UCLA seniors Nirra Fields, Kacy Swain hope for better experience this time in NCAA tournament

Nirra Fields and Kacy Swain, seniors on the UCLA women’s basketball team, are coming to grips with the realization that the end of their college careers — whether that be as NCAA champions, the victims of an early-round upset, or somewhere in between — is fast approaching.

“I’ll catch myself just looking around the gym and taking it all in,” Swain said. “It’s crazy that it’s going to be over soon, but I’m trying to enjoy the moments day by day.”

The Bruins (24-8) enter Saturday’s first-round NCAA tournament game against Hawaii as the No. 3-seeded team in the Bridgeport Regional. As one of the top 16 rated teams in the tournament, 10th-ranked UCLA plays host to the first two rounds of games in a subregional.

See the most-read stories in Sports this hour>>

UCLA’s return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013 is due in part to its recent recruiting classes. Sophomore guard Jordin Canada leads the team in scoring, and four other sophomores plus freshman Kennedy Burke receive regular playing time.

But UCLA will also rely heavily on the knowledge and experience of its upperclassmen. There’s Kari Korver, a junior who has recovered from a torn knee ligament; Fields, who is fourth in program history in scoring; and Swain, a fifth-year senior who has battled through a torn knee ligament and deals daily with Type 1 diabetes to earn a starting spot this season. All three played for UCLA in its last NCAA tournament appearance, when the Bruins — also then a third seed — easily defeated Stetson before losing to Oklahoma.

“Just to be involved in the big NCAA tournament and us losing in the second round, it was really hard,” Swain said. “It hurt, but I saw my seniors crying, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to be like that when I’m a senior.’ ”

Swain didn’t play much that March, but Fields did, and she scored a team-high 13 points in the opening round against Stetson.

“I remember it was everything I expected,” Fields said. “Growing up, I used to watch a lot when I was younger. It was so big — everything was on TV and March Madness brought so much excitement, so many upsets. It was craziness. Going into that as a player, it was kind of like the same thing. … The nerves were there the first time.”

Three years and an NIT championship later, Fields admits the nerves are likely to return, but for very different reasons.

“It’s always going to be there, being that it’s my last year here, being that it’s one and done, that this is the last time I’ll ever get to contend for a national championship,” Fields said. “But I’ll get through it probably in the first minute.”

Swain has missed the last five games with a knee injury and her availability is considered day to day, though she said after practice Wednesday that she’s feeling much better and is “almost there.”

“It would mean the world to me because I know I can help and bring defense,” Swain said of her possible return to the court. “Our team has a chance to go really far this year, and it’s what you dream about in college basketball, so it’d be a lot of fun.”

Coach Cori Close was enthusiastic about how all of her players, from freshmen to seniors, were meshing.

“I actually was very pleased with our vibe in practice,” Close said. “Out of 16 years of having this experience in the NCAA tournament during final exams, I’ve never had a team attack it as well as this team did this time.

“In the midst of staying up and studying, they have come ready to practice, and they’ve worked very, very hard. I feel like we’re in a really good space mentally.”

Follow Alex Shultz on Twitter @AlexShultz.

ALSO

Live updates from the 2016 NCAA tournament

Cal State Bakersfield’s plane makes emergency landing on its way to the NCAA tournament

Trojans will try again for a new beginning in basketball, starting with the NCAA tournament