Category:

Campus

CampusCommentaryNewsOpinionPolitical EducationU.S.

“The First Become the Last”

by Nicole Crawford
written by Nicole Crawford

Journal Excerpt: – 9 January 2025

It is Thursday, January 9th, 2025 and more than 35,000 acres of “Los Angeles” is on fire. More than 35,000 acres of Tongva/Gabrielino Indigenous lands have erupted into flames, not due to circumstance, but as a result of the ever-growing expansion of capitalist greed, corruption, and violence throughout the globe. Los Angeles is merely a looking glass. For years, the beast that we call Amerikkka has bombed, robbed, raped, pillaged and abused the lands and imaginations of the Indigenous people of this world. Those in Afrika, the Middle East, Skid Row and the Caribbean have been slaughtered, martyred and erased from our collective memory as a sacrifice for the insatiable thirst that this beast holds for the consumption and conquest of our lands. 

Mother Nature regains her autonomy in moments like these, forcefully and without remorse. Today, she remembers our apathy to the violence enacted against the poor, the unhoused, the immigrant, the diseased and the disabled. We are all responsible for the pacification and justification of this violence. We are all responsible for our blindness to the gravity of deprivation, dehumanization and disenfranchisement that the most oppressed have faced, and known intimately, for as long as we have lived. This violence is one of displacement, one of hollowed memory, of intentional menticide and distractions to keep us surprised and saddened at the smell of singed flesh. We have tasted and seen ash and coppered blood before, but it is our dishonesty that uncovers shock within us instead of activity and the capability of creating tangible solutions that disentangle us from the dependent, nauseatingly abusive relationship that we have with the state. 

Instances like these remind us of who is disposable to the state. Pay attention to the lengths at which they go to erase and minimise the gravity of violence we are subject to. We do not know of the destruction of the most oppressed, we do not understand what it means to feel ash within your every breath with no means of escape or solace, whether this be in Palestine or Afrika, or Los Angeles. Those who are left behind in prisons and on the streets are not an unintended consequence, but evidence of the irredeemability and psychosis of the state. Know your reflections. None of us are immune to this sickness. The plight of the disregarded today, is a warning for what we will all face tomorrow. The first will become the last. Your dreams of falsified allegiance to them will swallow you whole. 

“We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
CampusCommentaryNewsWorld

Hypocrisy and Censorship

by Nadine Melanesia Black
written by Nadine Melanesia Black

An oppressive silence fills classrooms when students bring up topics surrounding Palestine and the encampment to almost any UCLA educator, dancing around the topic anytime it is mentioned in relation to what we are learning in class, which has left me puzzled as this is a glaring contradiction.

On Sept. 5 UCLA outlined a “Four Point Plan for a Safer, Stronger UCLA” that claims to focus on “enhancing community safety and well being, fostering a culture of engagement, learning and dialogue across difference, prompting freedom expression in line with University of California policies, and continuing to evaluate how to support our diverse community.” Through these four points, UCLA admin is further repressing students’ freedom of expression by regulating how one expresses themselves under the guise of creating a “safer campus environment.” Even within UCLA’s mission statement they claim to want to “ensure freedom of expression and dialogue, in a respectful and civil manner, on the spectrum of views held by our varied and diverse campus communities” and to have an “open and inclusive environment that nurtures the growth and development of all faculty, students, administration and staff” through debate and critical inquiry.

The hypocrisy of the facade that UCLA puts on for admitted students who are eagerly awaiting to attend a university to have fulfilling discussions and debates on current topics in comparison to the reality of silencing their student population is jarring. 

How is it that Palestine is a central part of the current global political discourse, yet this is rarely talked about in the classes of the Amerikkka’s “#1 public university”? In emails regarding the encampment, why is it that the former Chancellor Gene Block dedicated only a measly sentence about the immense suffering of Palestinians but claims to not take a side?

Students are being punished for exercising what they have learned at this school, including ideas surrounding how social norms can be challenged to gain more rights for marginalized people, with courses relaying acts of resistance throughout history via both physical and online spaces. The absence and censorship of educational safe spaces for conversations surrounding Palestine disallows for any growth or learning for students.

Monitoring and censoring what is being said in classrooms won’t stop student’s ideas and hunger for change, but only further highlights UCLA’s compliance with the mass killings in Palestine.

UCLA admin cannot continue to ignore the pleas of their students. Cries against the oppressive system of white supremacy that UCLA benefits from are drowned out in favor of maintaining the UC’s tidy and rule-following facade. If this school wants to truly comply with their mission statement, they would need to allow for students to express themselves in and out of the classroom.

At the bare minimum, discussion and dialogue around Palestine is essential in educational spaces, and banning this exchange just shows what UCLA stands for, whether they explicitly say it or not. However, a conversation alone is not enough to elicit true change against an oppressive system. Continuous resistance against the status quo and forcing the administration and government to hear our voices must be practiced as a collective community.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
CampusCommentaryNewsU.S.World

Internal Transformation and Collective Liberation

by Nicole Crawford
written by Nicole Crawford

this is the 21st century and we need to redefine r/evolution. this planet needs a people’s r/evolution. a humanist r/evolution. r/evolution is not about bloodshed or about going to the mountains and fighting. we will fight if we are forced to but the fundamental goal of r/evolution must be peace.

we need a r/evolution of the mind. we need a r/evolution of the heart. we need a r/evolution of the spirit. the power of the people is stronger than any weapon. a people’s r/evolution can’t be stopped. we need to be weapons of mass construction. weapons of mass love. it’s not enough just to change the system. we need to change ourselves. we have got to make this world user friendly. user friendly.

are you ready to sacrifice to end world hunger. to sacrifice to end colonialism. to end neo-colonialism. to end racism. to end sexism.

r/evolution means the end of exploitation. r/evolution means respecting people from other cultures. r/evolution is creative.

r/evolution means treating your mate as a friend and an equal. r/evolution is sexy.

r/evolution means respecting and learning from your children. r/evolution is beautiful.

r/evolution means protecting the people. the plants. the animals. the air. the water. r/evolution means saving this planet.

r/evolution is love.

Assata Shakur

When abuse is prevalent within our most intimate relationships, we find ourselves limited and hypocritical in our passive attempts to adopt liberatory frameworks and practices into our lives. As people who are intrinsically webbed into a broader international struggle towards collective liberation, we are subject to colonial, imperial, and white supremist violence on a macro-institutional scale. However, our focus on the plight of Afrikans through the lens of combating fascist and militarized violence, institutional exclusion, and discriminatory systems of power, while necessary, can often externalize the roadblocks we face to achieving Pan-Afrikan collectivism in a way that overshadows and disregards the deeply rooted internal transformations that must take place. 

Intercommunal violence exists among the organizations, structures, and people who are most affected by the forces of state-oppression and intimidation. This is not surprising. When routinized to function as part of a larger system of power we are likely to consciously, but more often unconsciously, adopt western, hyper-individual, and abusive ways of knowing, thinking, imagining, and interacting as a means of survival. This brings us into dialogue regarding one main question: Does the liberation of Afrikans require internal transformation?

Christopher Lavender, a first year transfer studying sociology, provides us with a common perspective to ground our discussion on the matter. He says, “Yes, let’s just call it how it is. I believe so. With Afrikans you are weighed against anyways all throughout life, especially here, they say it’s the land of the free, but we are not really free.”

This analysis is not only shared among most people within the Pan-Afrikan diaspora, but it’s simply true. Faced with the institutional barriers of police violence and systematic oppression, the disconnect between the promises of the imperial core and our lived reality are jarring. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, “Since 2000, at least 1018 people have been killed by law enforcement in Los Angeles County” and “almost all of the dead were men, nearly 80% were Black or Latino. More than 92% were shot to death”. So, to say that we as Afrikans are privileged enough to see the fruits of equity and liberation would be to lie to oneself. We are in desperate need of social transformation and of tangible solutions, this is clear. However, to sustain these transformations outside of the sensationalized deaths of Afrikans and performative protests, we require a change in how we view ourselves and deep understanding of the degree to which structures of violence influence our communities. 

Caila Chappell, a third year senior and political science major explains this as she says, “While there are oppressive systems in place that are keeping people of the Afrikan diaspora down and from being able to access certain things, I think that no one else will free you but yourself. The people that are oppressing or in these oppressive positions are not going to be the ones to free you because they’re benefiting off your oppression, so you would have to take within yourselves to be able to overthrow the places in power that are keeping you in whatever position you are in”. 

She also reminds us of where we as Afrikans have come from. “Throughout history, typically the people who have freed Afrikans are themselves. I think a lot of history is misconstrued through a white-savior complex lens. For instance, you have Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves when in reality that was not the goal to free the slaves, it was more so a political move and even after that while they may not have been physically in chains, Afrikan people were still enslaved. So, I think the only way that they were able to achieve some sort of freedom or a greater freedom than they already had was through convening with themselves”. 

This perspective unveils to us a new depth of truth and commitment that is required in our attempts to adopt liberatory frameworks and longevity in our struggles towards collectivism and self-determination. We must understand our histories, not from a linear perspective, but from an analysis that allows us to recognize patterns of erasure, oppression, and violence when they are happening before our eyes. Our failure to legitimately consider these parts of our practices is often what prevents us from integrating the external accountability that we expect from violent institutions into our own lives and immediate communities. 

Failing to consider these aspects of struggle makes it hard to create autonomous solutions to the intimidation and degradation that we face, but more importantly, it is dangerous. When we fail to identify that we too can adopt practices and mindsets of hyper-individualism, colonialism and imperialism, we become a danger to our broader global community. 

Kenya has become one of the latest examples of this as they have started their interventions in Haiti. “Kenya has sent troops on missions inside and outside Africa, but no African country has ever led a security mission outside the continent” and while Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua said  “Kenya stands with persons of African descent across the world” this is false. “Washington has increasingly grown reliant on Nairobi for its security interests in the Horn of Africa in recent years” and this is a perfect example of blackface imperialism and how our negligence in adopting measures of self-accountability and internal transformation will always lead to more harm (Al Jazeera). 

Simply put, “Abuse of all kinds, specifically systemic abuse, translates to abusing each other” said Caila. 

Nathanial Tesfai, a first year transfer studying history and political science echoed this sentiment as well. “In Afrika today, the World Bank is giving countries unfair loans” but he explained that “my family jokes about it, in Kenya they promise prosperity and end up stealing from the treasury”. 

Our inability to honor the duality of our plight as Afrikans is killing us both literally and metaphorically. We are responsible for not only challenging the external systems of power that we can recognize, but furthermore, challenging ourselves to reframe how we form community. We as Afrikans are in a need of a deep shedding and metamorphosis and while this is grueling work, it is absolutely necessary as we continue to plant the seeds of struggle for our future generations to nurture and reap. 

Assata Shakur says, “the power of the people is stronger than any weapon. a people’s r/evolution can’t be stopped. we need to be weapons of mass construction” and this is true. We are responsible for one another, in grief and in healing, and understanding this is the only way that future generations will begin to experience the ease and autonomy that our ancestors have struggled towards.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
CampusCommentaryNewsWorld

Whose University?

by Nicole Crawford
written by Nicole Crawford

The guidelines for the Public Expression Activities that were outlined within the Time, Place and Manner policies, which were released on Sept. 4, included statements such as, “Don’t conceal your identity with the aim of intimidating any person or group or to evade recognition“, “Don’t set up tents, campsites, or other temporary housing… on UCLA property”, and no distribution of food or access to specific walkways unless permitted by the university between midnight and 6 a.m. 

Many of these policies are subjective and infringe upon the rights to free speech, neglect equitable access to food and housing security, violate public health and safety precautions, and only allow students to use two-percent of their campus space to express grievances about how their tuition dollars are spent. Students have a right to protest against the complicity of their university in the ongoing genocide against Palestinians and intimidation of the Global South. The administrative opposition to this intrinsic right has left students questioning who the university is actually trying to protect: the students or the zionists the administration funds? 

According to William Ramataboe (he/him), a first year graduate student pursuing a masters in business association, there was no problem with these policies and nothing that violated human rights. Adding, “I read it quick so I might have skipped something” but this analysis simply cannot be true. 

It is clear that the university administration does not view the students that fund UCLA as part of their communities of concern as they continue to wield their power to silence, intimidate and erase student voices and acts of resistance on campus. This brings us again to the question of fascism, ableism and the ever increasing presence of these institutions of violence in our lives. Fascism is understood as a political ideology that prioritizes the “good of a nation” above individual interests, “contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism”, “forcible suppression of opposition” and “the tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control” according to Britannica and Merriam-Webster. Ableism is defined as “discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities” (Merriam-Webster). 

Working with these two definitions we can begin to understand the implications, of the Time, Place, and Manner policies, on the quality and freedom of student life and movements across campus. The university is actively working to protect economic interests, public image, and appeals to zionists at the expense of moral and ethical protections. With a ban on the ability to practice masking during an ongoing public health crisis (COVID) and only allowing protests in partially-inaccessible areas of campus, the university has now positioned itself in direct opposition to those fighting for disability-equity and justice. Additionally, this decision was made autonomously without the input of the students whose financial support acts as the bloodline of this university, meaning that the rights to cultural, political, and individual expression and determination can no longer function within this space. So whose university is it really?

Jonny Garnett (he/him), a fourth year undergraduate sociology major agreed with this analysis as he said that this was a “response [to] last spring protests that the school put in place to go against public expressions” He said, “I feel like everyone should have freedom to express themselves” and that this was “limiting people from calling out violations” adding that he did not “agree with them putting restrictions”. 

While students have until Nov. 4 to express their opinions to the University on these policies at public comment, this decision has undeniably forced students to return to a more restrictive and censored campus environment. 

For Afrikans at UCLA and across the globe, the topic of student protests, censorship and university policies are intrinsic to our universal experiences on campus. In times of hyper-surveillance, increasing fascism, and violations of human rights, the Time, Place and Manner policies and UCLA campus climate are only but a microcosm of the international struggles towards liberation and intersectional solidarity we all face. 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
CampusCultureNewsSports

For The Girls: Increasing Support for Afrikan Women in Basketball

by Krystal Tome
written by Krystal Tome

Written by & Photos by: Krystal Tome

Afrikan women’s representation in sports media is deeply affected by race and gender disparities. As a continuation of “Bridging the Gap: Disparities between Women’s and Men’s Basketball,” I will explore these issues in a different perspective, taking into account recent events and related discourse.

In 2022, the NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament obtained March Madness branding. This comes after 83 years of the men’s tournament using this coinage and 40 years since the start of the women’s tournament. 

Since 2020, when the NCAA did not provide the same resources as the men’s teams when it comes to chartered flights and exercise equipment for the Women’s National In-Tournament (WNIT), the NCAA has made improvements. In 2023, the NCAA bridged some of these gaps for the March Madness tournament and plan to do this for the WNIT as well. Although some amendments are being made, there is still a lot of work to do as an industry.

The fact that basketball is predominantly played by Afrikan athletes adds another layer to the issue of gender disparity. 

Left-Right: Christeen Iwuala, Amanda Muse, Lina Sontag, Angela Dugalić, Izzy Anstey, Camryn Brown

On April 2nd, 2023, the LSU-Iowa game – the Women’s March Madness final – brought in a peak of 12.3 million viewers, a record-breaking number for viewership of a women’s basketball game. Mind you, this peak is below the viewership for every NCAA men’s championship game since 2013, according to Statista. After the game, there was much discourse online about Angel Reese, an Afrikan woman on LSU’s team, who performed a trash-talking gesture towards Caitlin Clark, a White woman on Iowa’s team, in the same manner Caitlin had been doing in past games.

UCLA graduate student and basketball player Camryn Brown shared her sentiments about this event in a recent interview with Nommo Newsmagazine Staff Writer Krystal Tome. “Women are viewed differently than men are when playing sports.” Due to this social climate, “apparently women aren’t allowed to show emotion or be excited about their sport and express like men are allowed to.” When Caitlin Clark had been doing similar taunting in previous games, she was not receiving as much backlash like how Reese had to face. This double standard highlights the racist undertones that live within basketball culture.

With the WNBA finals bringing together the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty, it is important to note how these teams and players are depicted by the media. The WNBA and ESPN “have their token white girls… Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart.” Both of these women are players on the New York Liberty and have been pushed by the WNBA and ESPN into the media with video game cover photos and overall media representation (as Stewart won the 2023 MVP award). Camryn adds, “I don’t know if it’s to make the WNBA more digestible, I don’t know for what purpose.” With so many excelling Afrikan women in the WNBA, why don’t they get the same platform?

Kiki Rice shooting in the paint

“Caitlin was having a huge tournament at that rate, so I think a lot of the people were tuned in to support her,” Brown added. With this, one can understand that Clark had an audience of her own, so when she was losing and getting trash-talked, there was poor audience reception. In addition to this, the Iowa women’s basketball team gained lots of support which may have led to a larger percentage of viewers in support of Iowa’s team–a team composed of mostly White players in a predominantly white institution. Brown’s theory is further backed by the attendance at the Iowa women’s basketball game played this 2023-2024 season in the Kinnick Stadium against DePaul, with an audience of 55,646 attendees. 

Video LSU/Iowa

Fortunately, and well deserved, the WNBA continues gaining more viewership and attendance for games. This could be a result of the success of the women’s NCAA tournament and the excitement transferring over to the WNBA season. Unfortunately, there are still systems in place pulling strings within the WNBA, causing racial tension. 

Gold medalist and back-to-back champion A’ja Wilson won the Most Valuable Player award (MVP) in 2022, averaging 19.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game in 2022. She beat her own stats this year in 2023, averaging 22.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game. Yet in spite of her impressive performance, she did not receive the MVP award again.

“I don’t understand how your MVP of last year can outperform herself and not get MVP of this year.” As a defensive player herself, Brown relates to players like A’ja Wilson and understands how important this part of the game is and how underappreciated compared to playing offense. 

This is a call to action for more support for women in sports, especially Afrikan women athletes. The time and energy we put into hyping up the NBA should also extend to the WNBA. There is power in numbers. More viewership and ticket sales lead to an economic push to expand the league to new cities, while online support for WNBA games creates a social push, resulting in a larger audience. As we push for positive representation for Afrikan women in sports media, these efforts will accelerate. Telling these stories and spreading news of the accomplishments Afrikan women athletes have can expand people’s worldviews and make a difference in the current media landscape. Although these tasks may seem small to some, the collective effort will have a major impact, improve the presence of Afrikan women in professional sports, and aid the liberation of our peoples.

Charisma Osborne gages for how to gain possession of the ball

More specifically, representing Afrikan women in sports, as well as other industries, is just one of many ways in which we can deconstruct the common trope of the monolithic Afrikan woman. Diversifying the lens through which we are observed in media allows us to exist more freely. Although there are limitations to this due to established media companies that value financial gain over social welfare, changing a small aspect of a multifaceted issue pervading the media industry can make all the difference.

As students at UCLA, we should support the women’s basketball team as well as the individual women on the team by going to the games. Giving them and the women’s game positive energy can help with these disparities. 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Arts & EntertainmentCampusNews

The Bruinettes at UCLA: Bringing Danceline to UCLA

by Krystal Tome
written by Krystal Tome

By: Krystal Tome and Mary Sutton

In fall of 2022, a group of Black Bruins created a danceline team at UCLA. Less than a year later, that same group would perform in front of thousands of football fans at the Rose Bowl. They are known as the Bruinettes.

Co-founders Sydney Shepherd and Daisa Watkins only recently started their sophomore year when they started building the base of the Bruinettes. To paraphrase their words, the team was created to represent the Black Bruins community on a larger platform by celebrating and highlighting danceline.

Danceline is a style of dance that is a staple of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). It originated in 1968 with the Golden Girls, the danceline team of Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi. Since then, it has expanded into Black culture and American culture in general, from film and television to viral Internet trends and iconic artists who incorporate danceline into their performances. Danceline also impacted communities on the west coast, where some predominantly white institutions (PWIs) have teams inspired by the artform. It was only a matter of time, then, that the same thing would happen to UCLA.

So, who are the Bruinettes?

The Bruinettes is composed of 10 dancers. This includes Shepherd and Watkins, as well as Jasmine Aner (the tail), Matthew Morales-Boyd, Reba Thomas, Sierra Shinn, Alexis Cohen, Zahra Umoja, co-captain Sanaa Jefferson, and captain Alex Hamilton. Although the team is very new, you might recognize some of these names from other campus activities. Aner recently became vice-president of the Afro-Latinx Connection (ALC), and Shinn is the director of the widely popular Jazz Reggae Festival. Hamilton was previously a dance captain for NSU Modern, and in addition to taking the same role in the Bruinettes, she is also the production manager for Untitled Theater Company. Other dancers are involved in similar groups, making it apparent that their love for danceline mirrors that of their love for building community.

While dancers make up the face of the Bruinettes, there are many people working behind the scenes to help them succeed. The Bruinettes Board, for example, has several committees, including a funding committee, with Troy Dyer and Trinity McGregor; the relations committee, with Awo Gulaid and Krystal Tomé; and the branding and marketing committee, with Nate Scott, and Mary Sutton. Lorraine Wangari is the president of the organization, and she makes significant contributions across all areas for the team.

There is also Coach Kayla Marie Jackson and Coach Kalé Woods, who took part in the audition process and built the team that you know today. Both are alumni of Spelman College, the widely celebrated all-women’s HBCU that is home to the collegiate danceline Mahogany N’ Motion. The coaches have prolific careers in dance and entertainment, with Jackson featuring in several major productions in film, TV, and music, and Woods uplifting communities across the country through dance education and psychotherapy. Additionally, the coaches have brought in several professionals in their field to help guide the dancers and develop their skills beyond what they already know.

As football season approaches, the Bruinettes are gearing up to make a good first impression. They previously performed at the away game against San Diego State University (SDSU), where they were positively received by fans and worked alongside the opposing team’s very own danceline, the SDSU Diamonds. Now, after a long summer of practicing dozens of routines and raising funds for the organization, their first home game performance will happen on September 16th. If you absolutely cannot make it, you should try to watch the game in any way you can. Whether you find it live streamed online, or catch a recap of the day on the Bruinettes Instagram page (@bruinettesatucla), it will be a historic event that you will not want to miss.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Arts & EntertainmentCampusNewsSports

Getting to Candyland, Step by Step: Bruins v Sooners Round of 32

by Krystal Tome
written by Krystal Tome

It’s a Monday night. The crowd is roaring.

This was an anticipated night for the UCLA Bruins, since it was the night that determined if they would make it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in four years.

Coach Cori Close emphasized a focus on the pacing of the game against the Oklahoma Sooners. “Oklahoma is one of the most fast-paced teams. A really good offensive team…so there’s a completely different gameplan.”

All Photo Credits: Krystal Tome

Camryn Brown (#35) came into the first quarter with a momentous steal, which led to the ball falling out of bounds and being awarded to the Bruins. The first quarter set a precedent for the audience and the team—there were going to be lots of fouls. Because of the Sooners’ offense, it can be presumed that Coach Close was looking for strong defense, which led to fouls by the referees. The Bruins accumulated 18 non-foul turnovers and 29 fouls (12 being in the fourth quarter), while the Sooners’ had 26 fouls (14 in the fourth quarter).

Brown later said that the team should “[slow] down, [have] more composure” for the next game against South Carolina. “We did a really good job of speeding [Oklahoma] up, and our defense was super aggressive,” she expressed, before admitting, “I think we got a little excited after certain stops happened, and our game just sped up.”

All the fouls provided many chances for free throws. Charisma Osborne (#20) made 100% of her free throws (17-17) and Kiki Rice (#1) made 7-8 of her free throws, making this a great night for Bruins at the line. After the game, Osborne shared an anecdote about her record for making (42) free throws in a row during a practice. “One time, I was at L.A. Fitness or something with my dad… and he was like ‘okay, if you make 30 free throws, you get ice cream’ or something like that. 30 in a row. And that was the first time I ever made 30 in a row, probably the first time I ever made 10 in a row. I don’t know what happened; I flipped the switch. Since then, I’ve been pretty good at free throws.”

With this defense, and spectacular offense by Osborne with 36 points that night, the Bruins advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. This win was contested, however, with a close score of 61-59 UCLA in the last five minutes of the game. The final score of 82-73 came with the mentality of “one stop at a time, one score at a time, not thinking too far ahead,” according to Lina Sontag (#21).

This rollercoaster of a game excited a Bruin-filled crowd for what’s to come during the rest of March Madness. Women’s Sports activist and TikTok Creator Audrey DeVaughn (@audreydevaughn) shared some thoughts on the game.

“This was my first UCLA women’s basketball game. It was also [the first game for] the people who I was with… it really showed them that the product of women’s basketball is really good and I’ve been saying that.”  She then emphasizes the importance of showing up to women’s sports events. “Until you’re actually at a game it’s like, people don’t internalize it. Especially on my TikTok, a lot of people are like ‘the product’s not good’ and blah blah blah, but I’m like, have you been to a women’s basketball game? Like, no. Once you go, you can see how awesome it is.”

DeVaughn continues by name dropping the team members that she looked forward to watching most. Some of these names included “Kiki Rice, Charisma Osborne, and Gabriela Jaquez. Conti played really [well]. I felt like they worked really well together.”

“Basketball is one of the few sports that you can have different roles on the team, and still be as valuable, so I thought of that especially with Camryn Brown. I saw how, near the end, they were switching her out for offense, defense, offense, defense,” she stated. “So she was less of a scorer, but they needed her on the court for defense. Basketball is a game that can really elevate those types of players.”

“I was impressed by how much team chemistry they had, and I’m glad that I got the opportunity to see them at home, because it was really exciting.”

Although the Bruins ended their March Madness run in the Sweet Sixteen, women’s basketball will be back in Pauley Pavilion in November. 

On April 5th, Charisma Osborne and Camryn Brown announced on instagram that they will be using their 5th year of eligibility to continue their journeys as UCLA Bruins. 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Arts & EntertainmentCampusCultureSports

Equity and Tenacity on the March Madness Stage: First Round UCLA v Sac State

by Krystal Tome
written by Krystal Tome

As soon as the NCAA Selection Committee announced that UCLA got the No. 4 seed, the women on the basketball team began preparations. For some of the players, this would be the  first March Madness game of their careers, and to be able to play on their home court, surrounded by their friends, families, and fans meant a lot to them. 

Freshman Gabriela Jaquez (#23) shared, “I think it’s a really amazing opportunity that we can play here at Pauley Pavilion and have our home crowd here.” 

Christeen Iwuala (#22) followed with, “Especially for the fact that something like this is really uncommon, coming in first year, being able to do something so monumental like this, I feel like it’s a really good opportunity that we have.”

Starting their March Madness tournament in Pauley Pavilion, the hype from the crowd, as well as the one-week break since their match in Vegas against Washington State (which took place on March 5th, 2023), helped fuel the fire that went into the game. Notably, the start of the game was full of energy when Gina Conti (#10) scored twice and made a rebound before the seven-minute mark.  “I think it’s important for me as a point guard to be aggressive, to collapse the defense, to then kick out for my teammates who were open,” Conti remarks on the goals set in mind coming into a game. 

Article Photo Credits: Krystal Tome – Nommo Newsmagazine

After tying once in the first quarter, the Bruins kept the lead, making it up 24 at one point. Some highlights include, Charisma Osborne’s (#20) achieved double-double status in this game with 11 points and 12 rebounds, contributions from Jaquez’s layups and relentless drive, and Kiki Rice’s (#1) top scorer of the Bruins status tonight with 15 points. Another unforgettable moment came from Londynn Jones (#3), whose persistent determination before and after she was fouled by Sacramento State’s Dean (#0), leading to a quick trip to the locker room and back to continue what she started on the court, exemplified strong-mindedness on the court.

On the importance of March Madness branding and equity for the women’s game, Jaquez said, “It should always have been March Madness to start, but I’m really glad that we can be the players to play in the women’s March Madness tournament.”

Complementing her thought, Jones brought into perspective the hard work the UCLA WBB team has put in in order to be able to play on the March Madness stage. “It’s really just a testament to all of the hard work we’ve been doing, and it’s very different for [men’s] and women’s basketball, but the whole point is to make things equal.”

“You put in just as much work as them,” Jones continues. “But I think that it does show what we’re leading to and where we’re going, and so it’s a big difference.”

2023 marks the second year that the women’s NCAA D1 Tournament falls under the March Madness brand. The NCAA is making strides for gender equity in basketball, but there’s still much to be done.

“All of the things and the investments from the NCAA in the last [few] years are really, really important and greatly recognized and appreciated,” said Cori Close, the head basketball coach for WBB. “That being said, I’m excited for a few that still need to be attacked.” 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts