The Women’s Final Four is set, and surprisingly, the top teams steamrolled their way to the March Madness semifinals. Just one two-seed made the Final Four. Meanwhile, Kiki Rice helped lead top-seeded UCLA over LSU on Sunday, stamping their ticket to face Paige Buecker’s UConn Huskies in the next round.
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Kiki Rice is in her third season with the Bruins, but the team had failed to reach the success they have this year. UCLA now boasts a dominant 34-2 record and has a chance to win its first Women’s National Championship in school history. The junior guard talked about who inspired her basketball career while talking on Nightcap with Shannon Sharpe.
The Hall of Fame tight end asked Rice about the female athletes she watched growing up, the 5-foot-11 playmaker had a couple of legends pop into her head. “I mean, I grew up watching Skylar Diggins, Arike [Ogunbowale], Diana Taurasi,” Rice said, naming her favorite WNBA legends.
“But I loved watching like Serena Williams and Alex Morgan, like other, you know, really fantastic women in other sports to kinda see them be great at their craft and that really inspired me for sure,” she continued.
Rice has started all but two of her 104 collegiate games. Even as a freshman, she was a standout for the Lady Bruins and helped pilot them from a mediocre program in 2022 to one of the best in the nation. This season, she’s averaging 12.9 points and 5.1 assists during the best season in school history.
After discussing her inspirations, Sharpe asked Rice why she decided to play for UCLA. He noted that the school isn’t usually a top player in women’s basketball, especially compared to the dominance of universities like UConn, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Tennessee, or LSU.
“Yeah, exactly because I felt like, you know, UCLA is not as known… I didn’t wanna go to a program that had a bunch of National Championships, that had been to the Final Four a bunch of times. I felt it makes it even more special to go to a place and help it become that level of program,” Rice explained.
While it’s always a great feeling to win, Rice makes a valid point about not wanting to join a storied program. Helping lead a lesser-known school to greatness will have Rice’s name in the front of the history books if UCLA is able to win it all.
Relishing a challenge, Rice is proving to be driven by competition and that she is cut from the same cloth as her heroes.
