You’re either a hater, a Trojan, or you were happy to see Cori Close win the national championship last season.

Even Dawn Staley was glad to see it, and it was her South Carolina team that Close’s UCLA Bruins throttled 79-51 in last April’s NCAA Tournament championship clinic in Phoenix.

“I’m always happy for people that worked hard in this game, who are really quality people,” Staley said shortly after UCLA won its first NCAA women’s basketball title. “I want good things to happen for them. Cori is one of those people who really works at making our game better. Not just UCLA, but our entire game.”

As the whole enterprise of college sports teeters chaotically, Close winning was as healthy a thing as could happen.

For all the tectonic shifts in college sports, for the nonsensical new national conferences, for the greed and growing pains spurred by pay for play, there was no one more ready to meet this moment than Close.

Because she understands that athletes now expect not just to be compensated, but to be considered, to be seen. She’s known it’s a plus in the box score and beyond when young people expect to have their perspectives matter, when they want to understand why and what for.

“You just aren’t going to meet a more driven, competitive person than me,” said Close, who’s entering her 34th year of coaching and 16th at UCLA. “But I just don’t want to be about that, I want to be about affecting people’s lives through sport, helping them become who they want to become, impact the people around them, because that lasts. And coaching from the inside-out has, I believe, eternal impact.”

She learned that from her college coach, Mark French, who invited her to pull up her wheelchair beside him to watch a game after she’d ruptured her Achilles as a freshman at UC Santa Barbara. Maybe he sensed a future coach, most definitely he gave Close much-needed purpose in the moment. She’s not forgotten it.

As UCLA’s revamped roster begins its title defense Monday at Pauley Pavilion, in the season opener against Lehigh, Close said she understands why John Wooden would tell her, “the journey’s always better, Cori, it’s always better!”

Still, closing the deal on a championship? What better proof of concept is there that the right way to go about things is to go about things the right way?

Other coaches should take note.

Anyone in leadership should take notes.

Probably we all should.

Close has the requisite humility and accountability to succeed. She’s gracious and consistent, big on gratitude and service, attributes that aren’t just nice but helpful to model in a competitive field: “If you are completely committed to that process, you want to win every time for the sake of that person on your right and on your left,” she said.

Sophomore forward Sienna Betts credited “trust and open communication with (Close) in the locker room, in the office, that makes me just trust whatever message she has on the court.”

And fifth-year forward Timea Gardner said she’s never played for a coach who’s been “more person-centered instead of athlete-centered.” Also, she’s authentically Cori. “She’s really quirky,” Gardner said. “Like, really quirky.”

Close is like a jukebox of inspirational quotes: Love, serve and care. Do hard better. Make uncommon choices … she’s probably forgotten more motivational slogans than you’ve ever heard.

But if you are taking notes, write this down: You won’t get results by talking about it, you have to be about it.

“Look at what Coach (Bob) Chesney’s doing,” said Close, referring to UCLA’s first-year football coach whose team has started the season a surprising 7-0. “Part of being a good teacher is learning the group that you’re serving … and then to live it. They’re not going to do it if they don’t see that in him, in his character.

“And so then when ‘clichés’ come out, they’re genuine and they’re heartfelt, and they influence behavior and habits. You don’t want to just motivate; if you have to motivate too much, people aren’t that committed. I don’t think he wants to be a master motivator, he wants to be a master standard-bearer and habit-builder.”

Now, friends at home, don’t mistake Close’s positivity for passivity; last season’s Bruins might have sent a record six seniors to the WNBA, but UCLA’s standard is still the standard and it is high.

Last season, the Bruins went 37-1 and swept the Big Ten Conference championships. UCLA has appeared in the NCAA postseason nine out of the past 10 tournaments and going 25-9 in tournament games under Close. On her watch, 23 UCLA players have been drafted by WNBA teams.

These days, if you’re a freshman you’re not going to make the roster unless you can contribute now. “If they’re not immediate-impact, top-10-level kids, we’re not going to recruit them,” Close said. “Because if they don’t play right away, you’re training them and paying them to go somewhere else.”

And if you’re trying to transfer from elsewhere, you’re not going to make the roster if you don’t also want to get better, smarter — if her interests and yours don’t align in that way: “I’ve taken some risks that have affected culture,” Close said, “and I will never compromise that again.”

Six-foot senior guard Donovyn Hunter said that was made brutally clear to her before she made the move from Texas Christian last spring.

“She is going to push you to your utmost,” Hunter said. “There’s going to be days where she’s very loud. Very passionate, but she loves ridiculously hard.”

That is how you accomplish ridiculously hard things in a volatile and challenging environment. It’s how you coach, inside-out. How you have, I believe, eternal impact.