Alexander: Gabriela Jaquez has her WNBA homecoming

LOS ANGELES — The UCLA women’s basketball seniors chat room remains alive and buzzing. Gabriela Jaquez confirmed as much Friday night.

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Or maybe we should make that the “UCLA women’s basketball alumni/WNBA rookies” chat room.

“We still keep that senior group chat alive, just kind of updating each other,” Jaquez said Friday night, before her first game back in L.A. as a member of the Chicago Sky, one of six members of this spring’s national champion Bruins now playing in the WNBA.

“Obviously, when we play each other I’ll text, ‘I’m coming into town,’ or they’ll text me and we always can get dinner the night before, and so that’s always super special. Especially me being in a new state (and) a new city, as I’ve been in Southern California my whole life until now, it’s great to see familiar faces and I’m really grateful that I could catch up with my (former) teammates.”

Jaquez is having the best season so far of any of the Bruin rookies: averaging 23 minutes, 8.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. Friday night, playing in an arena where she’d attended games and playing before a crowd that not only included two suites full of family and friends but former Vice President Kamala Harris sitting courtside, Jaquez played 20:26 off the bench, shot 6 for 12 from the field and made all three of her free throws for 15 points, and grabbed five rebounds in a 102-87 loss to the Sparks.

And not to second-guess, but as effectively as she was playing against the Sparks (10-11), if she hadn’t sat out 5½ minutes down the stretch Chicago (7-15) might have made it closer.

But this is the fact of life for a rookie at any level in any sport: Unless you are a franchise-changing player, you work your way up the rotation. And in the WNBA the process is magnified because the runway is so short, especially when you play in the final game of the college season.

UCLA defeated South Carolina for the national title, 79-51, on April 5 in Phoenix. Eight days later the WNBA draft took place, with six Bruins picked in the top 18: Lauren Betts No. 4 to Washington, Jaquez No. 5 to Chicago, Kiki Rice No. 6 to Toronto, Angela Dugalic No. 9 to Washington, Gianna Kneepkens No. 15 to Connecticut and Charisse Leger-Walker at No. 18 (the only second-rounder), also to Connecticut.

And 25 days later, the regular season began.

“That’s probably the toughest adjustment in pro sports,” Chicago coach Tyler Marsh said. “On the men’s side you have two, three months in between the time that you get drafted to kind of adapt and learn your way. And then the women in the W have to do it on the fly.

“And so it’s a testament to them because it’s an added element to just the growth process and the transition period that they have coming over for when our season starts, and so you have to kind of have a fast track to it but you also have to have a level of maturity to it as well, which I think our rookies do.”

I asked Jaquez if she had consulted on the transition from college to pro basketball with her brother Jaime, who will be entering his fourth NBA season this fall and was sent from Miami to Milwaukee in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade this summer.

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“Um, not really,” she said. Which makes sense. Jaime had 215 days between his final college game at UCLA, a loss to Gonzaga in the 2023 NCAA West Regional semifinal, and his first NBA game with Miami in 2023. Gabriela had 33.

“I don’t think you can fully prepare for that transition,” she said, “just because I don’t think there’s anything like it. But I did know that it was going to be quick and it was gonna be fast but I just try to stay grateful through it all.”

What has she learned?

“There’s so much to learn coming into this league,” she said. “I don’t know if I could really name one (thing), but it’s just a lot of games. That’s kind of like the main one that comes to my mind is just the amount of games that you’re playing.

“I think I’m most proud just of my mindset … just knowing that it’s going to be fun, but it’s not going to be easy and that every rookie, you know, has their ups and downs, but understanding that and just staying true to who I am and working hard throughout the process.”

Of the Bruins’ other WNBA rookies, through Thursday’s games Leger-Walker had played 23 games and averaged 21.6 minutes, 7.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists and shot 53.7% from the field for Connecticut. Betts and Dugalic had played 20 games each for Washington, with Betts averaging 6.4 points and 3.6 rebounds in 16.2 minutes per game and Dugalic 4.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 13.5 minutes.

Kneepkens had played in 19 of Connecticut’s games, averaging 8.3 minutes. Rice was playing 26.7 minutes and averaging 12.7 points (and shooting 39.1% from 3-point range) for the expansion Toronto Tempo, but she has played only 10 games and has been out since June 3, when she suffered a Grade 3 ankle sprain against New York.

Sparks coach Lynne Roberts coached at the University of Utah before taking this job in November of 2024, so she had seen plenty of five of those Bruins – and even more of Kneepkens, who she recruited and coached at Utah and who transferred to UCLA for her senior season.

“I just gave Gabs a hug and caught up with her” before the game,” Roberts said. “I recruited her out of high school, but actually Cori (Close, UCLA’s coach) and I were joking the other day. … I was close (with Jaquez in the recruiting process) and she just kept saying, ‘Well, I’m just waiting to see what UCLA does.’ So I was texting Cori, like, ‘Would you please cut her loose or offer her?’ I’ve always been a big fan of hers.

“But I think all those guys, they learned how to play with other stars. I think that’s a key in being a WNBA player. You got to learn you’re not the one anymore. And I think at UCLA with that roster they had, they all had to learn how to, you know, sacrifice something to get the ultimate goal. So they’re coming in as team players.”

That, in itself, is the best preparation available for the transition from college to pro.

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