The 27-year wait is over. The Big Ten has a new national champion in women’s basketball.

The UCLA Bruins have finished off a remarkable season at the top of the mountain, doing so with an emphatic victory over one of the sport’s most consistent powers.

I could go through the specifics of the 79-51 win over South Carolina. We could go through the play-by-play together to figure out where UCLA made one of the largest margins of victory in a title game really happen. But watching this game, even watching it in 360p on my phone while waiting to get off a plane, it was clear that this was decided on more than what could be seen in the box score.

UCLA’s lowest chance of winning was at tipoff. From Lauren Betts’ first basket onward, the Bruins controlled the game and never let it go. This veteran group was as locked in as they have ever been, and as they showed when they lapped Iowa in the Big Ten title game, not a single team could stop them at their peak this season.

Immediately, the Bruins were getting the shots they wanted and forcing South Carolina into the exact shots UCLA wanted it to take. The Gamecocks shot 16.7% in the first quarter, which turned out to barely be an anomaly as UCLA held them below 30% for the whole game. Even the second quarter — UCLA’s enemy all tournament — still went 15-13 in favor of the Bruins.

That led to the third quarter where it was completely broken open. South Carolina was hanging around at halftime, and the Bruins decided they’d have enough of that. UCLA won the third 25-9 and completely sucked the soul out of Dawn Staley’s unit.

The fourth quarter was 10 minutes of celebrating this team and what it accomplished. It was a mid-game wrap-up because of how utterly dominant UCLA was against a powerhouse in women’s college basketball. It was more than what anyone on this team could have even dreamed of in getting the Bruins their first ever NCAA title.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better defensive effort, at least from a Big Ten team, than what UCLA did the past two games. In the seven quarters that mattered this weekend (excluding the fourth of the title game), the Bruins held Texas and South Carolina to 28.1% shooting. Even including the fourth quarter of garbage time, those two 1-seeds combined for 95 points and each had their season lows.

UCLA’s defense did not allow 70 points in 2026. While I likely spent an abundance of time talking about how many weapons this offense has and how many ways it can beat opponents through the efficient scoring, these Bruins suffocated just about every single team it faced down the stretch.

That said, I think it’s about time to talk about some of those weapons. Six seniors led the charge for UCLA, both in this game and all season long. They all deserve their flowers.

This is the storybook ending that Lauren Betts deserves. I apologize for not sharing her Players Tribune article earlier, but Betts has been an incredible vocal advocate for mental health awareness and should be an inspiration for the next generation of athletes. On the court, she finished with yet another double-double and was a consistent defensive menace all over the floor. Her continued steps to improve her versatility is going to make Betts a star at the next level, and was massive in UCLA being as strong as it was this season.

Betts earned the Tournament MVP honor, but Gabriela Jaquez was the best player on the floor during the national championship. Jaquez was everywhere in this game and finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. She was dominant in transition, collected four offensive boards and was simply relentless in getting UCLA to the huge lead. She’s an absolute DAWG and is going to be a favorite in the WNBA.

Jaquez is one of three Bruins who stayed for four seasons to make this title happen. One of the others is Kiki Rice, who’s been about as reliable as they come at the point guard position. Because of UCLA’s insane pool of talent, her numbers never fly off the page, but she’s the team’s leader in win shares for a reason. She runs the offense, is extremely efficient all over the floor, especially at the line (94.4% in the NCAA Tournament) and is a defensive stalwart at guard.

The final four-year player is Angela Dugalić, who transferred here from Oregon in 2021 and never looked back. Dugalić could have started just about anywhere, but chose to stay and play a critical, critical role off the bench. I don’t think UCLA gets here without her efforts this tournament.

Gianna Kneepkens was my favorite individual transfer add for any Big Ten team, and she proved why time and time again. She had 15 points in the title game and finished the year right below a 50/40/90 efficiency at 49.3/42.9/93.3. Her addition gave UCLA another whole dimension to the perimeter and she’s going to be such a great addition to the Atlanta Dream as well (manifesting).

Finally, Charlisse Leger-Walker had to wait a full season to finally play with this group, but the timing ended up working perfectly for the unit. She was a crucially important facilitator to allow Rice’s scoring to thrive, and was a more-than-capable defender and perimeter weapon in her own right. She sacrificed scoring production at Washington State to make the move, but she gets the ultimate hardware as a reward.

A final shoutout to Cori Close, who gets her first title after a 15-year stint with the Bruins. Close led this veteran group here and absolutely got the most out of this remarkable talent pool. UCLA defended its ass off and played a brilliant efficient, methodical offense that almost no opponent was able to contain. It’s a well-deserved title for her and for this entire group.

This always felt possible when watching UCLA this year, even more than those Iowa teams that made it in back-to-back years, but there’s always some self-doubt about if it’s simply bias talking.

When a conference goes more than a quarter century without the big trophy, there’s reason to think that maybe the Big Ten could be overrated. Conference expansion led to this conference flooding Selection Sunday in back-to-back years, which only led to more talk that the Big Ten doesn’t deserve it. Iowa and Ohio State’s early exits this tournament started those conversations again.

This year’s UCLA — who is a Big Ten team now, sorry Pac-12 enthusiasts I didn’t choose this world — was the most dominant individual team I have watched in the conference since Hoopla began. That’s obvious in the undefeated record, but was also clear in just how easy the Bruins made it look over and over again. It makes those close calls by Ohio State and Michigan stand out even more as to just how strong those teams also were at their best.

A season like this showed what the Big Ten has been about for years. The parity under the Bruins was incredible to watch. The conference had the best team in the country and had 11 more teams that won a NCAA Tournament game. A sub-.500 team went all the way to the WBIT semifinals. The conference is filled to the brim with talent and now it has a national title to back up for next season.

All of this is to say, I love Big Ten women’s basketball, and I love that Big Ten women’s basketball gets to have the big moment.

Shoutout UCLA on capping off a historic season. It was a delight to watch it come together.

Hoopla Groupla Winners WILL be recognized next week.

After that: The End-of-Season Hoopla 40.

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