Alexander: Is Charlisse Leger-Walker UCLA’s not-so-secret weapon?

LOS ANGELES — Every successful team needs someone who helps make teammates better.

For UCLA’s women’s basketball team, undefeated champions of the Big Ten and – at least for the moment – a No. 1 regional seed two weeks before Selection Sunday, the final regular season game Sunday was another example of how important an asset that can be.

Both on the court and in her teammates’ ears, graduate student Charlisse Leger-Walker made contributions to the Bruins’ 73-50 victory over USC at Galen Center, a game in which the No. 2 team in the country asserted its dominance – a 17-6 lead at the start, a 31-11 run after the Women of Troy had the temerity to pull within 40-31 early in the third quarter, and a ridiculous 22-5 offensive rebounding edge.

Leger-Walker, valuable as the “connector,” as coach Cori Close put it, filled the stat sheet as well: a game-high 20 points to tie her season high, six rebounds, four assists and two steals in 33:38.

And hers is quite the story.

The native of New Zealand was Pac-12 freshman of the year at Washington State in 2020-21 and the conference tournament player of the year in 2023 when the Cougars won the Pac-12 tournament, beating UCLA 65-61 in the championship game.

She missed the last 11 games of her senior year, 2023-24, with a torn ACL – suffered in a game at Pauley Pavilion in January of 2024 – and then she transferred to UCLA for the extra season granted to players because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe it was fate, in the triumph over the Bruins and then the injury while playing against them, that led her to migrate to Westwood.

The coach’s persuasion probably helped as well.

“When she went into the portal, I could not call quick enough,” Close said. “I knew that she would bring to us what I saw her do at Washington State. She has exceeded my expectations. And it has just been an absolute joy, not just to coach her, but to be a part of her life.”

Leger-Walker redshirted last season to continue the rehabilitation of her knee, and maybe that season had multiple purposes. Assistant coach Soh Matsuura worked extensively with Leger-Walker during that redshirt year on her shot and her handle. This season she has played all 29 games, shooting 46.5 percent from the field and 36.6 from 3-point territory and averaging 4.24 rebounds, 4.17 assists, 1.65 steals and 9.03 points in 27.7 minutes per game.

And add to that maybe a couple zillion words of encouragement and inspiration, the result of the connections she has built with her current teammates.

“What she has done to make everybody around her better (is) to be a connector, not only on the court of knowing who needs to get touches or who needs a different rotation or a help side (defensively); she’s talking constantly,” Close said. “But also off the court. She keeps us, our team, really tight.”

Those connections started last season.

“I think sitting out last year and being able to be on the sideline and just observe a lot of things, it really allowed me to understand not only just our team dynamic and watching just the players out there, but also understanding from a coaching perspective, different reads that we’re trying to look for, how we try and attack different things, and being on the side line and kind of being in people’s ear all the time,” Leger-Walker said.

“It almost put me in a coaching position. Just being able to to do that and build those connections, even though I’m not playing, I think it’s just translated into this season. It’s just having an extra year under my belt of getting to know these girls and getting to know the staff and really trying to, I guess, ingrain myself into the program. That’s helped a lot, and I’m just so happy to be out there playing again and now talking on the court too.”

And what goes into creating those bonds?

“Quality time with my teammates,” she said.

“Spending time outside of basketball, really just trying to get to know them on a deeper level. I think that really builds that connection and builds that trust because that’s what you need, especially me being in a point guard position. I’m calling a lot of things out there, and I’m making a lot of decisions, and if they don’t trust me in that, then it’s really difficult for our offense and our defense.

“So it’s just time,” she added. “And it’s easy when I love all of my teammates, and we get along really well. It’s not almost like a sacrifice, it’s, ‘I get to do this.’ And so that’s the main thing, just wanting to hang out with them, wanting to get to know them, and making sure that when we are doing that, it’s in the back of our mind (that) it’s because we know where we want to go and we need to have that connection to do that.”

Close said she “just loved” watching Leger-Walker find her voice during that redshirt year, and she recalled the first day she was cleared to practice last February.

“She just made such an impact right away,” she said. “And you could see everybody looking at each other like, ‘Whoa, she is going to add so much.’ “

Others have recognized her skills, too. Leger-Walker was one of 65 women’s college basketball players throughout the country honored last November as recipients of the Kay Yow Servant Leader Award, named after the late North Carolina State coach whose fight against breast cancer spurred the sport’s efforts toward raising money for research and treatment.

“You just ask anybody, if you’re having a really hard day, who do you go to?” Close said. “And most of our (players) are gonna say Charlisse.”

What better compliment can there be?

jalexander@scng.com