SACRAMENTO — As the confetti swirled and the ladder was set under the net, Lauren Betts asked her coach to find her coach.
UCLA coach Cori Close darted out to wave down Grandview High School coach Josh Ulitzky. They both knew what it meant to lead a team whose star was Betts. Yet they had not coached the same player, and they had not coached the same person, either. Over her four years in college, Betts has developed into a top WNBA prospect. The 6'7" center has grown her game—improving her mobility, developing in midrange, becoming more aggressive at the rim and more comfortable away from it. But she also needed to grow in a way that was far trickier. Betts had to learn how to believe in what she can do and trust herself to do it.
