A dominant performance, a record-breaking night, then, a moment of raw vulnerability—Lauren Betts, gasping for air, the weight of the game etched on her face. Michael Jordan once famously said, “Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work”. It is not easy to make a mark in a competitive sport like basketball. After all, everyone is in the race to stand at the top either on an individual basis or to lead the team to success.

Behind the achievements, the high seeds, and the progress, it is often easy to forget, as a viewer, the hard work that goes into winning. College basketball fans would have been recently reminded of this after witnessing the human side of UCLA’s Lauren Betts.

After having defeated the Southern Jaguars and the Richmond Spiders, the UCLA Bruins’ women’s basketball squad recently competed against the Ole Miss Rebels for a spot at the Elite Eight stage of March Madness. From CBS Sports to ABC News, every major network united to credit only one person for leading the Bruins to a close win: Lauren Betts. Her contribution during the matchup was nothing short of memorable, as she scored a whopping 31 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 assists. She also had the 2nd highest playtime out of all her teammates, as she was on the court for 30 minutes.

The effect of this hard work was reflected during the middle of the game, when Betts was captured by ABC sitting on the courtside seats, being visibly frustrated. As highlighted by X user Shabazz, the player could be heard saying “I cant breath(e), im so f—— tired”. Her teammates and a reported Bruins staff member consoled her.

Betts carried the offensive charge through a near-perfect shooting record. She made 15-16 (93.8%) field goals, 0-0 (0.0%) 3-pointers, and 1-2 (50.0%) free throws. By the end of the night, Betts had become the first Division I player to have 30 points, 10 rebounds and shoot at least 80% from the floor in back-to-back games over the past 20 seasons. In regular-season or postseason play. On top of that, her 93.8% shooting from the floor tied the record for the highest field goal percentage in an NCAA tournament game. If that wasn’t enough, her recent performance also allowed Betts to become the third player in the last 25 years with multiple 30-point, 10-rebound games in a single NCAA tournament. The first since Brittney Griner in 2013. While her hard work has placed her in the history books, it has also taken a toll on her, as seen recently.

According to reports, going into the matchup, UCLA Bruins head coach Cori Close knew she had to put Lauren Betts front and center. Close didn’t think Betts had to touch the ball on every possession, but she had to be involved in the play. All to break Ole Miss’s defense. As it turned out, it worked. Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin later said, “Whatever we tried didn’t work. And it didn’t work for 33 other teams — or 32 other teams either, it seems like. … Anytime they got in a bind, they just threw it to her. That is a luxury. You don’t have to run a play. … You can just throw it into your dominant post player. And she is that.”

Throwing the ball to the dominant player time and time again, however, can get really exhausting. Except for Kiki Rice, no other player on the UCLA Bruins squad managed to score in the double-digits. Even Rice herself had only scored 13 points by recording 3-7 (42.9%) field goals, 1-1 (100.0%) 3-pointers, and 6-6 (100.0%) free throws. In a tournament like March Madness, where a team can get eliminated after just one game, it makes sense to utilize plays that give teams the best advantage on the offensive front.

For Close, that play is named Lauren Betts. Hopefully, after what happened recently, Close can draw up some new plays that does not utilize the star player to the point of exhaustion.

Having made the Elite Eight, Lauren Betts cannot allow herself to get into a moment of despair. After all, the thoughts of giving up or taking things easy would be crossing her mind more now than at any other point in the tournament. Perhaps she could go into her past and use the same thing again that once helped her find a footing with the UCLA squad.

Lauren Betts used a “mind gym” to build her confidence after crushing the Stanford season: “brought me back to normal”

Believe it or not, but Lauren Betts wasn’t always the dominant player she is today. In fact, during her Freshman season at Stanford, she only averaged 5.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 0.5 assists throughout 33 games. For her sophomore season, Betts transferred to UCLA. Betts reportedly assumed a greater role within the Bruins upon her arrival, becoming the team’s starting center. After nabbing the transfer out of the portal, UCLA coach Cori Close knew that she had to rebuild Betts’ confidence after the season she had at Stanford. An effort would have to be made by going beyond just carving out a larger role for her on the basketball court. This led her to direct Betts to the ‘mind gym’.

As reported by ‘Los Angeles Times’ journalist Thuc Nhi Nguyen, UCLA provided a safe space for individuals to work on their mental skills, aka the “mind gym.” The program’s comprehensive mental conditioning regimen reportedly helped to unlock the sophomore center’s full potential after her disappointing freshman season reportedly “crushed her confidence”. “This program and honestly Coach Cori have been doing a really good job of filling me with a lot of positivity and all the things I’m capable of doing,” said Betts. “All the negativity that I saw about myself before I got here, it kind of just brought me back to normal.”

As Nguyen highlighted, the team spent three minutes on visualization every day. Once a week, mindset coach Collin Henderson would meet with the squad, mostly over Zoom, for 25 minutes. There were worksheets, and coaches were assigned follow-up tasks to focus on during the week. Players sometimes had to text Henderson answers to a prompt or meet with him individually. The sessions allowed Betts to expand her perspective, and improve her play.

“One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that I’m valued and that I matter and that no matter what happens, I still am important,” said Betts. “I think that has just brought out a sense of joy in everything that I do.”

After the tiring number of games she has had, Betts certainly needs some extra motivation. Some extra time at the ‘mind gym’ might help her get that.