UCLA making a vacation of its East Coast trip

Albany

Why spend time in warm and sunny southern California when you can experience a week or more of a crisp, unpredictable early spring in the northeast?

The UCLA women's basketball team has been in the region since the middle of last week, and the Bruins like it that way.

Of the four schools who made it to the Albany regional in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship, UCLA is the only one that won first- and second-round games away from home, defeating Maryland 85-80 on its home court to reach the Sweet 16 for a fourth straight year.

The Bruins, who face 11-time NCAA champion Connecticut at 7 p.m. Friday at Times Union Center, flew Tuesday from Maryland to Albany and practiced Wednesday at Siena.

"Given the alternative to go all the way back to L.A. and then come all the way back here, it's the right choice to come straight here," UCLA coach Cori Close said. "We're on spring break, we don't have any classes, so we're not missing extensive class time by staying on the East coast. It would have definitely been a detriment to our ability to be competing at the highest levels to have had to go cross-country again before we came up here."

"Coach Cori told us to pack for 10 days," UCLA sophomore forward Michaela Onyenwere said. "She believed in us, that we'd be here. Having coaches that believe in you helps everything when it comes to these games."

To get here, UCLA (22-12) won 13 of its final 16 games after a 9-9 start. The Bruins are seeded sixth in the region, beating No. 11 Tennessee and No. 3 Maryland for the right to face UConn.

"We may have gotten the worst draw of any team in the country, getting UCLA right about now," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said, "as well as they're playing and all the great things they've been able to do. It's not the same team I saw in...