Cori Close received a standing ovation Tuesday from the University of California’s Board of Regents.
Next up could be a well-deserved raise for the UCLA women’s basketball coach who just guided her team to a national championship.
The Regents are scheduled to discuss Close’s “contract compensation parameters” in a closed session on Wednesday afternoon at the Luskin Conference Center on the UCLA campus. Those discussions are necessary to grant any coach within the UC system a significant hike in their salary.
As it stands, Close’s current contract qualifies as perhaps the nation’s biggest bargain.
Not counting the performance bonuses she earned when her team won the title, Close made $1.2 million last season – just a fraction of her counterparts in the Final Four.
Texas coach Vic Schaefer reportedly made $2.3 million, UConn’s Geno Auriemma made more than $3.5 million and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley made more than $4 million – the highest salary of any women’s college coach in the country.
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Auriemma has won a record 12 national titles and Staley has won three titles while also appearing in five other Final Fours. Schaefer has taken the Longhorns to the last two Final Fours after making one previous appearance at Mississippi State.
But Close, 54, has now also entered elite territory in her profession after 15 seasons at UCLA. She’s taken the Bruins to back-to-back Final Fours and just won the program’s first NCAA championship, beating Schaefer’s Longhorns and Staley’s Gamecocks along the way.
UCLA finished the season with a 37-1 record that established school records for wins and longest winning streak after the Bruins won their final 31 games.
“I’m proud of what coach Close has done in leading our young women,” UCLA athletic Martin Jarmond told the California Post on Tuesday. “Obviously, winning a national championship is significant, but the character and the way that she and her staff develop young women to be the best version of themselves is something that we’re all proud of, so we’re very fortunate to have her as the leader of our program and very excited for the future of our program.”
Close signed her latest contract extension last May, not long after reaching her first Final Four. The four-year deal that runs through the 2028-29 season, obtained by the California Post through a public-records request, called for her to make the same amount each year in combined base salary and talent fee – $877,500 – plus varying hiring and retention bonuses.
When it came to performance bonuses this season, Close went an incredible 11 for 11.
Those bonuses added up to $180,000 after the Bruins walloped South Carolina, 79-51, in the national championship game.
As Close prepared to speak on Tuesday to the Regents – including Bob Myers, the former Golden State Warriors general manager and member of the 1995 UCLA men’s title team – they put on championship hats to commemorate the achievement as part of celebratory remarks inside the Luskin Center.
UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk called the Bruins’ championship one of the most incredible moments of his life.
“They really uplifted the spirit of the entire community and we couldn’t be more grateful or proud for all that you have accomplished,” Frenk said, addressing Close. “You are a fantastic leader … and you represent the best of the human spirit.”
Relaying a saying often expressed by Pam Walker, her team’s director of operations, Close told the Regents that her players’ character and values superseded their excellence on the court.
“The least impressive thing they did was actually win basketball games,” Close said, “because without the substances of the other part, it’s really just putting an orange thing in an orange thing when we really strip it all away. What I love is that they really were committed to growing as people first, students second and actually basketball third.”
Close said she was more proud of her six players selected in the recent WNBA draft having graduated – with three also attaining master’s degrees – than their having set the record for most players drafted from one college team.
When she finished speaking, Close was serenaded with applause. There could be more tokens of gratitude to come.
