TAMPA, Fla. — Despite a looming Final Four showdown against the UConn women’s basketball team, UCLA coach Cori Close almost immediately choked up as she reminisced Thursday about working with Huskies star Azzi Fudd while coaching Team USA at the 2021 U19 World Cup.
Close’s father Don died on Aug. 2, 2021, just five days before Team USA played its first game at World Cup against Italy in Debrecen, Hungary. Close was already in Spain with U19 squad for a pre-tournament exhibition game and had to say her goodbyes on a FaceTime call with her family. It was her first time serving as a head coach with USA Basketball, and Close knew she needed to be honest with the players about what she was going through personally.
“I remember the circle. I remember sitting there and telling them, like, this is going on. I’m okay, but this is happening,” Close said. “And their response to me was just tremendous.”
Fudd and UCLA center Lauren Betts, who started her career at Stanford, were both on the World Cup roster as the No. 1 recruits in the 2021 and 2022 classes respectively, and the two stars were also Close’s biggest source of comfort and support during the tournament run. Team USA went 7-0 in Hungary, defeating Australia 70-52 in the championship game to bring home the program’s ninth U19 World Cup gold medal. After the victory, Betts remembers she and Fudd immediately ran to Close and told her, “This is for your dad.”
“Even though I wasn’t committed to (UCLA) at the time, I still have a heart and just understand how hard that was for her,” Betts said. “For her to still be there as a coach and show up and do her job, I just felt so much love for her in that moment … We were just so grateful to her for still showing up for us, and I think that just created such a huge bond between us.”
It’s been nearly four years since Close last worked with Fudd, but the UCLA coach said she has never forgotten the kindness the two teenagers showed her in her moment of vulnerability.
“Those are probably the two that, they carried me a little bit,” Close said, holding back tears. “Azzi, she just has incredible work ethic. She’s an elite player, and she has a very tender heart. I was the beneficiary of that on that trip, and I’ll be forever grateful.”
Close also got to know UConn superstar Paige Bueckers with USA Basketball while serving as an assistant coach for the 2019 U19 World Cup. Bueckers and now-Phoenix Mercury guard Celeste Taylor were Close’s next-door neighbors at the team hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, and Close said she bonded with the pair over the gospel playlist that echoed from their room before every game.
This July 27, 2019, photo, provided by USA Basketball, shows Belgium’s Emmeline Leblon, left, and USA’s Paige Bueckers during the Women’s Basketball World Cup, in Bangkok, Thailand. UConn lost star Megan Walker a year earlier than anticipated to the WNBA, but the young Huskies remain a favorite to compete for a 12th national title with a group of underclassman led by much-hyped freshman Paige Bueckers. (FIBA via AP)
Bueckers was the MVP of the tournament, averaging 11.6 points, 5.4 assists and 4.1 rebounds plus 1.9 steals across seven games to lead Team USA to the gold medal.
“Paige has just got an incredible charisma,” Close said. “She’s an incredible, most-efficient scorer, all those things, but her elite skill in my mind that I love the most is watching her vision and passing. It’s amazing. We were in a position in the gold-medal game that she needed to make the pass for us to have a chance to send it to overtime and she made the pass and made the play that sent us on. She’s an incredible player, and she’s an even better teammate.”
But what Bueckers remembers the most about playing for Close was the first time she yelled at her during halftime of the the championship game. Team USA was ahead by a single point after the first half, and Bueckers said Close chewed her out for her lackadaisical effort on defense.
“I didn’t use to play defense a lot since it wasn’t as fun as the offense … and she got on me at halftime basically telling me I needed to pick it up,” Bueckers said with a grin. “I just remember her yelling at me, and I was like oh alright, cool. She had never yelled at me before, so I kind of enjoyed it — and she was right about everything that I needed to be yelled at about. But also just (remember) how great of a person she is and how much she cares about her players.”
Across the teams in Tampa for the Final Four, Close coached at least one player from every roster except Texas’s on the international stage. South Carolina guard Te-Hina Paopao and forward Sania Feagin were both on the 2021 U19 squad with Fudd, and the UConn star said it’s always a unique experience to run into old friends from USA Basketball on the NCAA Tournament stage.
“To have that little relationship with someone and then see them have success during the season, you’re always cheering them on,” Fudd said. “To look back now and see what everyone’s doing is so crazy. Also I think it’s so special to build those relationships with people and then follow them in college, and now some of us are still in college and some in the WNBA or playing overseas. It’s incredible just to see where we started and how far we’ve come.”
UConn’s Jim Mora was a women’s basketball fan, and candy raider at UCLA
Originally Published: April 3, 2025 at 4:17 PM EDT
