No. 2 South Carolina fights past UCLA, 68-65

My story from today's game, which was the best I've seen in person in a long time.

Basketball sightings at Pauley Pavilion today:

Dream coach Michael Cooper

Sparks coach Brian Agler

Sparks general manager Penny Toler

Dream forward Delisha Milton-Jones

Sparks forward Candace Parker

Sun forward Chiney Ogwumike

Referee goddess Violet Palmer

Various player agents

Plenty of UCLA WBB alumni from the Nikki Caldwell years

Coaches:

I love Dawn Staley. I loved her as a player, and I love her as a coach. She doesn't do any smiling in post-game interviews - she's too busy providing scientist-like analysis of teams, players and situations. It's pretty awesome.

Staley said she put two Pac-12 teams on the Gamecock's schedule to expose them to a different style of play. Great idea.

I will have more on South Carolina tomorrow.

Cori Close is doing great things at UCLA. She talked in post-game about how hard the Bruins worked over the summer, and how well they prepared for today's game.

"There was no emotional rah rah, it was all business," Close said. "No one was like, 'we hope this goes our way.' That's when I knew our mentality had shifted. I just think they're competitive......they just really want to be a great team."

Close can't say enough about Nirra Fields and Jordin Canada, who played each other in the World University Games this past summer.

"What I'm proud of with both of them is that they both care more about the team than they are about themselves," Close said. "And they set the bar in practice every day about the intensity with which you have to play. I still think there's more in them. We believe in them so much; they're amazing."

For her part, Canada sees the difference between this year's Bruins and last year's.

"We've already learned that we're a way better team than last year," Canada said. "We used to keep up in the first half and have so many mental lapses in the second. Coming out here today and just battling until the four-minute mark being tied - that just shows how hard we worked in the summer and how much more focused we are as a team."

"I'm proud of what we've done. We still have a long way to go, but we're a way better team than we were last year."

Staley gave much credit to UCLA, and said today's game will benefit both teams.

"They're going to be a very good basketball team because of the experience of us coming out here to play, and they're going to help us be a better basketball team because of the game they gave us," she said.