UCLA’s Lauren Betts reveals her focus on “mental work” ahead of Final Four
UCLA Lauren Betts explains how her focus on improving her mental health has contributed to her performance this season.
The first day UCLA returned from the offseason, Kiki Rice could see Lauren Betts was different.
She hadn’t overhauled her game or developed a new shot. The All-American center hadn’t needed to. What Betts had been missing was confidence, the ability to see in herself what everyone else did.
“I could tell what a different player she was and the different confidence she had about her,” Rice said Thursday during a media day ahead of the women’s Final Four in Tampa, Florida. “We all knew the entire time the incredible player she was. But I think a lot of it was about her realizing that.”
Betts is the engine that has powered overall No. 1 seed UCLA’s first-ever trip to the Final Four in the NCAA era. She’s averaging close to a double-double with 20 points and 9.6 rebounds a game, and is ranked fifth in the nation with three blocks a game.
But Betts’ power is not limited to what she does on the basketball court. She has been open about her struggles with mental health, hoping she can be an example for other girls and young women who are suffering in silence as she once did.
“I had mentors and I’m really thankful, but I know there’s a lot of young girls who don’t,” Betts said Thursday. “For me to be an outlet and to kind of validate their feelings and to know there’s someone out there who is dealing with the same thing that I am is, I think, is just really important.”
It has never been easy to be a kid who is perceived as “different.” Betts, the daughter of a former professional basketball player, was already 5-foot-6 in third grade, and remembers being mocked and gawked at because of her height. She is 6-foot-7 now.
But our online culture, social media in particular, has made the cruelties and comments exponentially worse. It wasn’t just the kids in her class or the people at the mall who made Betts feel small, it was cowardly people who tore her down from the safety of their keyboards.
“If I could (have), I would literally shrink,” Betts said in an ESPN story last month that gave an unflinching look at her struggles with mental health. “Or I would become invisible so that no one could see me. I just was so tired.”
Those close to Betts could see the toll it was taking — she left Stanford after her freshman year because of what she described as a callous atmosphere — but no one knew how bad it was until January of last year.
“I got into a state, the lowest state I’ve ever felt in my entire life,” Betts told ESPN. “To a point where I was like, ‘I can’t be here. Like, I can’t be here. I can’t do life anymore.'”
She had already taken a leave from basketball. A team doctor took Betts to a hospital, where she spent the night. When she was released, Betts began regular therapy and made a point of taking medication she’d been prescribed.
She stopped trying to please all those doubters and naysayers and focused on herself.
“I always try to tell myself that I’m so much more than basketball,” Betts said. “I’m a daughter. I’m a teammate. I’m a sister. I’m a friend. Just reminding myself that, yes, basketball is what I do, but it’s not who I am at the end of the day.
“All of this is amazing. But when I go back home to my teammates and my family, that’s really what matters to me.”
It is hard to quiet the negative voices you’ve been hearing almost since you can remember. But Betts has not had to do it alone.
Her teammates have been unfailingly supportive, with Rice saying it’s “an incredible honor” to stand alongside Betts. UCLA coach Cori Close, who sat at the hospital with Betts and her mother last year, altered the way she coached Betts. Rather than giving Betts instructions, which Betts instinctively took as criticism, Close goes through assistant coach Shannon LeBeauf.
But Close is quick to give Betts credit for the turnaround in her mental game.
“It’s really the courage of her inner work that she’s been willing to do — that few adults are courageous to do,” Close said after UCLA’s win over Ole Miss in the Sweet 16 last weekend. “I think last year, she almost got too good too quick, and that’s been sort of documented that that was really hard.
“Well, she’s now done all the work in this offseason to now be equipped to be that good. And I knew last year she could become that, but now she’s equipped from the inside out to sustain that.”
The difference that Rice saw last summer is now evident to anyone who watches UCLA play. There is a fierceness that radiates from Betts on the floor, and a pride she exudes off it. Yes, people are looking at her, but she recognizes now that it’s in wonder. Yes, people are talking about her, but she recognizes now that it’s because she’s one of the best players in the country.
Mostly, though, Betts recognizes herself for who she is. And she likes what she sees.
“I think one of the reasons why I wanted to come out with the story is because I felt like I was finally in the right place to do so. I think that I just had done a lot of healing since then,” Betts said. “I was like, you know what? I just don’t feel like I have to really hide this anymore.
“I think the responses that I’ve had since then have truly just validated what I did and what I put out,” she added. “And I think the amount of love and support that I’ve gotten just means a lot to me.”
Betts has always stood tall on the court. Now she’s standing tall off it, too.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
