Former No. 1 recruit Lauren Betts has committed to UCLA after spending her freshman season at Stanford. She is joining a stacked Bruins team led by Charisma Osborne, who decided to use her fifth year of eligibility instead of declaring for the WNBA Draft.
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow," Betts posted on Instagram on Tuesday afternoon.
Betts' resume includes being a McDonald's All-American in 2022, and earning two gold medals while playing for the United States U19 team in 2019 and 2021.
She appeared in 33 of Stanford's 35 games last season averaging 9.6 minutes per game. Betts contributed with 5.9 points and 3.5 rebounds per contest, while also registering a total of 29 blocks. Her season-high 18 points came on November 9 against CSUN. Although she wasn't the top contributor on Tara VanDerveer's roster, her impact was recognized by coaches of the league as she was selected as a Pac-12 All-Freshman Team Honorable Mention.
"Proud of you lovely girl. always have a fan in me," wrote former Stanford teammate Haley Jones on Betts' Instagram post.
Lauren Betts = TOUGH 😤#Pac12WBB | @StanfordWBB pic.twitter.com/nHjpph3FGU
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) March 2, 2023
The Cardinal shared the Pac-12 regular season title with Utah, but they were upset by UCLA one game short of the Pac-12 championship game. They still went on to enter the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed. Cardinal had high expectations but were taken down by Ole Miss in second round, which means they failed to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007.
Meanwhile, UCLA had missed the 2022 NCAA Tournament and entered the 2022-23 campaign unranked. However, Cori Close guided her squad to the Sweet 16 as the youngest team competing in the 2023 NCAA Women's Tournament. That team is expecting to return four out of five starters.
Osborne led the team with 15.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Camryn Brown -- who started 32 of 36 games -- will also be back for a fifth season. The Bruins now have the top two players from the class of 2022, as they already had No. 2 Kiki Rice.
"TURN ME UPP," Rice commented on Betts' post.
Rice was the team's second leading scorer with 11.6 points per game. Londynn Jones and Gabriela Jaquez, who were two of the other freshmen last season, contributed with 8.6 and 6.3 points per game, respectively, last season.
Betts won't just be adding talent to the roster. The 6-foot-7 forward will be the tallest player on the team. Emily Bessoir and Izzy Anstey -- both expected to return -- were the tallest Bruins playing last season at 6-foot-4.
