This might be sweetest season of all for UCLA womens basketball

There could be something sweeter this time around.Another deep foray into the NCAA Tournament could finally produce the special ending the UCLA women’s basketball team has long sought.What’s the difference between this batch of Bruins and its predecessors who reached the Sweet 16?The six seniors who might be taken in the first round of the WNBA draft.A knockdown 3-point shooter in Gianna Kneepkens.

A second point guard in Charlisse Leger-Walker.Another Betts sister.

More savvy versions of veterans Kiki Rice, Lauren Betts and Gabriela Jaquez.“We’ve got a lot of vets and a lot of old people on this team,” Betts told the California Post on Wednesday, “so I feel like once you have that maturity and that experience, it just helps so much.Once you get into those pressure situations, you’re just a lot more equipped and a lot more poised, and I feel like we really need that.” California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.

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Never miss a story It doesn’t feel like an exaggeration to say this team is built for March — and possibly beyond.The Bruins’ fourth consecutive Sweet 16 appearance — matching a previous streak under coach Cori Close from 2016–19 — could produce a championship breakthrough.What’s widely considered the best team in program history can take its next step toward a title Friday afternoon.The top-seeded Bruins (33–1) will face fourth-seeded Minnesota (24–8) in a Big Ten rematch on a bigger stage — a regional semifinal at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.“We hope that every year when you have a core group that grows together,” Close told The Post, “that they’re adding to their toolbox not only individually — about what it means to handle pressure, what does it mean to minimize distractions, how are these rounds different? — but ...