Mar 30, 2025; Spokane, WA, USA; UCLA Bruins begin to celebrate after a Elite 8 NCAA Tournament basketball game against the LSU Lady Tigers at Spokane Arena. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-Imagn Images / James Snook-Imagn Images

When the buzzer hit zero and the Lady Bruins rushed into each other’s arms after defeating the LSU Tigers to make it to the Women’s NCAA Tournament Final Four, it became the most defining moment for a program on the rise in a sport that is breaking through the sexist narratives of the past.

Women’s basketball was not respected in the way it should have been for its entire existence until about three years ago. As we all know, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark helped push forward a new era in women’s athletics, but one of the defining moments was Iowa’s loss to LSU in the 2023 National Championship game.

Like Michigan State’s Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Indiana State’s Larry Bird did in the 1979 Men’s National Championship game, Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese had a battle that bled out over a nation in need of an injection of entertainment basted in determination, skill, and sheer will.

Right now, the women’s game is at the highest level of popularity it has ever been and for UCLA, to defeat the LSU Tigers, a team with a legendary head coach, a superstar in Flau’jae Johnson and a program with a strong following, marks the programs, the school’s most important turning point as a champion of women’s athletics.

From an athletic department perspective, the women’s game is entering a period of endless financial possibilities.

In one season, UCLA went from a team no one was paying attention to to becoming one of the prevalent forces in college basketball. This win marks the biggest achievement from the university in the 21st century, not because of the stature of the event, but what it means to the Los Angeles community as a whole.

Los Angeles has a very large basketball community, but West Coast basketball does not get the same respect that programs East of the Rocky Mountains do. UCLA just proved it is the dominant force in the West, alongside USC.

It owns the Midwest. It knocked out one of the top dogs in the SEC, and they’re coming for blood.

This is a Renaissance. To have two top programs in the same city. To be at the forefront of a sports revolution. UCLA just put its name, its brand, its program in the spotlight of a nation in need of winners, and if that’s not big time, nothing else is.

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