TAMPA — One by one, they filed off the bus up the walkway. Their police escort encased them as they packed in for a player-only team photo framed by their brightly colored “UCLA and “Final Four” wrapped transportation.
Inside the Embarc Collective near the burgeoning Water Street district of downtown Tampa, the blue and gold crew took up most of the room on Wednesday afternoon. At every utterance of those four letters, the team built into a crescendo of cheers, booming the loudest when its own player and coach won two of the three Naismith women’s Honors on Wednesday afternoon.