Ann Meyers Drysdale keeping close tabs on UCLA in Final Four

Ann Meyers Drysdale is on a text chain with other UCLA women’s basketball greats, all of them awed by what they’re seeing from their successors.

Back in the Final Four for a second consecutive season, the Bruins are two wins away from their first NCAA title.

“We’re all kind of texting each other about how exciting this is,” Meyers Drysdale told the California Post in an exclusive interview only hours after the Bruins beat Duke on Sunday in the Elite Eight.

“Believe me, it’s a family situation that we’re all so proud of them and we’re just glad to be along for the ride.”

Well, these Bruins might not have reached such a big stage without their famous forebear.

Decades before Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark helped the women’s championship game outdraw the men’s in TV ratings, Meyers Drysdale was her sport’s original trailblazer.

So tenacious in her ability to impact a game that she became the first college player – male or female – to record a quadruple-double, Meyers Drysdale sparked an early explosion in women’s basketball popularity back when she was known as Annie Meyers.

Why, none other than NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain showed up to watch the semifinals of the AIAW tournament at Pauley Pavilion during Meyers’ senior year in 1978. Big Wilt, who was then several years into retirement, told the Washington Post that the women’s game was as good as watching the Lakers.

Two days later, Meyers put on a show during UCLA’s championship game, nearly notching another quadruple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists and eight steals. The Bruins defeated Maryland, 90-74, to win the national title, four years before the NCAA became the governing body for women’s collegiate sports.

Meyers Drysdale’s impact on basketball exceeded having her jersey retired at UCLA after becoming the school’s first female scholarship athlete. She won a silver medal while competing for the U.S. women’s national team in the 1976 Olympics and earned a tryout with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers in 1979. She’s a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Having gone on to work in a variety of front office roles for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury while also serving as a member of the broadcast teams for both franchises, Meyers Drysdale could consider it a serendipity that her Bruins are headed to Phoenix for the Final Four.

She’ll be there inside the Mortgage Matchup Center for UCLA’s national semifinal on Friday.

“I think they have as good a chance as anybody to win it this year,” Meyers Drysdale, who turned 71 last week, said of the Bruins. “I have great pride and I have great faith in them.”

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Bolstering her argument is Meyers Drysdale’s belief that top-seeded UCLA (35-1) can play well against a variety of styles and win thanks to different players stepping up. Against Minnesota in the Sweet 16, it was point guard Kiki Rice. Against Duke, it was center Lauren Betts and guard Angela Dugalic.

Meyers Drysdale is also a big believer in coach Cori Close’s ability to maximize so much talent, having kept tabs on her since Close was a UC Santa Barbara point guard and Meyers Drysdale called her games on TV.

“Even then,” Meyers Drysdale said, “you saw her leadership, you saw her intensity, you saw her passion for the game. I think players like to be pushed and she just expects greatness from them, she expects them to get better not only as players but as people.”

That relentless pursuit of improvement could prove to be especially significant after the Bruins suffered a 34-point blowout loss to UConn last year on this same stage.

Meyers Drysdale recalled the devastation of not making the final rounds of the AIAW tournament during her first three years in college. As a senior, alongside star freshman Denise Curry and first-year coach Billie Moore, the Bruins won it all.

“I think UCLA was shell-shocked last year,” Meyers Drysdale said, “but sometimes I think that those are the things that drive you.”

A lot has changed since the Bruins played their games on a side court inside Pauley Pavilion and NBC reportedly acquired the rights to the AIAW championship game for less than $25,000.

As signs of the game’s growth, Meyers Drysdale noted the many interview requirements players must fulfill at the Final Four and their ability to tell their own stories like Betts did in a recent Players’ Tribune article detailing her mental health struggles.

“You know, we didn’t have that and there’s pros and cons both ways,” Meyers Drysdale said, “but the joy that they have for each other and yes, Lauren Betts is probably the best center in the nation and defensive player of the year, but I don’t think there’s a jealous bone on that team when somebody can step up.

“I mean, everybody is happy for everybody. It’s all about getting that ‘W.’ ”

Meyers Drysdale said she appreciated that Close was similarly selfless in making former players feel like they’re still part of the program.

“I mean, there’s some pretty special players who have played at UCLA and obviously we’re the only [team] that has won a title,” Meyers Drysdale said, “but I know that Cori is always so very aware and conscious of letting these players today know what players came before them and obviously that’s one of the reasons too that we’ve all been invited into the fold.”

Having Meyers Drysdale around has benefited the Bruins beyond her legendary status.

“Annie Meyers has been an absolute godsend for me,” Close said. “She is a season ticket-holder, she texts me all the time to encourage me, she reminds me of the principles ‘Papa’ [Coach John Wooden] taught us and she has just shown us love every step of the way. I feel so fortunate to have her support.”

Any time the Bruins need a reminder of the path that led them here, all they have to do is look at the court inside their practice facility.

It’s named for Ann Meyers Drysdale.