Top-ranked UCLA making most of 8-day East Coast trip on and off the court

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — UCLA is making the most of its eight-day road trip to the East Coast.

There have been a lot of firsts for the top-ranked Bruins on this eastern odyssey that will see the team play three games. It's the longest road trip that coach Cori Close can remember during her time at the school — especially in the middle of the season.

It started with a victory over No. 25 Baylor on Monday in New Jersey in the inaugural Coretta Scott King Classic and then continued with a win over Big Ten foe Rutgers on Thursday. The trip will conclude in Maryland on Sunday against the eighth-ranked Terrapins.

In between the Baylor and Rutgers games, the Bruins got to spend time in New York exploring the city. A boat trip to the Statue of Liberty, a visit to the Empire State Building and 9/11 Museum as well as a stop on Broadway to see “Hell’s Kitchen” highlighted their day.

“It's really cool because some of us had never been to a Broadway show before,” said center Lauren Betts, who averaged 24.5 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks in the two games in New Jersey. “And so I thought that was just a really cool experience. And we got to meet the cast after, which is like, amazing. ... Some of us got on the stage and try to recreate the songs and sing, which obviously did not go so well.”

The Bruins, who flew east last Saturday, also were in the area for the winter storm that brought snow to the tri-state area. For some of the players it was their first time seeing snow in person.

It's not all fun for the Bruins, who are back in class as UCLA is on the quarter system. It hasn't been a normal academic period with the wildfires in Los Angeles making classes remote until last week.

"Obviously with the tragedy of the fires back home, a lot of the lectures moved to online learning so the whole quarter has not been consistent so far," said Andrew Garcia, who is UCLA’s associate director of student athlete success for the team. “I think for me, the challenge has been, ‘How do I bring that sense of normalcy and consistency into their routine?’”

Garcia said he works with the players and professors to know when class work is due, which is a little more complicated with the time difference between the two coasts.

Junior guard Kiki Rice said she and others on the team speak with professors at the beginning of the year to let them know their schedule ahead of time.

“They’re well aware that, that we’re not able to make it because we’re on the road or we have a game,” she said. “But it’s still difficult just because UCLA is obviously a great school and we pride ourselves on being great students.”

Close sees this trip as well as the one the team took to Paris to start the season as educational experiences as well as basketball ones.

“We got to have education in 3D. I think that is really important for a lot of our players that went from something they have seen in movies and read in textbooks to I experienced it,” she said. “We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We did that earlier this year in Paris. And the Empire State Building is the second time I’ve done that. ... I just think those are probably not going to be the things they talk about now, but my responsibility is to create experiences that they remember later that bridge the gap between education in the classroom.”

Close also said she asks the team for feedback since this is the first year the Bruins are in the coast-to-coast Big Ten Conference.

“We’ve already made some adjustments in our itinerary moving forward,” she said. "So, I just think that’s going to be the way it is all year long. We chose this and we want to be a part of the best conference. Doesn’t make it that it’s not really hard, but we’re going to have to make adjustments as we go."

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Doug Feinberg, The Associated Press