UCLAs Cori Close, always humbly leading, upholds John Woodens legacy

Cori Close still visits with him to this day, before every home game.As she walks down a hallway inside Pauley Pavilion, John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success to her left and all of his teams’ championship banners to her right, Close engages in an internal dialogue with her beloved mentor.“I sort of say, ‘Papa, I hope I make you proud,’ ” Close told The California Post, the UCLA women’s basketball coach choking up.“ ‘May I teach and coach in a way that reflects the amazing example you gave me, and if I can be half of that today, it will be a good day.’ ” Lately, there has been little besides good days.What else would there be? Close and her team have manifested the ideals of perhaps the most legendary coach in sports history, putting process above results, character above recognition.It’s probably no coincidence that they’ve also mirrored the dominance Wooden achieved while collecting a record 10 national championships.Winners of a program-record 25 consecutive games, including a 51-point demolition of Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament championship, UCLA (31-1) is a No.

1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a trendy pick to win it all.The winningest women’s coach in UCLA history, Close has wondered what Wooden might say about those who keep telling her that this is her year, that it’s championship or bust for a super team that might feature six players taken in the first round of the WNBA draft.“I think he would say it actually is something you don’t have control over,” Close said, “so to put your energy there actually distracts from the process that it would really take to play your best when your best is needed.”As the story goes, she could hardly utter her name when they met.By then, Close had heard stories about the great John Wooden for a decade.She remembers her father and a high school coach discussing the celebrated figure in the 1980s, though the conversation didn’t fully resonate.When she was a point guard at UC Santa Barba...