Leading On and Off the Court: Building a Legacy of Excellence
Success isn’t just about winning—it’s about building a culture of excellence that shapes lives beyond the game. From her days as a student-athlete at UC Santa Barbara to her role as head coach of UCLA Women’s Basketball, CORI CLOSE has spent over 30 years mentoring, coaching, and inspiring young athletes to reach their full potential. In this dynamic conversation, Close shares her transformational journey, the leadership lessons she learned along the way, and the power of sports to instill resilience, discipline, and purpose.
Close’s career has been shaped by legendary coach John Wooden, who mentored her for 15 years, leaving an indelible impact on her coaching philosophy. She will explore how those lessons helped her turn players into leaders, create a winning team culture, and balance the pursuit of championships with developing strong, confident young women. She will also reflect on the work-hard, play-hard culture at UCSB, sharing how that mindset prepared her for success and shaped the way she inspires her teams today.
More than just a talk on basketball, this conversation is a masterclass in leadership, culture-building, and personal growth. Whether you're a coach, business leader, athlete, or professional looking to cultivate a winning mindset, Close’s insights will leave you with actionable strategies to lead with passion, integrity, and impact.
Just Show Up
Coach CORI CLOSE knows all too well what it means to ‘show up’ no matter the circumstances. In this talk, she discusses the importance of ‘showing up’ day in and day out when you’re trying to achieve a goal. She pulls from her own personal experiences as the head coach of the UCLA women’s basketball team and how she became the winningest coach ever in UCLA Women’s Basketball history. This talk will leave your audience inspired.
Growth Mindset
CORI CLOSE like many of us, draws her inspiration from the late great John Wooden, someone who was a major influence on her success. He served as a mentor to her throughout her coaching career. In this talk, Coach close dives deep into focusing on the process and doing your very best each and every day. Something that she learned from Coach Wooden. In this talk, she dives deep into focusing on your growth and doing your absolute best rather than wins and losses.
How Cori Close, UCLA Women’s Basketball all-time winningest head coach, emphasizes mentorship for effective team building
As a seasoned coach and leader, CORI CLOSE understands that true success isn’t just about personal achievement—it’s about lifting others along the way. Her own coaching philosophy is deeply influenced by her 15-year mentorship with legendary coach John Wooden, whose wisdom helped guide her back to UCLA. With a deep passion for mentorship, she shares how intentional guidance, accountability, and belief in others can transform individuals and teams. Drawing from her experience coaching elite athletes, Close offers actionable insights on cultivating meaningful mentor relationships, fostering growth mindsets, and empowering the next generation of leaders. Her message resonates with anyone looking to inspire, develop, and make a lasting impact.
Cori Close was named The Michael Price Family UCLA Women’s Head Basketball Coach on April 21, 2011, and is the winningest coach in UCLA Women’s Basketball history with 305 wins, after surpassing Billie Moore’s record of 296 wins.
UCLA saw its second-consecutive 27-win season in the 2023-24 campaign, tying the third-most wins in a season in UCLA program history. Close helped lead the Bruins past UConn for the first time when UCLA downed then-No. 6 UConn 78-67 in the Cayman Islands Classic. UCLA also reached its highest ranking in program history, sitting at No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 Women’s Basketball Poll for nine weeks during the season. The 2023-24 Bruins made a run to the Sweet Sixteen for the second-consecutive year under Close’s guidance; UCLA has reached at least the second round of the NCAA tournament in seven of the last nine seasons. UCLA crashed the boards as directed by Close and led the NCAA in rebounding margin (+13.9) for the 2023-24 season.
This is the first head coaching assignment for Close, who has worked as associate head coach or assistant on teams that have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 16 seasons, won at least 20 games in 16 of the previous 18 seasons and won or shared a total of 11 conference championships.
Close, who served on the Bruin coaching staff in 1994 and 1995, returned to Westwood after spending seven seasons as associate head coach at Florida State University. Considered one of the top offensive minds in the game, Close helped guide the Seminoles into a nationally-recognized program in her time. FSU ranked among the nation’s top 30 teams in scoring, field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage her last two seasons in Florida.
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