UCLA Women's Basketball: Scouting Team Helping Bruins Make Deep Tournament Run

The UCLA Bruins women's basketball team is gearing up to play the reigning NCAA champion LSU Lady Tigers in their Sweet Sixteen matchup today. And they're doing so by preparing with perhaps the toughest opponent they'll face this spring: their own (male) scouting team, as Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times writes.

“If we’re just going to go athleticism on athleticism,” Bruins guard Camryn Brown conceded, “they’d beat us every time.”

As Bolch notes, all Pac-12 women's basketball clubs use men to a degree in their game prep. Bolch adds that head coach Cori Close played against a male scouting team when she served at the point with UC Santa Barbara. Bolch notes that the goal of having a men's scouting team is fielding an opponent who is better than any actual opponent the Bruins would have during the season.

6'4" scout team guard Jonny Garnett explained what he provides for the Bruins.

“Just rebounding, that’s probably like the No. 1 thing,” Garnett said from the seat inside Pauley Pavilion where he had cheered on the women a few rows behind their bench. “And showing attitude as well.”

According to Brown, at least, it's possible Garnett is being a bit modest.

“He does some things where we’re like, Jonny, what?" Brown said. "Like, how? Like, how can you double jump midair and still block the shot?”

“It’s not about you showing how many times you can block a shot into the third row, you know?” Close observed. “It’s about helping the players get better, so you have to have the right perspective.”

Quick-footed point guard Oscar Dela Cruz appreciates that he needs to be flexible in his performance on the floor, depending on which opposing players he's portraying.

“I’m like a short guard who likes to shoot,” Dela Cruz said, “but if the other guard is short but can’t shoot, I can’t shoot at all.”

“We’re never going to play anyone that jumps as high as Jonny, that’s as quick as O2 [Dela Cruz],” wing Gabriela Jaquez noted, “so just playing against them every day, we’re really earning confidence that if we can stop them, we can stop anyone.”

The action tips off at 10 a.m. PT on ABC.