LOS ANGELES_Cori Close looked relieved.
The UCLA women's basketball coach, admittedly nervous before tipoff, had watched her team dominate its second-round game in the NCAA tournament and earn a shot at top-ranked, unbeaten-since-2014 Connecticut.
UConn is "a great team; they obviously have our respect," Close said after the Bruins, the No. 4 seed in the Bridgeport Regional, routed No. 5 Texas A&M, 75-43, Monday at Pauley Pavilion. "But my team has my respect and I need to lead them the same way that we've done it all year long."
This is the first time the Bruins (25-8) have advanced as far as a regional semifinal for a second consecutive season. Last season, as a No. 3 seed, UCLA fell to No. 2 Texas in a Bridgeport Regional semifinal _ a victory away from playing top-seeded Connecticut.
A day after the bracket was announced this month, Close held a team meeting to gather reaction about a potential repeat trip to Bridgeport and possible run-in with the Huskies.
Players were "all over the map," Close said.
"Some of them were like, 'I'm excited to play Connecticut, but I don't want to go to Bridgeport; it's far and it's cold,'" Close said. "I think they're a competitive group, so I just wanted to get a pulse of where we were building from."
Said guard Kari Korver, before the tournament started: "Initially you're kind of like, 'Aw, dang, UConn.' But after a second you think about it and you're like, 'No, we could be the team that could go and beat UConn.'"
Connecticut (34-0) has won four consecutive NCAA titles and 109 consecutive games, including blowout victories over No. 16 Albany and No. 8 Syracuse in the first two rounds of this tournament. Only three teams have come within 10 points of them this season.
"They're a really good basketball team," UCLA guard Jordin Canada said. "But at the moment we're focused on us and what we can do to get better."
Said Korver: "I think if we continue to give the type of effort we've given the last two games, it'll be a lot of fun."
The Bruins defeated No. 13 Boise State by 27 points in a first-round game, then proved even better in the 32-point blowout of Texas A&M _ the largest margin of victory in an NCAA tournament game in the program's history.
"I definitely think we're playing our best basketball in March," Close said. "Usually it's not the more talented team that wins in the NCAA tournament ... it's the one that does things together and makes plays for each other, and I thought we made plays for each other."
