One former UC Santa Barbara basketball star and coach won’t be rooting for her alma mater during Saturday’s Women’s Leaders/Alumni Night at the Thunderdome.

UCSB Hall of Famer Cori Close, the head women’s coach at UCLA for the last 12 seasons, will bring her 15th-ranked Bruins to Santa Barbara for a 7 p.m. game against the Gauchos.

“It’s nice to have an alumni game, and having one of the greatest Gauchos on the benches is really cool,” UCSB coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “Cori as a player and a coach has been phenomenal.

“We’ve had a really good turnout of alumni and for all the right reasons. They’re coming out to support the program and support her, and also get a live look at a team that’s really talented and has a chance to be really special.”

UCSB’s men will tip off the Saturday double-header with a 2 p.m. game against Pacific.

Close will be making her second trip to the Thunderdome as a coach and play the Gauchos for the fourth time overall during in her 12 seasons at UCLA. Close is 3-0 against her alma mater, although UCSB (5-1) is off to its best start since 2002-03. The Bruins have a 7-1 record so far this season.

“Nobody gets to where they are alone,” Close said of her fondness for scheduling the Gauchos. “I’ve been reminded coming back to this great community of how many people believed in me before I even believed in myself — believed in what I could become — and invested in me.

“They helped me become accountable … Helped grow me up. That’s the biggest thing about me coming back because I get to look people in the eyes and say, ‘Thank you … I wouldn’t be here without you.’”

Close was the point guard and captain of UCSB’s first two NCAA Tournament teams (1992 and 1993). She was the first Gaucho to reach both 1,000 points and 500 assists in a career. She ranks 18th all-time in scoring at UCSB with 1,224 points and third in assists with 603. The 257 assists she handed out during the 1992-93 season remain the school’s single-season record.

“I got my deepest lessons” in basketball and life, she said of playing for Gaucho Hall of Fame coach Mark French. Close was inducted into UCSB’s Hall of Fame in 2005.

She made a major impact on Gaucho basketball during her nine seasons (1995-2004) as French’s right-hand person — six as an assistant coach and three as an associate head coach. The Gauchos won the Big West Conference in each of her last eight years and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 in her final season.

Close was also a one-person marketing department for the program. Her creation of the Fastbreakers support group helped increase the program’s fan base exponentially.

“She built one of the biggest booster clubs on the West Coast,” French said. “People in the community felt that these were their players. Kids would beg their parents to go to games.”

Close left UCSB to serve seven seasons as the associate head coach at Florida State. UCLA hired her as its head coach before the 2011-12 season. She got her coaching start with the Bruins nearly two decades earlier with a two-year stint as an assistant following her 1993 graduation from UCSB.

She has developed one of the nation’s top women’s programs during her 12 seasons and has a current win-loss record of 240-124 (.659 winning percentage).

The Bruins, who have five freshmen and a sophomore among their top nine players, won their first seven games before losing at No. 1 South Carolina 73-64 on Tuesday. The game was tied at 52-all with less than seven minutes remaining and the Bruins were within four points with just over a minute left.

“As young as they are — and as talented as they are — Cori has done a good job of putting the pieces together,” Henrickson said. “She built the confidence in that team to go in there and not be intimidated and play with a lead the majority of the game. That was really, really impressive.”

UCLA does have a seasoned veteran leading the way. Charisma Osborne, a 5-foot-9 guard, ranks 16th in the nation with a scoring average of 20.6 points per game. She’s also pulling down 7.0 rebounds.

Kiki Rice, a 5-11 freshman guard, is scoring 11.9 points per game and leading the team with 3.5 assists. Emily Bessoir, a 6-4 redshirt sophomore, is averaging 8.8 points and 5.3 rebounds.

UCSB will counter with the one-two punch of seniors Alexis Tucker (15.5 points, 5.7 rebounds) and Ila Lane (15.3 points, 11.2 rebounds).

Lane’s rebound average ranks 12th nationally. The 6-4 center is also 28th in field-goal percentage (.619).

“Ila has been more poised, more balanced, just in settling in, picking her spots, and knowing when to duck in,” Henrickson said. “She’s been just a monster on the glass with her second effort.”

Lane opted out of the COVID-19 season of 2020-21 when a UCSB team that was short in both numbers and height lost at UCLA 102-45. The only two Gauchos back from that squad of eight —juniors Alyssa Marin and Anya Choice — are starting guards on this year’s team.

Marin ranks 40th in the nation in assist average (5.0) and 83rd in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.0), shoots 41.2% from the three-point line, and averages 9.2 points. Choice is also scoring at a pace of 9.2 points per game.

They’re both anxious to get another shot at the Bruins.

“They know how talented UCLA is so it’ll be all hands on deck, and an absolute attention to detail and intensity, and all the things you have to do to play a team that’s at that level,” Henrickson said. “Athletically, and with the size and speed, we’re not at the same place they are, but you can do things to combat that.”