten years of his career, and after
the game, she was asked aboutthat, and we thought we'd play you
the SoundBite. So this is Sabrinabeing asked about her twenty fourth career triple
double. Definitely a little bit moreemotional for this one. I'd probably be

(23:42):
receiving a text at this time withhim, you know, telling me something,
congratulating me and obviously keeping up withit. But he's sending me a
text in a different way, soI definitely can hear him, you know,
congratulating me and our teams. SoI hope I can just stay at
twenty four for the rest of theyear, but I don't know if that's
going to happen. A lot ofthings I liked about that SoundBite, But

(24:07):
what what's your reaction to it?Well, I think the sound bite it's
interesting. At the same time,I know, I don't think we understand
just how deep the loss of allthose folks that were on that helicopter has
been to Sabrina Alyssa Ulta Belli.They had a memorial service down at Angel
Stadium yesterday for the family and uhAlyssa was a great player, and she

(24:33):
wanted to go to Oregon because herfavorite player with Sabrina Yunescu, and you
know, Sabrina had gotten to knowall of those players. And so we
think it's just about Kobe, there'sjust so much more. And so every
day that she gets out there anddoes what she does and does it the
way she does it, I justthink she's doing a great job of handling
all the pressure and I cannot evenimagine how much there is. Yeah,

(24:56):
I know, and I'm glad youbrought that up because for any of thebody
who follows her on Instagram, shewas at that memorial service for John and
his wife Carrion and their daughter Alissa, who you mentioned, And so it
is, it's it's there's a lotmore going on than just what's going on
in the basketball court for her rightnow. The one thing that stood out
to me is, and I wastalking with Ari, one of our producers
here, Kobe would want her togo get more. He wouldn't want her

(25:18):
to sit at number twenty four tripledoubles, like keep the game, ball,
frame the box score, know thatyou're awesome, but go get some
more. Don't don't not get anymore this season, and she's gonna have
a great chance because they've already soldout for the final home game against Washington.
I believe in your day March first. So that's gonna be on the
Pactuel Network and you're gonna be callingit. Yeah, So that'll be exciting,

(25:41):
gonna be awesome. Say Cazorla wasin town this weekend, came from
overseas. It was the only timeshe could make it. So you know,
the party's on and Eugene, there'sno doubt about it. Sabrina's on
the verge by the way of becomingthe first player in Division one history,
men or women, to get twothousand points, a thousand rebounds, and
a thousand assists. She needs justI think three assists and thirty four which
she's gonna get the probably very veryquickly. U Okay. So there's as

(26:04):
we mentioned, a big one Fridaynight at Paulie Valentine's Day matchup with the
Bruins their fourth consecutive game against aranked team. This will be for the
organ Ducks and because of the unbalancedschedule, this is the only meeting of
the regular season between these two.I mean Final four hopefuls for sure.
The last time they played was epic. The semi finals of the PAC twelve
tournament was just unbelievable. So yourearly thoughts and right before we welcome on

(26:27):
Corey on on what's going to happenin this one? Well, I think
it's it's just you gotta keep itclose. You can't. You can't let
Organs just be organ You got tochallenge shots. I think they're gonna have
their hands full because they're they're playingextremely well. But at this point I
cannot underestimate UCLA. They are playingvery, very well. Excited about it.

(26:47):
I'm excited about it too. Itis the game of the week and
it's on the Pact twelve network andthe PAC twelve now at Friday, eight
pm Pacific time. So for moreon that game in the state of the
seventh ranked UCLA Bruins, let's welcomein their head coach, Corey Close.
Great to have you on, coach. How's your day going so far?
So good? Thanks for having meon. Yeah, we're really pumped to
talk to you about a lot ofdifferent things. I would to say congratulations

(27:07):
obviously on the huge Bay Area roadsweep, but First things first, I
got to say congratulations to you onPac twelve win number one hundred. It
came Friday night at Maple's, thathuge win over Stanford and Corey. As
far as memorall wins goes, thatthis one, I imagine was pretty high
up there. What was the mostspecial part of that for you? Well,
to be honest with you, Icould care less about the one hundred.
But I'm from the Bay Area.I'm from Milpitas, and a set

(27:32):
of my high school coach was therethat coached me, several of my colleagues
or people I went to high schoolwith. I think, you know,
the thing that was most meaningful tome is that I got to say thank
you to those people that really investedin me and believed in me. And
so, you know, having winone hundred, it really was never on
my radar. I didn't even knowwhat was happening. But after the fact,

(27:52):
I got to say thank you topeople that meant a lot to me,
and that was the best part.And I know two people that mean
a real lot too, is yourmom and dad, who normally make the
trip to the Bay and couldn't makeit this year. What were their thoughts
or texts or phone calls after thegame and just watching it and how nervous
and what was their reaction. Well, it's funny, Um, they really
they had a great time watching thegame. But they were all they wanted

(28:15):
to tell me as all the peoplefrom LPUS they saw in the fans,
so um, they're like, ohI saw this person, what did they
say? What are they up too? And so really they were mostly uh,
you know, wanting to find outwho I got to catch up with
that they missed out on. Allright, So Corey, let's talk about
this this game on Friday night becauseobviously it was it was a big one.
And I know that you're at thepoint in your program where you guys

(28:37):
expect to win these big games onthe road and you've talked about that.
But walk me through kind of whatyou saw from your squad, what the
key was, and how you wereable to pull away and come out with
that. Well, I think ithad to do with mindset employees, you
know. I mean, Stanfords sucha good team and we've we've matched up
pretty well with them through the yearsfor whatever reason. Um, and you
know, I think we had agood game land going in. But you

(29:00):
know, they're just you know,there's going to be ups and downs in
the game, and so um,I felt like our poise through those ups
and downs were really the difference makers. When you know, in the third
quarter they took the lead by oneand called time out and just in their
eyes, they just really were,Okay, let's you know, we call
them kills when you get three stopsin a row and they're like, hey,
let's just get back to a kill. And when you hear all the

(29:21):
talk coming from them, that's reallyin a good mental state. You feel
pretty good as the coach. Andum, you know, I thought we
had some mismatches. I thought wecould go, um, go inside with
Natalie Chow on a couple of theirbig guards. Um, we thought that
was a good matchup obviously Mkayla andnew wedding versus their posts getting downhill and
be really a guard and trying toattack that way. So um, but

(29:44):
you know, it was a greatI give Tony Noonan on my staff a
ton of credit. I thought hehad a great game plan, he did
a really good job scouting the game, and um, but I think it
was the mindset and the poise ofthe team and just their belief. But
for whatever reason they they sort offuels itself. We've been a pretty good
road team over the last couple ofyears, and um, they sort of
it sort of gets in your headlike that we're just even that much better

(30:04):
on the road, and and theysort of fueled out in each other.
And I think that played out onFriday night, Corey. But the first
road sweep in the Bay Area sincenineteen ninety eight ninety nine for UCLA,
I mean that's really quite a statement. Well, really grateful. I didn't
even know that. Um, youknow, I think that when you're in

(30:25):
the grind of this conference, you'rethankful for any win, no matter how
they come sweep or not. Right, So I think that, you know,
we're just trying to get better.And I know that sounds very coach
speakish, but I think if youget distracted by how long it's been or
you know what's ahead of you,it can be overwhelming. And the way
I've tried to stay sane is justgo one one game and celebrate every win.

(30:48):
And um, you know, Ithink that's that's the piece for me.
You know, Coach, we talkso much about michaela and how great
she is and her development, andyou have a terrific freshman as well.
But a couple of players that wedon't talk much about that are the heart
and soul of your team in manyways is Lindsay Corsaro and Santel Horvat.
And Horvat in particular, and Lindsayas well, just the toughness, just

(31:11):
the presence and how they help thefloor on both ends. Just do what
you want to have happen. Tellus about those two and what they mean
to your program. Well, Ilove that you bring them up. Because
they're on paper. People don't talkto them about it, but if you
ask anyone in our program, theywould be the first names mentioned because they
are the glue. So you know, Chantel Horvat has never played a forward

(31:33):
position in her whole life, youknow, and we just said, hey,
you have the size, you havethe toughness, you have the rebounding
ability. Um, you know,would you be willing to do this?
And it was without hesitation, youknow. And because she's been battling these
foot injuries, she rarely practice.She didn't even practice that much, you
know, and she has to watchdouble film sessions. We try to involve

(31:55):
her in different ways, and soshe's really not getting the physical reps prepare
for a game. So to haveher come in and do what she did
again Stanford was remarkable. But itjust speaks to her selflessness and her toughness.
And her dad was a World Cupsoccer player and now was a GM
of a professional soccer organization down inin Melbourne, Australia. But she just

(32:16):
comes by this this grit about herand she's always had it. And Linda
Csaro, I mean she's unled usin minutes played last year. She have
been under the weather this year.But she's just the one I felt like
we had our leader back on Fridayin terms of she was able just to
calm us. She makes mismatches,change our defense as a whole lot depending

(32:37):
on matchups, and she's the onethat keeps us on the same page.
And you know, she's really sacrificedher own personal um, you know,
goals to make sure the team areon the same page. And you're absolutely
right, Mary that those two arethe backbone of our program. I love
that insight, and I do thinkit's important to talk about the people.
I think we sometimes as media membersget locked in on some of the stars

(32:59):
that are putting up the big stats. But I gotta then ask you,
so you get that huge one atStanford. I know your team was was
super fired up. Human nature mightindicate that there would be a letdown against
a team that you know in thestandings is the last team in the league.
So tell me what the conversation waswith your players going into that cal
game. And then obviously that thefact that you needed overtime in a last

(33:19):
second shot by michaela to escape.Just your thoughts on what Sharmon Smith is
building right now, Well, I'mI'm really proud of her and and just
her backbone. She got on themic after the game and talked to her
fans and um and I was stillout there. I was on the radio,
and she just was so genuine andshe's so passionate and wants to develop
young women and provide an incredible experienceand build a nationally prominent program. And

(33:45):
I really don't have any doubt shewill do that. I think she expected.
I was on the board of theWomen's Basketball Coaches Association board with her.
Excuse me, and she m Ijust love her vision for young people
and I was inspired by her quitefrankly, and UM, I just think
she's I'm so glad that she's inour conference and she's leaving that group.

(34:06):
Um, but you hit it onthe head. I mean, we knew
that it was a human nature,and we didn't shy away from that.
We call we talk a lot ofin our program about discipline over default that
if you if you just allowed yourlumen nature, then you will have a
letdown. Um. And I actuallythought we played with good energy at the
first half, but we didn't playwith very gay toughness and we got in
foul trouble. I mean, Mikaylaplayed I think three minutes in the first

(34:28):
half, and UM, I thinkwe had some obstacles that way. Um.
You know, but I want togive credit to cal and then you
know, sometimes you just got togut it out. I actually quoted the
team the night before. I wasjust watching Sports Center and Lebron said,
UM, you know, we knowwe didn't play our best basketball, but
we also know how hard it isto get road wins in the NBA.
And he said, so you know, my hunger to get better is really

(34:52):
um high, And he said,and I know that we were going to
look in the mirror and go,man, why didn't we play as well
as we needed to there? Andum, we're gonna say alebrate that we
got to win on the road.And so that's sort of what I quoted
to the team in the locker roomafter the game was, you know,
we know we didn't play our best. We know we give cal credit for
some of that as well, andwe know that we're going to look in
the mirror and go, Okay,what do we need to do and how

(35:13):
do we need to adjust? Andit's really hard to get roads in the
PAC twelve. So a road winsin the PAC twelve. So I think
it was a mixed bag. AndI definitely didn't sleep much going into that
game because I did know the humannature part of that. And you know,
but I was really pleased after theStanford game. Our team wasn't besides
dousting me and which I'm not surethey cared about one hundred and win.

(35:35):
They just really wanted to dousset mewith water. But um, but they
but I didn't think they were,like, you know, when we won
the game at Stanford, they weren'trunning around and celebrating it. Didn't think
they got emotionally too high and sothat was a really good thing and I
thought that voted well for us.Responding on Sunday, Coach, one of
the things about you and your characterand who you are that always just makes

(35:57):
me step back and go wow,is giving spirit that you have and how
gracious you are in victory or defeatand inclusive of your fellow coaches. And
it's not a quality that we seea lot of. And uh, I
know you. We spoke after theballgame and you mentioned what Taras said to
you, and it feels like youwere carrying on that tradition as well.

(36:20):
How can you be like that andstill be competitive with people that you're going
to be in the trenches and it'sgoing to come down to you in Charman
for a player? Are you inTara for a player? How can you
fight that good fight and still behave a giving spirit? Well? I
have to give credit to Coach,wouldn't you know? I Mean I was
I watched him and was mentored byhim and um and he was always he

(36:44):
just chose principle over you know,everything else, and he just trusted that
he was going to get the playersthat he was supposed to get and I
just feel like I have been inthat um you know, I've I've I've
had players that I felt like,oh, I had to get that person
in you know what, I wasn'tthe right coach for them when I looked
back in hindsight, or you know, whatever the case might be. And
we're really different. You know,one of the things I love about our

(37:05):
conference is that we um there's differentstyles of play, there's different leadership styles,
there's different um you know, justdifferent ways we run our programs.
So we're not all going to beall things to all people. And I
think it's much more about finding theright fit. And when I think early
in my career, I got reallyhung up on you know, just well
we got to get this and whatare the numbers? And we have had

(37:25):
this ranked recruiting class, and youknow how what's that person saying? And
you know I was the only personwho lost in that. I mean,
you know, it didn't affect thoseother people. And so that's how I
feel now, is that you know, everybody wins when when you know I
want to be someone who it coachesin freedom, who enjoys my job,
who is as good as I canbe for my kids. Um, you

(37:45):
know, so I just I don'tknow. I just think that I'm not
as good a coach in any otherway. How did you flip that switch,
Corey, because obviously I'm you talkabout making a change and what used
to be important to you and kindof what what's important to you now?
How did they're an aha moment thatyou had? Well, you know,
I think there's a lot of cumulatives, little aha moments where you realize what's

(38:07):
really important, you know. Imean, I've had the unfortunate thing of
varying four players I've coached, youknow, that have died before their time.
And I've had, you know,amazing things where players have come back
and talked about the impact of whatthis experience has had on their life.
And with all those things, Irealize, with all those stories and with

(38:29):
all those life experiences, I realizethat the only two things that are going
to be with us for the restof our lives from these experiences or these
four years with these young people iswho they become and who they impact.
I mean, I just don't youknow. I get together with all the
national championship programs here at ECLA allthe time, and they never talk about
the games. They just don't andand it just is uh. It always

(38:53):
reminds me to you know, Ineed to be I have two things in
my office, okay, hanging onmy walls. So I'll tell you that
I to be reminded every day.And I lose track all the time.
I have to refocus. But Ihave a broom in my on a wall,
hanging on a wall, and Ihave a shovel. And uh,
because I am as competitive as thenext person, and I lose track all

(39:13):
the time, and so M butthe broom. I read a book called
Legacy. It's the most professional,most successful professional sports organization. It's a
rugby team, the All Blacks outof New Zealand, and their executives and
their captains sweep the sheds every day. They sweep the sheds. And they
talked about that servant leadership being suchas the year success. So I have
a broom up there, just remindingme to sweep the sheds in my in

(39:37):
my arena. And then the secondone is a shovel. And I remember
it was actually the year we wentto the n I T and my friend
John Gordon said to me, MCorey trust that. Um, if you
want to see the fruit, yougot to nurture the route and uh and
eventually you can't. You're not alwaysgoing to know when the fruit is going
to come. But your responsibility asa leader is to nurture the route and

(39:57):
to foster that. And so Ihave this double hanging on my wall that
reminds me to nurture the route.But actually, don't get me wrong.
I lose track all the time andI make mistakes all the time. But
I think I think I've told myselfthat I'm never going to never forget.
But what I am going to dois continually remember. I love that,
and I think sometimes we do forgetpeople on the outside. Coach that there's

(40:21):
a lot that is going on withyour student athletes. They're dealing with class,
they're dealing with relationships, becoming adults, playing basketball, all the things
going on in the world, andso just that the role that you feel
and guiding young people through what Ithink is the most confusing time and a
young person's life. It's it's reallymeaningful, special, and it's awesome to
watch. Oh, thank you.Well, it's interesting. You know,
this particular team, maybe one ofthe most burdened team. There's a lot

(40:45):
going on in their individual lives offthe court, and you said it so
well, and you know, Ijust there's so much more than meetia and
TV. And you know, ifI don't journey with them in those other
areas well, and honestly, willprobably not be as good on the court
anyway, if I don't enter inwith those other things, because they will
become distractions from them on the court. But you know, even more importantly,

(41:07):
those are the things in the areasof investments that are going to last.
And Corey, I know, andwe talked after the Stanford game.
You know, I've I've done alot of UCLA games over the years,
and I honestly in watching your gameand I told you this, I've never
felt about your team the way Idid Friday night. That you know,

(41:27):
you know, at halftime, we'realways like, what's tarre gonna do,
what's going to be the adjustment?And we talked at halftime, and then
afterwards, I just looked up atthe scoreboard and when I talked to just
like Corey, I don't think I'veever seen a UCLA team that was just
that good, just that steady,just that you know that it's okay,
we're gonna we're gonna win this game, confident and in belief in each other,

(41:52):
and that you could play your smallball UCLA style and beat a team
against Stanford that really has some great, great size and great inside players.
To me, it was, youknow, the Cow game was about Grid,
but the Stanford game was really abouttaking and sort of stepping up to
a higher stage. And you know, Charlie Cream's mentioning you guys as a
number one seed potentially and all thatcomes with that. But it just it

(42:15):
felt like a moment to me Fridaynight. It really did well. It's
so interesting. It wasn't meaningful tome because I respect you so much,
Mary that you thought that and sawthat in our team. Um, you
know, I think it's been thesteady mental growth and how you see yourself
and our players, you know,seeing themselves as an elite team. And

(42:35):
you know, I think belief issuch an important thing. And I remember
at Dabo Sweeney said, um,I don't want overachievers, I want over
believers, and I think we're tryingto build over believers. You know that
that our players believe that we canYou know that we're so much better together
than we would ever be individually,and that we're going to over believe in
what we can do together. Um, you know, I think little by

(42:55):
little they're starting to grab onto thatman, you know. So it was
really meant a lot to me thatyou said that, because sometimes I can't
see it when I'm in the weeds. Um, but I do think they're
making steps and seeing themselves in thatlight. You guys are gonna need a
whole lot of belief and overbelief toobviously do what you want to do this
weekend, which is beat Oregon athome on Valentine's Day. I think people

(43:17):
are so excited for this game.It's the only time you guys are going
to meet in the regular season.I remember what it was like when you
guys played each other last year,and yeah, these are different teams,
but um, I'm really excited tosee this. So tell me, how
do you prepare for the Ducks?What do you what do you see that
you can try and do to topull out what you guys want to do
and believe that you're going to winthis game. Well, well, you

(43:37):
know we're gonna have to play ourbest game. We know that, and
I do believe they're the best teamin the country. I'm maybe I'm biased,
and maybe I've seen them more,but I watched the South Carolina Yukon
game last night. Um, youknow, obviously Dawn's done a spectacular job,
and I've seen Baylor play, butum, just you know what the
versatility and and just the Sabrina factor. You know, she's a generational player.

(44:01):
Uh. You know, I thinkwe're obviously going to have to have
our best game, but you know, you don't. You know, I
go back to like the movie TheMiracle. You don't have to be the
you don't have to be the bestum for ten in a row. You
got to be the best that night. And you know, I think that
we're gonna have to create some confusion. We're gonna have to you know when
they We're going to switch our defensesa lot depending on their lineups. But

(44:22):
you know, the most important thing, and I watched our film versus them
at home last year. We've hadthis epic run of like overtimes or last
second you know, shots or gameswith them, but the one at our
place last year where they beat uspretty handily, it really came down to
rebounding and that's been a weakness ofours this year, the defensive rebounding,
and so m probably the biggest thingis I think we're gonna scheme well enough

(44:44):
to force some first hard shots,but keeping Ruthie inside two off the boards
and all of their players that dosuch a good job hustling and um,
I think that's really going to bepivotal for us. I'm pretty confident in
our defensive game plan that we'll getenough first shot stops, but and we
can we secure the rebound and thenget out and run so that we're able

(45:04):
to attack before they set their sizeor that, you know, in their
defense, which I think that's wherethey're most improved this year is defensively.
They've been really good offensively for severalyears, but um, they're much improved
on the defensive end of the floor. And so if we can get defensive
boards and attack and transition with oursmall ball and our versatile guards and those
kinds of things, that that willbe a huge key to our success.

(45:25):
You know, it's interesting, Corey, this season in the Pac twelve is
so reminiscent. You know, Ido the La Sparks games and what starts
happening at the end of the seasonwith tie breakers and who's going to make
the playoffs. I feel like weare. You know, all we're talking
about is tie breakers. You've gotthe tiebreaker with Stanford, You've got the
tiebreaker with Arizona State, looking forthe tie breaker. You know, one

(45:45):
win against Oregon or Organs that you'vegot the tie breaker against them because you
only play them once. It's ait's a crazy year because we're talking about
tie breakers already. Well, andyou look at you're gonna you could have
a top ten level team that's um, you know, got six losses or
you know what I mean, like, yeah, it's gonna be crazy.

(46:05):
I mean when you think about that, you could have a literally a top
twelve, top you know, fifteenteam in the country having to play on
that first day of the actual tournament. I mean that's just mind bo boggling
when you really think about it,A non gimme game, coach, in
a non gimme game because of what'sbeen going on in this conference. I
mean, it's right, it's crazy. It is crazy. I mean,

(46:27):
you know about I mean, Ithink this weekend is just fun, right,
you know, my players are gonnabe ready either going to be prepared.
The harder ones come after for me, come after that. You know,
the fact of going to the Washington's, you know, than having the
turn clutter out of at home onpaper games that you win. But they're
very capable. I mean, it'sjust it really you know, we keep
saying it, but it's really true. It's just every night and um,

(46:51):
you know they're eighteen to twenty twoyears old, and you know they don't
quite understand every night yet all thetime. And so um that's my job
is to help them understand that.But I lose a lot of sleep in
the process. Corey. One ofthe things that always just amazes me when
I walk in the gym to watchyou sal a practice or a shoot around,
like to say for Stanford, LikeI walk in and I'm like nervous
for you, like, go,oh man, this is such a I'm

(47:13):
like going into my coaching mindset.And then I watch your staff and you
you and your players, and youguys are like I remember like last year
at ASU and it was the samething. You guys like walk in and
you're just like let's go, andeveryone's like beating to the music. And
having like getting ready, getting focused. I'm like, wow, this is
why I'm not coaching anymore. II can't be like this. I'm like,

(47:34):
I'm like tense for you guys,and you guys are just like,
let's just get to work. Well, it's so interesting to me. I
have such a great staff. Butactually, just last night Shannon called me
and said, you know, Ijust think we need to just keep um.
You know, we always talk aboutbringing the struggle and the joy.
We just got to find little wayswithout compromising our competitive spirit, to infuse
the joy. Um, you know, because it's just such a grind ye

(47:58):
know right now everywhere hard and Iactually I've read a really influential book.
I can't remember the name of it, but um this last year, and
it talks about learning environments. They'retalking about education and is that if you
want to create the most growth thatyou have every day, you want to
infuse struggle and joy. That's howyoung people, you know, grow and

(48:19):
learn the best is when you haveboth of those elements in your teaching progressions.
And so to create really really hardthings where they have to scrap and
claw and experience failure and struggle,and where they get to experience joy and
you know, relationships and connection andyou know that's a that's not a scientific
formula, it's an art form.But I do really believe in that.

(48:39):
And I have such amazing people aroundme, which both of you know that.
Um, they remind me all thetime and they I'm the worst at
it, honestly, I'm just socompetitive and I just want to get after
it and like you know, butthey find really appropriate ways to infuse the
joy, which is really good.Well, you gotta give yourself some credit,
Corey, because I think one ofthe ways that you infused joy that

(49:00):
I have seen is your dance movesthat have really come on. We got
to within the last couple of yearsthat Mary sent me a video of you
dancing with your team. That wasthe staff. It was you and your
staff that was sent out to recruits, Like, tell us the backstory of
that and why what's what's what's withthe dancing? Because I love it.
I'm a big fan. Well,I only do this for recruits. I

(49:22):
mean, recruiting will get you todo anything. Charisma Osborne is the one
who started it, so I wastalking to her on the phone when I
was recruiting her and she you know, she dances. If you follow her
on social media, she's constantly dancing. And she says, you know,
if you were to dance live onmy official visits, I might commit.
Is good enough. I was like, challenge accepted, and that is where

(49:45):
the Kiki Challenge last year came from. And I was awful and the last
thing I wanted this for my dancemoves to be on Good Morning America.
Like it's terrible, but it happened. And so then she comes into the
office, um, you know earlier, this about maybe by months ago,
and says, coach, you know, we've seen the TikTok's and I was
like, what's a TikTok? Idon't know, and she's like, well,

(50:05):
there're so she sent me a video. She's like, I'm coming tomorrow
and we're gonna teach you, olord. And so then then they taught
me in my office. It washilarious. There was her, it was
Cameron Brown and Charisma Osborne and Rachelare on our video team and they it
was hilarious and I was awful,and they're like, man, I didn't
know this was going to take thislong. And I go we should have
so. Um. So anyway,then they got to be taught the whole

(50:28):
staff. They're like, we're goingto teach the whole staff. And so
that's what you What what Mary sentyou was the uh, the charisma Osborne
influence on our whole staff. Iwas dying laughing. I hope miss val
has has seen that somewhere. Idon't know. I know she she's all
in retirement now, but I knowshe guys I have to send it to
her. Yeah, she definitely.I don't know. I might I'm not

(50:49):
up to her standards, so Imight want to keep that under path.
All right, quite one more thingand then and then we'll let you go
practice your TikTok. Yeah, gopractice your moves. Yeah, exactly exactly.
So you you've already secured your fifthstraight twenty one season, and as
anybody who's listening to this podcast,uh knows, you're one of the most
cerebral coaches certainly that we have inthe country. So I want you to

(51:09):
give me a self scout. Nineyears into your tenure at Westwood, how
would you evaluate your success? Wow? Um, good question. I think
that I think that you know,I'm just a continual work in progress.
I think that's what. You know, this is my twenty sixth season of
coaching, and UM, and Ijust I think the thing that keeps me
going is just I really love toget better. I love to become a

(51:31):
different teacher. I'd love to connectand adjust to the you know, to
the different generations of kids and um. You know. So I think that
I think we're on the right trajectory. Um, you know. But for
me, it's all about we havea saying in our UM and our program
that you know, champions made hereis UCLA's program is lorded that phrase,

(51:52):
but we say champions made here fromthe inside out, and it really is.
For me, So I evaluate that, you know, I wanted to
be you know, I want tobe a competing for national championships. I
want to be competing for you know, conference championships you're in and you're out.
You know. I think we're notquite there yet and being the nation's
elite on a consistent basis and we'rewe're still waiting to get to our first

(52:14):
final four and those kinds of things. But I think the thing I'm most
proud of is that I think wereally care and foster the journey of young
people's hearts, and I think that'sthe most important thing to me. That
doesn't diminish how much I want togrow and how badly I want to win
a championship. But it's just nevergoing to be more important than coaching young

(52:35):
people's hearts. And so, youknow, I think I probably have told
you this story before, but itsort of encapsulates everything. You know.
It was my fourth day on thejob here at UCLA, and I've met
a lot of Coachwin's alumni. ButJohn Valley comes into my office and they
just said, hey, you needto meet with him. He's the Dribble
for the Cure guy. And I'mlike, okay, whatever, I haven't
hired a staff, I'm overwhelmed.I'm like whatever. So he sits across

(52:57):
from me and he just launches in. He says, I've been married thirty
eight years because of what Coach wouldn'ttaught me. I've started three successful businesses
because of what Coach wouldn't taught me. I've conquered cancer three times because of
the strength Coach wood And gave me. And then he really got me.
He said, I've survived the deathof my twelve year old daughter because of
the way Coach wouldn't love me,and he pretty much walked out. And
then I went and looked him upand he and he was a starting point

(53:20):
guard on two of Coach Wooden's nationalchampionship teams and he played seven years in
the NBA and he didn't even mentionit because it paled in comparison to the
man he became. And that sortof became our mission, is how many
John Valleys can we can we create? And uh, you know, and
yeah, oh, by the way, we won, you know, we
went to the first Final four inthe UCLA history and won our first national

(53:42):
championship. Oh by the way,you know, we won a PAC twelve
you know, championship when it wasthe number one conference in the country.
But it's net But I always wantedto pale in comparison to the young women
and what they become and do theimpact. So that's what we're trying to
do. I think we're I thinkwe're really committed to our mission. Do
we make mistakes, Yeah, butwe're really passionate about it and we love
what we do and so we're gonnajust try to keep going in that direction.

(54:05):
That is an awesome story. AndI don't know much, but I
know that wouldn't smiling down on everythingthat you're doing down there in Westwood.
I know that for a faker,and I can't wait for Friday Night Polly
Pavilion, it's the place to be. I saw you guys are trying to
break the student attendance record, soI'm urging everyone who's listening to go if
you can. But if you can'tmake it, you can watch on the
Pactrol Network or the Pactrol Now appeight pm. And I've got my popcorn

(54:27):
ready. Good luck, Corey.We look forward to watching that game and
seeing you in Vegas in a fewweeks. Here sounds good. Thank you
guys so much for all you're doingfor the conference, and I will see
you soon. Thanks. Cory.Always love catching up with Corey close.
She's just She's a special human andI love her insight. I got a
circle back real quick, Mary onthe dancing because you know, I could
do a whole podcast about people whoshouldn't dance dancing, because that's like the

(54:51):
story of my life. But youtold me a story the other day about
Mark Track, so apparently dancing islike a prec requisite now to be a
coach at this level. So tellme your Mark Track dancing story. So
I'm at the practice him at Stanfordand uh, Stanford leaves and uh a
issue comes as USC comes in andthey're all kind of stretching and doing what

(55:15):
teams do, and then off tothe side and down on the other court,
I see Coach Track with I don'tknow if it was a manager or
just one of his folks on hisstaff, and all of a sudden,
he starts slightly flossing dance flossing,and he he just like lightly flossing.

(55:36):
I mean he wasn't full. Imean it wasn't like a full YouTube,
you know what I'm saying. Itwas a light. He was working up
to full flossing, and then hegot more into it and was kind of
getting the moves down. And Iwas standing with Darcy the s id and
She's like, oh my god,I think Coach Track is flossing, and
I said, oh, she was. I would love to get you know,
like get this. And so hecame over to talk and I was

(55:58):
like, hey, do you wantto show me some of your dance moves?
And he was like absolutely, absolutelynot like he didn't. He just
was sort of in his own worldtrying to learn how to fla. So
it was it was just remarkable.And then Corey's video like everywhere you go,
coaches are are are dancing now AndI don't really understand it because for
me, I only dance like afterin the after parties of weddings. Oh

(56:22):
yeah, but I bet you goall out like what's your what's your go
to song? Twit's yer role?Twit's your role? Is my song?
That is the ultimate after hours dancesong, Hot and Candy Free to go,
let me see you twits role thatI got it and you just because
you can do every dance with thatwith that song. The problem is it
can cause injuries because sometimes when you'rereally doing the role and you get like

(56:43):
a little low, like you're like, oh my butterflies getting all shooes wedding
dead. Have you ever had anydancing injuries while dancing to one time?
One time? I did? Areyou gonna share that story? Not?
But so the whole floss thing andand TikTok anything, I am not on
the I'm out on the band wagon, not on my resume, as they
say, you getting injured, dancinga TITSI roll and Mark Track lightly flossing

(57:08):
like when no one is looking aretwo of my best mental images that I
could kind of year long. Sothank you for sharing that. Um Okay,
so we're gonna wrap this thing upbecause I know that we've gone longer
than we normally do. Baby shoutout to Utah. Let's let's shout out
Lynn Roberts in those utes, becauseagain, I think lost in the mix
of sometimes we can we talk aboutthe teams at the very top and time,

(57:29):
but they complete a huge road sweepover the Washington schools and Brenna Maxwell
Freshman of the Week. What doyou have to say about the youths right
now? Well, Brenna, itleads the PAC twelve and three point shooting
it at forty five percent. Sheis a terrific shooter, a great anchor
for the freshman class of where they'retrying to go. But when you start
on a weekend and you're three andseven in conference, and you finish in

(57:50):
your five and seven in conference,you're doing your happy dance, you're doing
your light flossing, you are firedup. And I'm sure that's exactly how
Lynn Roberts was feeling she was doingsome white floss, I know, injuries,
okay, and then the other thingthat I want to talk about,
and it's almost time for Murphy's Law. But you you made a great point,
Mary, as you so often do. We were talking about, you
know, we talked about the racefor the top four seeds in Vegas and

(58:13):
how important it is to have thatfirst round by especially when you know Corey
talked about it, especially when youlook at some of the teams in the
conference. There's no easy first daywin. But you make the point that
maybe there might be something too,not finishing fourth and finishing fist so that
you stay out of organ side ofthe bracket. There is no doubt in
my mind, like you want tobe second or third, if you're in
the top four, you want tobe two or three, because you do

(58:36):
not want to be in that organbracket because you know, it's like you're
looking over at a pickup game andyou're like, oh, man, I
don't want to play against those godbecause they are playing so well right now.
Right now, Satu is just offthe charts, Ruthie is just Ruthie,
and Sabrina is taking it too whoknew there were so many levels that
she could take it. Every timeyou think she's taken it to the top

(58:58):
levels, she just takes it onemore. So yeah more, Jess Shelley
Taylor Travez, I mean fully thewhole thing. So right now, just
for people listening. So right now, the standings look like Oregans number one
at eleven and one in conference play, Ucla is two at ten and two,
Stanford also ten and two. Wetalked about the importance of tiebreaker and
then that for the so the battlefor the number four seed. Arizona is
sitting at eight and four, OregonState at seven and five, and as

(59:21):
U at six and six. AsTart would call it in and as she
said to her team, stay outof the weeds. They don't want to
be five. So you don't wantto be down there in the weeds.
And I'm gonna put four in theweeds too. You don't want to be
you don't want to be four.Um, okay, time for our favorite
segment and now from Murphy's law,don't sleep on any team in this conference.

(59:49):
And I think UCLA learned that thisweekend. You look at cal and
you think, oh, you know, they're hurt. They don't have the
No. You can't sleep on anybodybecause you know, Ucla went over time
with washing to an eighty five eightyUM Arizona had a tough time with Washington
as well. Stanford went to overtimewith Colorado. You know, just talked
about UCLA as U USC that crazytriple overtime game, uh USC and U

(01:00:15):
C l A overtime m A sU and USC. It's just UCLA beats
Colorado by five. You can't takeanybody any place for granted. You gotta
come out and give it your best. You might win by twenty, but
you might lose by two. Youbetter be ready. You better be ready.
Bring it always. Don't sleep onany team. Check your Urban Dictionary

(01:00:35):
on what the definition of dot don'tsleep on dot dot dot. It's there.
Mary. Bringing in the Urban Dictionaryfor Murphy's law is also another one
of my favorite things. You aren'tYou are just too hit for me,
Mary Murphy, despite my lack ofdancing, by your lack of dancing participant.
That's all part of it, It'sall part of the glory that is
Mary Murphy. Uh calling. Alast thought for you guys today, and
then calling let us know if wemissed anything. But Colling brought this question

(01:00:59):
up the other day, and Ithink it is worth talking about. Would
anything other than a national title bea disappointment for Oregon? I mean,
I just mary the way they're They'rejust getting better and better. And this
team, the special team with Ruthieand Sabrina, obviously this one's in generation
player, and the loss last year, I just feel like this has just

(01:01:24):
got to be the year. Look, I just don't ever put the cart
in front of the horse. There'sa lot that's going to happen between now
and then. We I have noidea what's going to unfold with these teams
here in our conference or nationally.So when that moment comes and whatever happens,
there's going to be a reason thatit happens, and I can't wait

(01:01:45):
to see what it is. Willit be a disappointment. I would never
be disappointed by Oregan if they don'twin the national championship because of who they
are, what they've accomplished, howthey've elevated this conference, their attendants,
how passionate people are, how manylittle kids care about Sabrina. Walking into
Utah, I went up to youknow, I got my workout and went

(01:02:06):
up to the restroom and these littlegirls walked in with their moms and they
and the little girls were like fourand five, and they said, I
mean, where's Sabrina. Where's Sabrina? And I'm like, where's Sabrina?
Like, you're not gonna see Sabrinapeople, and they're like, well,
mean, where's Sabrina? Like shewas going to walk up and say,
Hi, how's your doll? Youknow. I mean, so will I
be disappointed maybe, but what it'sdone and what it is I just think

(01:02:30):
is magnificent. I think that isawesome, super well said. And I
think I would clarify by saying,I don't think any of the three of
us would feel disappointed if Oregon doesn'twin the Natty. I think if you
asked to a woman everyone on thatteam if they would feel disappointed, I
think Sabrina would say yes. Ithink Sato, Ruthie Mignon more they are
to me hell bent on finishing thisfinal uncheckedbox of unfinished business. And Mary

(01:02:54):
you pointed out, like there's somany things that have to go have to
go your way in order to makethat happen. You have to stay healthy,
you have to have some things breakyour way. It's so much about
the end DAI tournaments. You guysknow is about matchups, but there's stuff
that you don't control. But Ithink that no matter what happens, it
will go down as one of themost memorable seasons in Oregon history. They
beat Team USA, they hand Yukonit's worst home loss ever. They finally

(01:03:16):
get that win at gil Sabrina andRuthie completely obliterate all the record books.
All of that is true, Butto me right now, the bar is
set for them as winning a Natimarried. If he will come back on
your attendance, I'm pretty sure I'llhave a better I'll have a concrete fact
next week for you. But ifhe combined the women and men's attendance,
I believe they're third, only behindMichale men and Utah men. So that

(01:03:40):
just shows you how I mean,they're they're the third hottest ticket in all
of college basketball basketball. Yeah,that's awesome. I love it. Um
all right, So want to remindeverybody Rates Review subscribe to the podcast.
I don't understand the metrics. I'mcertainly not smart enough for that, but
I'm told that it helps immensely ifyou do. We obviously want to keep

(01:04:02):
this thing going. I enjoy gettingto hang out with you guys every Tuesday,
So maybe not this long. We'resorry. Yeah, yeah, this
wasn't quite a lightning round, buthopefully you enjoyed it all, um,
But yeah, if you enjoy it, share it with a friend, give
us a rating, Send it toyour mom, to your aunt June,
whoevery yes, Happy Valentine's Day toyou Mary, thank you and calling so

(01:04:24):
much, and all of our listeners. Uh, call your parents, hug
your people, enjoy your life.We'll see you next week.