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It’s an exciting time to be a UCLA women’s basketball fan. The Bruins are coming off a program-record 34 wins in their first season in the Big Ten, going 16-2 in conference play and winning the Big Ten Tournament, and they advanced all the way to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
The Bruins now enter a crucial season, loaded with a roster full of seniors and graduate students and widely expected to return to the Final Four—and perhaps go even further. Kiki Rice, a 5-foot-11 guard from Bethesda, MD, leads the charge, and UCLA’s coaches have not been short in their praise of what she’s accomplished, both on and off the court.
“Kiki is incredibly hard-working in a way that has been contagious in building the character of our program,” UCLA head coach Cori Close explained at the 2025 Big Ten Media Day. “People comment all the time when they come and watch us from the WNBA, that our preparation and work ethic is maybe unmatched in what they’ve seen. That’s because Kiki Rice set a new standard in our program, and I’ll be forever grateful for that.”
Given the Bruins’ level of talent, it’s no surprise that WNBA personnel have been actively scouting them, and even though the 2025-26 NCAA season has yet to tip-off, it’s a foregone conclusion that several Bruins will be drafted to the WNBA next spring. Rice is one of those players, and as UCLA’s floor general and a presumptive first-round pick, it’s only right that she leads off our annual series of WNBA Draft prospect features.
A highly-touted recruit, Rice committed to UCLA as the No. 2 overall player in the class of 2022, according to ESPN HoopGurlz. She had already garnered quite a few accolades by then, earning McDonald’s All-American honors and the 2022 Naismith High School Player of the Year award.
Rice began her collegiate career as a starter, averaging 11.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game, earning Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honors from conference coaches and media. She improved upon those stats as a sophomore, finishing the season with averages of 13.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, and was named to the All-Pac-12 Team.
As a junior, Rice had her best season yet, scaling back on her scoring volume but greatly improving her efficiency. She averaged 12.8 points per game, shooting career-bests on both 2-pointers (53.3 percent) and 3-pointers (36.5 percent), along with 3.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Rice was named to the All-Big Ten First Team and earned All-American Honorable Mention nods from the Associated Press and WBCA.
Internationally, Rice has been in the USA Basketball pipeline since 2018. She’s won gold medals with Team USA at the 2019 FIBA Women’s U16 Americas Championship, 2021 FIBA 3×3 U18 World Cup, 2022 FIBA Women’s U18 Americas Championship and, most recently, the 2023 FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup, where she starred alongside Hannah Hidalgo, Madison Booker and Joyce Edwards.
Rice’s leadership and point guard play have been crucial in the Bruins’ rise
Comparing Rice’s development arc side-by-side with UCLA’s recent ascent as a program will yield some parallels, and it’s not a coincidence. Prior to her freshman season, the Bruins were in a bit of a lull, finishing with their worst Pac-12 record (8-8) since 2015 and failing to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Though UCLA did end up making a deep run in the WNIT, it was clear that the program needed a foundational player—not just someone to lead the team to a better record, but to raise its year-by-year standards and set an example for ensuing recruits and transfers to follow.
As it turned out, Rice was indeed that player, and while it took a little while for her production to match her pre-collegiate hype, the impact she made as a freshman was immediate. Described by scouts as a “poised game manager” and “confident floor leader,” Rice boasted both the intangibles and the physical tools to be a star, and in her first season as a Bruin, UCLA improved by five wins in Pac-12 play and returned to the NCAA Tournament.
Since then, UCLA has become a hotbed for incoming transfers, landing big names such as Lauren Betts, Janiah Barker and Charlisse Leger-Walker in the portal. As the program has grown, so has Rice; she’s improved her scoring efficiency from 1.00 point per scoring attempt as a freshman to 1.11 as a sophomore and 1.21 as a junior (Her Hoop Stats), turning perhaps the only weakness in her game, the 3-point shot, into a strength. That’s been a key development in itself; UCLA has committed to play through Betts, a National Player of the Year candidate, in the low post, so it’s imperative that defenses respect Rice and the rest of the Bruins’ perimeter players.
It’s just as important, though, that UCLA plays with pace, because that’s where Rice truly excels. Standing at 5-foot-11 with a strong, athletic build, Rice looks more like a wing player than a point guard, yet she has the ball skills and court vision to maximize her teammates’ talents. Her ability to get the ball up the court quickly and either find a cutter or score herself is a big part of UCLA’s offensive identity, and she’s just as adept at using those talents in the halfcourt; according to Synergy Sports, 33.3 percent of Rice’s offensive possessions as a junior came in the pick and roll, and she ranked in the 93rd percentile among pick and roll ball handlers in scoring efficiency.
As good as those numbers are, Rice is often faced with a problem not uncommon among point guards who excel at scoring: She doesn’t shoot the ball enough, at least according to Close, and that’s something that UCLA’s head coach wants to change this season.
“The gloves are off, and that’s because I care about her and believe in her so much,” Close told media earlier in October. “I need [Rice] to be in an absolute attack mentality. She has it. There’s no one who spends more time in the gym than her. She has the skillset and she has it in her toolbox.”
Watching Rice operate with the ball in her hands, it’s easy to see where Close is coming from. She has the height advantage against her individual matchups on most nights, and she’s tough to stop once she gets going downhill. Simply put, Rice has become such an efficient scorer at each of the three levels that the 8.7 field goals she attempted per game last season aren’t nearly enough; for as much as Rice has done as a leader—which, to be clear, is something that’s valued highly among WNBA talent evaluators—one can’t help but wonder if there are even greater heights for her to reach in other areas.
Is there another gear that Rice and the Bruins can hit? We’ll find out soon enough. What she’s accomplished thus far already has a spot in UCLA’s record books, and it’s been enough for her to be regarded as a coveted WNBA prospect. Should the Bruins repeat their success from last season—and if Rice plays an even bigger role in that success—her case to be one of the first guards drafted in 2026 will be that much stronger.
As one would expect from a program with championship aspirations, UCLA will play a challenging non-conference schedule, highlighted by nationally-televised games against the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners (Nov. 10; FS1) and No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels (Nov. 13; ESPN2). Later in November, the Bruins will participate in the Players Era Championship, taking on the No. 4 Texas Longhorns on Nov. 26 and either the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils or the No. 2 South Carolina Gamecocks on Nov. 27. These games will be aired on TNT and HBO Max.
Big Ten play will begin near the turn of the calendar year, and several UCLA games are scheduled to be streamed via Peacock, including Jan. 3 against the No. 18 USC Trojans and Feb. 11 against the No. 23 Michigan State Spartans. The Bruins will also play on national TV against the No. 10 Maryland Terrapins (Jan. 18; NBC), the No. 21 Iowa Hawkeyes (Feb. 1; FOX) and the No. 13 Michigan Wolverines (Feb. 8; FOX).
