The No. 11 UCLA Bruins are 2-0 after a pair of victories over mid-major conference teams. On Thursday, Cori Close and the Bruins cruised to a 78-42 win over UC Irvine at Pauley Pavilion.

It was a step in the right direction for a new-look UCLA team that will be looking to stay atop the Big Ten Conference after two seasons of dominance. Following the 36-point win, Close spoke to the media and sounded a bit more pleased with her team’s showing than she was following the season opener.

“When I was with you after the first game, all I was doing was talking about defense, defense, defense and we really needed to gain consistency in that. I thought we weren’t as consistent as I wanted but I thought we made steps in the right direction,” Close said. “Irvine is a really well-coached team, they run tough stuff, our bigs still have to chase around people all the time.”

The UCLA defense looked quite strong against the Anteaters, holding Irvine scoreless in the fourth quarter of the lopsided win. There are so many new pieces on the UCLA roster but the team still has the talent level to make a deep run this season.

“We have to fight for consistency as the game goes on, got to do a better job of that,” Close said. “Right now, my only focus week-by-week is getting better. There’s a lot still to fix but I told the team in the locker room, ‘You got better on the things I asked you to improve on.’ so we got to keep building on that.”

It will be an adjustment for Close this season, going from coaching a half dozen WNBA draft picks, winning a national title and earning a new contract to now having to build up a new core to compete in the very talented Big Ten.

“I’m trying to find the balance of holding the right people accountable for the right things,” Close said. “I’m choosing to sacrifice a little bit of rhythm right now to try to develop some accountability and habits. We're sort of in that in-between stage right now.”